OS: SP273609
Barford, St. Peter
St. Peter's Church in Barford is on the southern side of Church Street. I parked in Church Street a short distance from the Church. The tower is a solid square structure on the West end of the church. Ringing from a first floor gallery which is reached by climbing a fairly short spiral staircase accessed from inside the tower. The gallery ring area is very pleasant providing room to sit for those not ringing, it has an arched window in the West wall and a wooden railing across a larger arch overlooking the nave to the East.
2008-05-12 [ expand ]
I visited for the first time on Monday 12th May 2008 to join their practice. There were eventually 8 of us there but initially only 5 to ring the bells up. We rang several plain courses of Plain Bob Doubles with varying degrees of success. There were three or four, including me, that had not really mastered this method yet so the practice was valuable. Six of those present spent a little time practicing for a wedding on the following Saturday which led to some discussion of what "firing" means. It would seem that there is more than one view, though theirs was what I understood it to be, i.e. all the bells ring at the same time. The other definition described was of ringing with a very small gap between the bells.
We rang for a while in a in a way I had not encountered before. It was a formulaic approach to call changes. The person ringing the treble starts by calling "treble to 2, 2 lead" and over time calls "treble to 3", "treble to 4", "treble to 5" leaving the treble at the back and the bells ringing in the sequence 2 3 4 5 1 6. Then it is the turn of the person ringing bell #2 to perform the same "2 to 3, 3 lead", "2 to 4", "2 to 5", "2 to 1" so that the bells are ringing in the sequence 3 4 5 1 2 6. Each of the bells #3, #4, #5 follow this pattern until back in rounds. I do not know if this technique has a name but the effect is quite nice. They call to the back at this tower. We finished by ringing down with me on the Treble.
The team were then adjourning to the pub but I could not join them as I had to go collect my daughter from Leamington Spa railway station.
2008-09-20 [ expand ]
2015-10-03 [ expand ]
Ringing Room
The Bells
Today, the tower has a peal of 6 bells. They are an unusual mixture of bells and Tenor only weighs 4-3-22 in B. Until 1994 the tower only had three bells, now bells #4, #5 and Tenor. Bell #4 was cast by Joseph Smith of Edgbaston in 1707. The other two bells were cast by Henry Bagley of Chacombe, #5 in 1639 and the Tenor in 1661.
In 1994 the original three bells were augmented by three additional bells and hung in an enlarged and rearranged frame. Bells #1 and #2 were cast by John Taylor & Co. of Loughborough in 1994. Bell #3 was a redundant bell at Atherston-on-Stour which was cast at the Gloucester Foundry. The date it was cast is uncertain but it is reckoned that it was cast in 1400 or possibly a little earlier. More information [1], [2], Dove's Guide includes details of the bells at All Saints.
The Coventry Diocesan Guild of Church Bellringers also have information on the Barford Parish Church of St Peter.
