A Bell to Remember

In November 1918 the LEDBURY GUARDIAN & HEREFORDSHIRE ADVERTISER published an account of how the news of the armistice on 11th November reached the town.  You can almost feel the joyful sense of relief even 100 years later: “Shop assistants and workpeople rushed into the streets, the children and tradespeople did ditto, and in a twinkling there was a remarkable display of flags flying, and practically every child was bearing a flag… In the afternoon... the bell ringers rang joyous peals on the parish church bells…. In the evening the bells again rang out merrily and the Cadets and Girl Guides paraded at the Church Room and marched to church for evensong”.

​Of the 85 people of Ledbury who lost their lives in the Great War, four were bellringers.  A photograph of the Ledbury Band of Bellringers from 1911 hangs in the ringing room in the tower next to a board which commemorates a peal rung by the band in the previous year.  A peal is the greatest test of skill and concentration that a ringer can attempt and lasts just over three hours.  This was the first ever successful peal by a local band.  This is just a small reminder of the scale of the loss to our nation of so many talented young men in the prime of their lives with so much to look forward to.  

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​We want our Bell to Remember to be a reminder both of the blessings of peace and a cause for sober reflection on the damage that war brings to families and communities.

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​The heaviest bell in the tower at St Michael’s weighs over a ton and was cast in 1736.  It has this inscription: WHEN YOU HEAR MY HARMONIOUS SOUND, LET LOVE AND PEACE IN YOU ABOUND.  We think it would be an appropriate way to mark the 100th anniversary of the Armistice at the end of the Great War to have an inscription, put there by the present people of Ledbury, on the newest and lightest bell, that shows a similar commitment to peace.  In every way, a Bell to Remember.

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​The launch of the Bell to Remember campaign will be at 6.00 pm in St Michael’s Church on Tuesday 13th November 2018.  You are very welcome to come to a reception with refreshments, followed by a short presentation and then a chance to see the bellringers in action. 

​Please contact Tim Keyes (Tower Captain) if you would like to come.
Tel : 01531 579021 or email : thkeyes28@hotmail.com