Church Bells

See also ‘recruiting‘.

Latest scheduled ringing at St Chad’s Church

A bell peal will take place on Saturday 17th February 10am-2pm.

The band is made up of members of the Birmingham bell ringers – welcome!

A peal is a piece of ringing comprising a minimum of 5000 changes, without repetition, and a peal on all twelve bells, with the heaviest bell, the tenor, weighing a little over 39 cwt, usually takes just under four hours to complete.

A quarter of a peal – known as a quarter peal – of no less than 1250 changes and lasting around 50 minutes, is rung most Sundays at St Chad from 5.00 pm to 6.00 pm, prior to Evensong.

Regular Ringing: Before 10am and 6pm services on Sundays
Sunday evening ringing is pre-planned. Visitors who would like to join in a quarter peal should contact us through [email protected] before the previous Tuesday to request a rope.

Weddings and Funerals:
Ringing may be requested via the Church Office for weddings and occasionally funerals – these can be on any day of the week.

Practice time at St Chad’s: Tuesday evenings 7.30 – 9.15 pm

Quarter Peal: a quarter is rung every 4th Monday of the month, there is no practice here the following Tuesday evening; the practice will instead take place at the church of St Mary the Virgin, Shrewsbury.

Full Peal (up to 4 hours ringing in total) – a maximum of 4 peals are rung during any year, the dates are variable depending on the anniversaries that we are requested to mark.

 

St Chad’s has a ring of fourteen bells in the key of C, and is the heaviest ring of bells in Shropshire with a tenor bell weighing over 39 cwt (see centre photograph). The bells were cast in 1798 for the new building, recast in 1914 by John Taylor & Co. of Loughborough (see left photograph), and hang in the original 18th century wooden bell frame. They are considered by ringers to be among the finest bells hung for full circle ringing. To celebrate the millennium two bells were added, thus providing a lighter ring of ten in F. The rider frame installed by Whitechapel in 2000 to take the flat sixth bell is featured in the right hand-side photograph.

bellbellbell

Experienced and new ringers are warmly welcomed, please contact Jacqui at [email protected] and please click here to go to the website for The Shropshire Association of Church Bell Ringers.