Ledbury Bells
  • Home
  • Give your support
  • Sponsorship Opportunities
  • Forthcoming Events
  • A Bell to Remember
  • Contacts & Useful links
  • News & Events Archive
  • Home
  • Give your support
  • Sponsorship Opportunities
  • Forthcoming Events
  • A Bell to Remember
  • Contacts & Useful links
  • News & Events Archive

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.  
A photograph of the Ledbury Band of Bellringers from 1911

​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.

​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 is 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.
Inscription on a bell
We are delighted to report that the through the generosity of the people of Ledbury the funds have been raised for the Bell To Remember.  There is, however,  much other work that still needs to be done on the bells and the Tower before the new bell can be installed.
Please see our 'Give your Support' page for the ways in which you can help.

To make a contribution to this fund please contact:
Tim Keyes (Tower Captain) 
Tel : 01531 579021 or email : thkeyes28@hotmail.com

Or go to our 'Give your support' page

QUICK LINKS

HOME >
A BELL TO REMEMBER >
GIVE YOUR SUPPORT >
​
FORTHCOMING EVENTS>
NEWS  AND EVENTS >
CONTACTS & USEFUL LINKS >

Website copyright LEDBURY BELLS, 2018

Website by martbarrett.co.uk
Inscription on a bell
A man holding a bell rope
A group of bell ringers outside
View over Ledbury from the bell tower
Close up of rope pulls