Have you ever wondered why we ring the bells at St Peter’s when we do? Or perhaps you want to know who is ringing them? Find our about our bell ringing at St Peter’s below.
Standard Ringing Times
We practise 7.15 p.m. to 9.00 p.m. on a Tuesday evening. This is for as many of our band as are available, plus any visitors. You will hear ringing on 6, or 8 bells, with brief silences while the ringers change over. On Sundays we ring from 10.00 a.m. to 10.30 a.m. welcoming worshippers to the main morning mass. We try to maintain a high standard of ringing particularly on Sundays.
Other Reasons for Ringing
The bells at Horbury may be rung for all sorts of reasons in addition to the weekly practice and service ringing mentioned above. Some examples are for:
- weddings, and occasionally funerals;
- additional weekday services, e.g. Ascension Day;
- for the Cenotaph Service on Remembrance Day, when we ring half-muffled;
- events of national importance;
- area ringers’ events, e.g. meetings, striking competitions, peals, local ringers’ events, additional practices; and
- when we host visiting ringers from outside the area.
The ringers’ events may be partly organised for pleasure, but they are also an essential part of maintaining a band of ringers that ring for services at a high standard. Periods of sustained ringing – peals and quarter peals – are particularly useful for this.
Clock Chimes
St Peter’s Church has an electrically-wound clock with mechanical chimes which automatically chime the church bells every quarter of an hour and strike the hour. The heavy chiming hammers have to be lifted clear of the bells before the bells can be rung. Once the bells have been rung ‘up’ into the raised position (mouth upwards), they cannot be chimed by the clock. We would normally ring the bells down after we have finished ringing as it is safer and good practice to do so. We can then put the clock chimes back on. There are exceptions to this. Sometimes it is necessary to leave the bells in the raised position so that they are ready to be rung for another event or service for which there would be insufficient time to ring them up. So if the church clock is not chiming, it is likely to be because it has been necessary to leave the bells up (or we’ve forgotten to put the chimes back on!).
The Ringing Room
The ringing room at Horbury is quite small. At a squeeze we can fit 12 people into the room with eight ringing and four observing. If you would like to see the ringing chamber please contact the church. Unfortunately access to the bells themselves is restricted due to the communications equipment within the tower.
