Guild towers open for Heritage Open Days 2021

Lynn Boniface News, Recovery 2

Each year people are encouraged to experience local history, architecture and culture for free. This is an ideal opportunity to showcase bells and bell ringing and do a sly bit of recruitment along the way.

Well done to the following towers for taking advantage of this. Hopefully participating towers will let us know what they did and how they got on.

  • Godalming: In the summer of 2017, we installed an entirely new ring of eight bells and we are very pleased with them. Come and visit the ringing chamber and hear for yourself how good the new bells sound. There will be a short talk about English church bell ringing and a demonstration of this ancient art, more-or-less unique to the UK.
  • Dunsfold: The bell ringing team will give demonstrations. The bells can be seen in action through a live video link. Have a go! There will be an experienced instructor on hand to supervise.
  • Horsell: The church will be open on both the 18th and 19th September, with trips to the top of the tower, ringing theory and demonstrations; including visits to the Ringing Chamber and Bell Chamber. A request is going in for the Guild banner.
  • Guildford, St. Mary & Holy Trinity: Displays about the bell tower, ringing chamber, bells and belfry.
  • Ewhurst: The church is opening for both 18 & 19th September. There will be heritage tours of the church and bell tower with demonstrations of bell ringing.
  • Wonersh: We are opening the tower on Saturday 18th September between 10am and 1pm to coincide with the Village History Society displays in the church for the Heritage Open Day. We are also publicising this in the village as a recruitment event, providing a short talk on the history of Wonersh bells and bellringing, with demonstrations of bell ringing and promoting the opportunity to learn the art of bellringing.

Walton approached the church about a demonstration of ringing but unfortunately, due to abseiling from the tower, the tower needs to be clear from 08:30.

Although registration for this year is now closed, several of our churches are opening, and it may be possible to piggyback on to their registration. Jonathan Deane (Godalming) tells me that they were talking to the local organisers back in March.

Apologies if I missed your tower – please do let me know if I have.

Nigel Smith (24/08/2021)