Guest post by local historian Philip Grant
A typical English Church Bell. (Image from the internet)
If you think you’ve heard church bells ringing recently, you might have believed you were imagining it. But the chances are that you were hearing the chimes from the bells at Saint Andrew’s, in Church Lane, Kingsbury. After being silent for around twenty years, the eight bells in the tower above the church are ringing out again, especially on Sundays.
St Andrew’s New Church, Kingsbury.
The peal of eight bells was cast by C.J. Lewis of Shepherds Lane, Brixton, in 1880. They were a gift to the church from Mrs Imbert-Terry, in memory of her daughter. The Imbert-Terrys were from a French landowning family, who lived at Chester Terrace on the edge of Regent’s Park, and worshipped at St Andrew’s. It was then a fashionable Victorian church in Wells Street, in London’s West End. If you don’t know the story of how the church, with its bells, came to be where it is today, you can read my article about Kingsbury’s Recycled Church on the Brent Archives local history website.
A record of some notable bell-ringing events on the St Andrew’s bells in
Victorian times.
(From “St Andrew’s Church, Wells Street,
1874-1897”, reprinted in the 26 November “Order of Service”)
Musical bell ringing, or change ringing, has been going on (mainly in Britain or countries with a British tradition) for centuries, and is now a hobby for pleasure as well as part of church life. It needs a team of ringers, and a fellow Wembley History Society member, now living in the USA, recently wrote:
‘I was an avid Church Bellringer when I lived in the UK. I learned to ring while at University, and rang at Kingsbury, St Andrew’s during the University vacations, and also for the year I still lived in Kingsbury after I graduated. When I rang there in the 1980s the bells were “rough-going”, and I heard that they’d subsequently become unringable.’
I believe the reason why the St Andrew’s bells stopped ringing was that the structure of the church spire was found to have become too weak. The whole “ring” of eight bells weighs 4.25 tonnes, with the largest “E flat” tenor bell weighing more than a ton. They could not risk any bells becoming dislodged, and falling on the bellringers far below!
So that the bells could ring again, they’ve been fitted with an electronic chiming mechanism. This allows them to be rung by a hammer hitting the bell, rather than the original manual method of pulling on the bell rope, and the bell being swung round on a large wheel. The bells were rededicated by the Bishop of Fulham, following a Mass for the Feast of St Andrew on Saturday 26 November.
The Bishop rededicating the bells at St Andrew’s on 26 November 2022. (Photo by Irina Porter)
A peal of bells was rung straight after the rededication, and will ring out every Sunday at around midday, after the main morning service at the church, and on other special occasions. Every day, at 8.30am, 12noon and 6pm, a single bell will ring the “Angelus”. This is a call to prayer, common in the Catholic Christian faith, and also followed by some C. of E. “Anglo-Catholic” churches like St Andrew’s. The Angelus is three chimes of the bell, rung three times with a short break between each, to remind the faithful to say three prayers, three times a day.
Martin has kindly recorded the peal of bells at St Andrew’s, and put it into a video, so that you can enjoy them, even if you are not within earshot of the church when they are ringing.
Towards the end of the video, you will also hear singing from the Romanian Orthodox congregation at St Andrew’s Old Church. If you don’t already know the long and fascinating history of that heritage building, hidden away in the churchyard just behind “new” St Andrew’s, you can read it in this illustrated article on the Brent Archives local history website.
A team of church bellringers, ringing a “change”. (Image from the internet)
It is hoped that work can be carried out to strengthen the spire at St Andrew’s, so that the bells can be rung manually again, as well as mechanically. This would allow anyone, from whatever faith, or none, to come and learn the art of bellringing, and enjoy this traditional musical hobby (and way of keeping fit!).
The church has recently been awarded a grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, and will be launching a project, “Rekindling St Andrew’s” aimed at sharing the church’s history and facilities with the wider local community. I’m sure that many people will enjoy the chance to take part in secular activities within the beautiful Victorian interior of this Grade II* listed building – and some, in time, to have the opportunity of making the bells ring, in teamwork with new friends.
Look out for news of this project in 2023, and in the meantime, enjoy the bells of St Andrew’s!
Philip Grant.
