Little Horwood Bells

I have spoken to my remaining siblings, Terry, Christine and Dennis as we all learnt to ring very basically at St Nicholas, Little Horwood but not all at the same time.  Brian and Bernard also took this up although Brian’s ringing interest ended when his face met with a flailing rope when ringing for a service so he became the Verger!  Bernard studied it more and I still remember his notebook today in which he had written out various methods and following the line of a certain bell – the blue line.

I was almost eleven years old when I began to learn to ring and continued until to probably fourteen.  Practice was after choir on a Wednesday evening and taken by Mr. Reg Savage.  Christine and I have decided that we must have been concentrating so much that most of the other youngsters learning at the same time have slipped our minds!   I found it most bewildering to start with and also realised one had to be fairly strong.  Then, it was a ground floor ring and one had to muster all the strength to pull the first bell – the treble – ‘off’.  However, I soon got the hang of ‘hand stroke’ and then ‘back stroke’.  It seemed to take all my strength to get started!  Then put them both together and away I went.  I remember it seemed to take ages to get this far.  First feat!!

One thing sticks in my mind and that was the wooden ‘platform’ I had to stand on so I could handle the bell properly – that is to reach the ‘sally’ –  the fluffy, coloured bit on the rope.  The tail end had to be lengthened so I could hang on to the rope when it was at back stroke and me not go up with it or it came down zig zagging first in front of me then dancing all around the tower until someone got hold of it.  This platform was probably only six inches high and two feet square, but fairly weighty to actually to lift it in the first place, to the exact position needed on the uneven stone floor or put some of the numbered cards which were used on the hymn boards, to get it so it didn’t rock.  (I wonder what happened to that platform?)  

After a while, I progressed to ringing with other people – rounds.  Treble, two, three, four, five – it all seemed to happen very quickly!  But it soon became the normal thing to do although there may have been some loud voices from the more experienced ringers – ‘pull the bell in’ or ‘too quick’!  I mostly rang the second for rounds, sometimes the third but preferred the treble. Anyhow, second feat accomplished!

After a period of time I progressed to ringing something other than ‘rounds’ called ‘call changes’.  It was quite a thing to ring from the ‘boards’ of which there were two in the tower.  Then it became clear what these strange boards with numbers on were actually for.  I now know it was the basic method of plain hunt but instead of changing each round we would follow the sequence until we were called to change after maybe five rounds and go to row number two, three, four and so on.  Third feat, but I am not sure what the ‘experts’ would make of this today! 

All this amidst what seemed to be the frequent problem that some of the bells did not want to do what they should and had a mind of their own and ‘come down’,  knocking off various obstacles such as brass flower vases and vessels on top of the wooden cupboard in the tower (which, as I recall, housed some choristers gowns and stacks of music) sending them crashing.  Then a shout to stand and all bells would be quiet, items put back where they belonged so not to upset anyone and off we would go again.  Terry reminded me that this chaos would sometimes happen if a stay got broken which happened to him once.  He then got the job of getting a replacement by way of taking the old one on the school bus to Winslow,  going to ‘Gibbards the Builders’ and collecting a new one at lunch time.  The new stay had to be kept outside the Headmaster’s office until home time!  Those were the days!  It certainly wouldn’t be allowed now.

It was an unforgettable experience to say the least but as Dennis pointed out we had the opportunity to go up the tower. We did this very carefully up the narrow, winding stairs, stepping on the bell frame, up what seemed like a very precarious ladder and out of the trap door onto the tower roof which opened up miles and miles of beautiful countryside before our eyes as well as the comings and goings of the village.  On a still, clear, warm summer’s evening it was amazing.  Not forgetting looking at all the inscriptions and initials on the tower roof, often written within the outline of a footprint, some claiming to be very old.  I do remember wondering if some of them could possibly be – wow – that old?  I guess mine are still there!

Sheila Goodger

Bernard Hosking’s life story by Sheila Goodger (sister)

Personal letter from Chay Blyth sent to Sheila

Sheila has very kindly sent the project the following photos of her brother Bernard Hoskings

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