The Parochial Church Council of St. Andrew’s Much Hadham with St. Thomas’, Perry Green (the PCC) have given their approval to rehang the ring of eight bells in the villages historic twelfth century church.
The Much Hadham Guild of Change Ringers is leading the fund raising and on behalf of the Much Hadham PCC and would like a donation from you.
There is an up and coming local band of ringers who have been making steady progress following the village’s centuries long tradition of ringing church bells which we need to maintain for future generations.
Unfortunately, over the years, the bells have become increasingly difficult to ring, making teaching of new recruits difficult and producing poor quality ringing which puts ringing at risk. Visiting ringers have struggled to ring here and are so often reluctant to come back. We need an easy to ring set of bells to encourage and go forward with new recruits from the local community.
The last major work to the bells was carried out seventy years ago in 1947 with the installation of an eight-bell frame and the two treble bells as part of a war memorial. Significantly this was the last timber frame to be supplied by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry. Sadly, the foundry, the oldest in the world and Britain's oldest manufacturing company, which made Big Ben and Liberty Bell, closed earlier this year.
As with all machinery, bells require periodic maintenance. It is usual for bell-fittings to require major attention every fifty years or so. So now is the time for the present generation to take action to so that the bells can be enjoyed by future generations.
Recent inspections have highlighted the poor installation and condition of the fittings, most of which date from the 19th century and appear not to have renewed back in 1947 during the period of austerity after the war when funds would have been scarce. There is a tremendous history of the bells for which the two oldest date from the time of Queen Elizabeth First in 1595.