My Bell Ringing Memories by Paddy McCowen

An old BP friend of mine enthused me with his interest in church clocks and bell ringing – but only later did I catch the bug when hearing a Maids Moreton group ringing in our Little Horwood Church near Christmas. David Goodger spun a good story and encouraged me to join his practice sessions – he was tower captain at Maids Moreton.

I spent some happy years at Maids Moreton, both ringing and afterwards at the Wheatsheaf, never really mastering rope sight, but did just manage to ring a quarter peal on the easy treble. Then as we approached the millennium, village friends thought we should start ringing again in Little Horwood.

We had various surveys done on the bells in 1998 and after some minor adjustments, they were fit to ring again, even though the treble was cracked and had a very poor tone. The belfry was in a dreadful state initially. Carefully masked, Colin Smith and I cleared years of bird droppings and other debris – including some empty wine bottles.

Albert Smith was a great contact on all village history, stories sometimes slightly embellished to improve the telling. He said that the village had had no full circle ringing for about 30 years apart from visiting teams like Maids Moreton where David’s wife Sheila, also a ringer, was a sister to Little Horwood’s Brian Hoskin.

Albert’s stories recall Brian many years ago having arguments with the bell ropes -and of famous TV gardener Percy Thrower’s brother being hoisted to the ceiling by his winkle pickers, caught in the rope.

Albert never rung full circle in his later days, but chimed number 2 bell regularly for all church services. He was obviously very keen that we should start ringing again and often gave us his critical analysis of our ringing weaknesses. His wife Mary wouldn’t allow him to climb up the tower at his ripe old age but he did deny all knowledge of the wine bottles.

So with some help from Mike Dodd from Aylesbury and Peter Fay from Bierton as our tutors, we started regular ringing in the village some time in 1998. We also worked hard to get church approval for a raised ringing platform. We suffered from the long and dangerous stretch of rope which snaked from high ceiling to ringers’ hands. Poor Emily Serjeant got flipped by the rope around her wrist – but minutes later, bravely continued ringing. So we got church permission to install a raised ringing platform which greatly eased ringing.

To commemorate the rebirth of the bells and with the new platform, the vicar asked us to ring in the middle of a special service in January 2000, prompting the congregation to break into spontaneous applause. What an accolade.

Our close band of ringers felt Christmas needed special celebrations each year, so we started a very memorable annual event where we all gathered in candle light at The Old Farm – for mulled wine, multitudinous home made mince pies and nostalgic singing of carols. Mary Smith lead us with her lovely voice, through a long list of carols, plus all the verses of Nellie the Elephant and even another elephant song which only Mary knew the words for. We were also joined each year by my old mates from Maids Moreton. They were great gatherings.

So we have had many ringers try out the bells over the years, way over 30 villagers. Some even got hooked enough to carry on ringing, including: Luke, Ann, Daniel and Emily Serjeant, Hugh and Sarah Denne, Kelly King, Pat and Matthew Curtis, Colin Smith, Nicola Ellison, Martin, Adam and Madeleine Fields, John Grainge, Paddy and Jette McCowen, Marion Knell, Mark Bull, Ray Heath – and now since the bells failed, having started ringing at other towers – Amanda Digne-Malcolm and Charlotte Simpson.

May many more villagers now soon join us in what is a brilliant hobby within our great village community.

Paddy McCowen