Appleton Society of Change Ringers

Welcome to our page.

The 1552 Inventories show Appleton Church Tower as containing “three bells and a sance belle”. In 1817, these bells were replaced with a ring of six bells given by the then Lord of the Manor, Robert Southby. The ring was dedicated on 4th March 1818, the villagers were given the day off and the Appleton Society of Change Ringers formed. Each March the anniversary of this day is celebrated by ringing and a dinner in the evening which is attended by local ringers and ringers from considerable distances away. The March 4th song originally composed by the village schoolmaster John Harding was first sung in 1818 (more verses were added in 1854 and 1977) and is still sung at the celebrations. This year, the dinner was on March 6th. A peal was rung in the morning by a mixture of local ringers and ringers from St Paul’s Cathedral, London. In the evening 80 or so Ringers and Friends enjoyed a very good dinner in the Village Hall followed by Handbell ringing and singing.

If you’d like to learn to ring or find out what happens in the tower on Friday evenings and Sundays, we are planning on holding some teaching sessions later in the year. If you are interested in learning to ring send an e-mail to appleton.bells@googlemail.com and we’ll contact you about coming along.

We very much enjoyed welcoming Appleton Brownies who visited us on Monday June 21st.  They all seemed very interested and had a go.  Hopefully we shall see them again when they are a bit older!

The next Peal attempt  is on Saturday October 2nd starting at 10.00 am.  As usual, we shall not be having a practice on the previous Friday night.