Community
Bell ringing
St Mary's has a ring of eight bells and a band who ring them. Visiting ringers are welcome, and so is anybody who would like to learn — but please get in touch before you come.
The bells hang in a tower begun in 1471, and they are rung today by the tower’s own band. They are rung from the ringing chamber, reached by the medieval stair — the ringers are somewhere above you, out of sight, whenever you hear them.
Practice night
The next few sessions
- Sunday 6 September9:30 to 10:00Bell Ringing for a service
- Monday 7 September19:30 to 22:00Bell ringing practice
- Monday 14 September19:30 to 22:00Bell ringing practice
- Sunday 20 September9:30 to 10:00Bell Ringing for a service
- Monday 21 September19:30 to 22:00Bell ringing practice
- Monday 28 September19:30 to 22:00Bell ringing practice
Taken from the parish diary. If something looks wrong, tell the parish office.
The practice proper starts at 7.30pm. The diary block begins an hour earlier because there may be bell handling with new ringers before it — that earlier half hour is arranged in advance and is not a session to turn up to.
Please tell us before you come
Whether you are an experienced ringer or have never touched a rope, we need to know you are coming. This matters most if you are learning. Teaching is not something any ringer may do: there are strict rules about who is qualified to take a learner, and those instructors are not at every practice.
So somebody who turns up hoping for a first lesson may find that nobody there is able to give one. Send the form below instead and we will find you an evening when the right person is in the tower.
Ask about coming along
This goes to our Tower Secretary, who will write back to you. Nothing is arranged until they have.
Learning to ring
You do not need to be musical, and you do not need to be strong — ringing is a matter of timing rather than force, and it is learnt slowly alongside people who have done it for years.
The ringers here are members of the Docklands Ringing Centre, both individually and as a tower. The Centre covers towers across east and south-east London and runs the teaching for all of them, using the Learning the Ropes scheme — five stages from a first lesson to ringing methods with a band: bell handling first, then listening, ropesight, and the theory behind what the band is doing.
There is also a handling practice before the main practice on a Monday, for people starting out. It is arranged through our Tower Secretary rather than simply turned up to — which is what the form above is for.
Beginners can also be started at other towers in the Centre, and there are practices set aside for exactly that. If the answer for you turns out to be Bermondsey or Stepney on a different evening, that is a normal way to begin and not a brush-off — the point is to get you in front of somebody who teaches.
The band also belongs to the Kent County Association of Change Ringers, in its Lewisham District, and it is through Kent that ringers here are individually insured and covered. St Mary’s is listed among the towers of the Lewisham District.
Visiting ringers
If you ring already and would like to join a practice, or you are putting together an outing and want to include this tower, please use the form above so somebody is expecting you.
The tower is a ring of eight, tenor 21-1-14 — a little over a tonne — in E flat. There is more, including every bell with its founder, weight and inscription, on the tower and the bells.