St Laurence bell ringers before the Carol Service

Woodpeckers hadn’t see the Christmas Tree Festival at St Laurence church so I said we would drive there today. She saw that there was a Carol Service being held in the church at midday as the finale of the Festival and that the installations would be taken down this afternoon. We were running a bit late on this rather cold and dreary Sunday morning but managed to get there about fifteen minutes before the service started. I dropped Helena off and went to park the car and as I walked down there was the delightful pealing of church bells being rung to call people to the service.

Camilla greeted us as did Leif, an old friend, but as I’d already been around the church several times this week I chatted to Camilla. The bells had stopped at this time, but I noticed the doorway into the base of the old tower was open and the bell ringers were still there. I went up and asked if I could photograph them. They said they were about to ring the final peals of the bells and would finish in two minutes. They let me through to the back of the tower, so I could stand inside the main and traditional front door to the church. The tower is the only original part of the church remaining of the 13th century structure.

It was very dark in the tower and the total concentration of the ringers was absolute. They seemed to keep their eyes on the man at the left who must be the ‘conductor’ and leader of the group. It was fascinating to see their hand and body movements and I was surprised at how high they had to reach, nearly off their tiptoes, when the ropes pulled up into the tower. I chose this pictures as it shows the concentration and considered movement of the ringers. It must be very rewarding to hear the sounds of the bells when you are creating them.

I’ve added an ‘Extra’ of the beginning of the Carol Service taken from the rear of the church to give a sense of the atmosphere inside.