Jenny Lucas describes a bell-ringing wedding

 

“If all the bells in England were rung at one time,” said Bishop Latimer in 1552, “there would scarcely be a single spot where a bell would not be heard.” That could hardly be said today, but the very British tradition of change-ringing - ringing bells in set sequences - can still be heard in most communities.

So it was a shock when visiting America and the historic Old North Church in Boston, to learn that their current ringing team is compelled to muffle their bells on practice days, for fear they will disturb the community including, I suppose, the roar of city traffic a few feet from the church door.

In our Sussex downland villages, we are very used to the sound of church bells and if the wind is in the right direction you can hear the village church at Ripe peal two or three miles across the fields here in Chiddingly. One Saturday last August, the place to be for followers of campanology had to be All Saints church in neigbouring Laughton where we witnessed the marriage of two devoted bellringers, Stephen Beckingham from Laughton and Jenny White from St Mary’s, in Hailsham.

Laughton Church has witnessed many marriages in its seven hundred years, but this wedding day must surely have been one of the most joyous and certainly one of the most sonorous. The celebrations began on Saturday morning when Captain of Bells and bridegroom Stephen led a team in the marathon ringing of 5,040 changes in just over two and a half hours.

That’s pretty hard on the arms and challenging for brain cells too. Meanwhile, across the fields and along the A22 at St Mary’s Hailsham, Jenny, the bride and her team, not to be outdone, were ringing a quarter peal of 1,260 changes in just 43 minutes. The wedding was at two-thirty, but those who arrived early at Laughton were greeted at the church door by members of the family and more spectacular bellringing.

Inside the church, we found a large number of wedding guests crowded together at the back of the church looking upwards, not to heaven, but at the somewhat over- populated ringing loft at the west end. A small army of visiting bellringers - fifty or more of Stephen and Jenny’s friends - had come along, not only as guests, but eager, if not desperate, for the chance of some hands-on celebratory ringing.

Every now and then, one of the ringers would lean over the bell loft rail to address the appreciative audience below. “Who hasn’t had a go at ringing then?” was the cry. “Me, me, me” – the answer, and it was all change as eager volunteers sped up the little spiral stair to the ringing floor to take their turn.

There were ringers of all ages. Jon Farey, a Laughton teenager, as proud as punch to be invited to ring for the wedding, was inspired to take up ringing by Stephen’s example when Jon was about ten years old. There were ringers from all over the country. Some had rung alongside Stephen when he first rang with his parents Jim and Lynda at the age of nine. He was a good pupil and, when he was barely twenty, was elected to one of Britain’s most distinguished bellringing associations, The Society of Royal Cumberland Youths.

Formed in 1747, its members have the special privilege of ringing in many of London’s great churches and cathedrals. Not long ago, Stephen rang the cockneys’ “birthright” bells in the church of St Mary-le-Bow, London.

Everybody loves a wedding, but I believe many of the congregation that day were paying tribute to a Sussex family greatly respected in the life of the community. The musicianship of ringing complex changes and peals has been a family skill for over a century. Stephen is the third generation of Beckinghams to ring in our churches and the fourth generation of his mother Lynda’s family.

Stephen’s father Jim has many other village commitments including his duty of care for the 109 year old chiming clock in Ripe church tower. He has wound the three great clock weights twice a week for forty-eight years.

When the solemn vows had been made and the wedding service was over, the bride and groom came out into brilliant sunshine and through an improvised tunnel of bell ropes held high by fellow ringers. Two hundred feet or so of Hailsham bell ropes had been turned into a triumphal bridal arch.

After all the greetings and the photos and the general merriment outside the church, the beautiful bride in her shimmering dress and her handsome groom disappeared back into the church and up the spiralling stairs to the bell loft. Together now, Mr and Mrs Beckingham began their married life as they mean to continue, with just a little more ringing of bells.


 

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