JOHN EYRE. CHURCH BELL-RINGER,
AND BELL TOWER KEEPER SINCE 1955.
CHRIST CHURCH, WANSTEAD.
Over the next ten years I helped unemployed and disadvantaged young people in Essex explore the option of self employment. The counselling involved the preparation of business plans, training and market research followed by exposure to a board of highly qualified business personnel. Successful applicants with the right spark could obtain a loan or a grant from the Trust and were introduced to a mentor. It was very rewarding, as I helped many young people start their own business, and I believe the hundreds more that I counselled were appreciative of my efforts and found that the whole experience had made them more employable.
But that takes me away from the point of this story. In 1955, when I moved to Wanstead, a school friend of mine who was a choirboy at Christ Church, told me that if I joined the church, he would allocate me a girlfriend rather than have me pinch one of his. He was true to his word, as I met Sheila, who I later married, and we recently celebrated our Golden Wedding. We attend church regularly, but I admit that back then, I was probably more interested in the opposite sex than religion!
There wasn't any room in the choir for me, but there was a vacancy as a bell-ringer. Also, the man who maintained the bells above our heads, the bell tower keeper, was suffering with his health, and was having difficulty crawling up through small trapdoors and over the bells, so at the age of sixteen I offered to take his place. I have been crawling through small spaces ever since, checking ropes and pulleys high above the town and silently tending to the needs of eight brooding brazen maidens.
I have also taught bell management to many people of all ages from many walks of life. As a bell-ringer, it takes about six weeks to learn how to control the bell and then ring in with your fellow band of ringers. Good bell control is important, as our big bell generates enough force through the rope to lift a small van, so letting go at the right time is vital, to avoid bodily contact with the ceiling!
There then follows a lifetime of learning various methods thereby practicing the art of Change Ringing. This combines teamwork with the ability for the individual to target their own desired levels of accomplishment. Change Ringing originated in England some 400 years ago and over the centuries, bells have proclaimed the presence of the Church in the community, summoned to worship, rung for weddings and important occasions and tolled for funerals. A warm welcome awaits visiting bell-ringers in almost all the ringing chambers in the country, whether they are church goers or not, so I feel we are a rather special breed of people. Our own weekly bell practice concludes with quiz night at the Nightingale - a perfect end to the day.
The first ring of six bells at Christ Church was installed in 1869. The benefactor at the time stipulated they be made of steel, which I'm afraid makes a horrid sound, like scaffolding being dismantled. Fortunately, for us now they rusted, and were replaced with a bronze set in 1934. In 1972, two further bells were added, and thereby hangs a tale. A choir member, with whom we bantered over his utter dislike of all things to do with ringing, died tragically early and bequeathed a sum of money to be spent on the church organ. However, the organ had only just been overhauled, so the Church consulted his family, who agreed to fund the installation of a new bell frame and the casting of two new bells, with his name preserved forever, inscribed thereon in Latin! I'm sure he would have been totally bemused but delighted with the outcome of his beneficence!
As for my future in the Tower, well, as my knees are creaking a bit these days, I am training a very able apprentice to take over the maintenance, but I fully intend to carry on ringing bells in perpetuity.