Appleton Bellringers

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.

Quarter Peal 

We were saddened to hear of the death of Les Painter just before Christmas and remembered him in the Quarter Peal we rang for Epiphany Evensong.

The death of Dennis A Leslie on 3rd January has also caused us much sorrow.  Dennis and his twin brother Norman were evacuated from the East End of London during the war and lived in Hinton Waldrist until Norman married.  Den continued to live in the cottage there and was a very regular member of our band, taking part in many peals of note and ringing for service every Sunday.  He was a great friend of Frank White and we like to think that they are now reunited.  He was buried at Hinton on Monday 14th January following the funeral service in a packed church and we successfully rang a Half Muffled Quarter Peal in the evening at Appleton to commemorate the day.  A Peal was to have been rung on the following Saturday but this had to be postponed due to the bad weather.  It was successfully rung on Saturday February 2nd.

Saturday 9th February

 Mick Edney was an Appleton ringer and soldier who died some 30 years ago.  Some of his former Regimental colleagues saw his medals for sale on E-bay and clubbed together to buy them.  Their wish was to present them to Appleton Church for safe keeping and this took place on  Saturday 9th February.  We rang for a short time to commemorate this.

Saturday March 2nd

This was our annual "March the Fourth" Day when we celebrated the 195th anniversary of the Bells.  A Peal was successfully rung in the morning and during the late afternoon, some of our visitors who hadn't rung at Apppleton before sampled the bells.  This was followed by the dinner for 64 ringers and friends which was beautifully prepared and served by A&J Catering.   Roger then gave moving obituaries for Clive Holloway from Oxford and Dennis Leslie who had passed away since we met last year.  Other speakers included Rev Lyn and after the end of formal proceedings we much enjoyed the usual handbell ringing and singing of traditional songs and hymns.  Thanks also to the Bar Staff.  We may even have a new recruit following the evening! 

Future Peal Attempts

Saturday 9th November at 10.00 am - half muffled for Remembrance

Where peals are on Saturday mornings there will be no practice at Appleton on the preceding Friday evening.

Recruits

We are in great need of new ringers in order to keep up the longstanding tradition of ringing at Appleton.  At present we are able to offer intensive daytime bell handling lessons as well as some evenings so do email if you think you could be interested or just come along on a Friday evening at 8.00 to find out more.  We teach with the bell silenced so don't worry about making a noise!  It is also known that there are people in the village who used to ring and we would be delighted to see or hear from you! 

Contact email address is appleton.bells@googlemail.com

Updated 05/03/2013