St. Mary Abbots Bells
The Bells
Under the tallest spire in London, the spacious stone-built tower holds a heavy Victorian ring of ten bells (and the clock mechanism).
Towers with rings of ten bells are still relatively rare: there are currently less than two hundred and fifty towers worldwide with this number of bells. The current ring of bells was hung when the Church was built, but in fact some of the bells pre-date this building by many years. There have been bells at St. Mary Abbots since before the beginning of the 18th century. Although the records are not entirely clear, it seems the church had a ring of six heavy bells at this time. In 1772, the tower of the old church was rebuilt, and the bells were recast by Janaways of Chelsea and augmented to eight. There are peal boards in the tower which record some of the major achievements in ringing on these bells.
When the present Church was built five of these eight bells were re-hung in the new tower. The remaining three bells were recast by John Warner and Sons, and two new bells were added to make the current ring of ten bells. One peal board commemorates the first and last peals rung on the old eight, and the first peal of bells rung on the new ten.
The St. Mary Abbots Guild of Bellringers
The St. Mary Abbots Guild was founded in 1896, and the Guild has records of ringing going back for more than a century. In common with many other Towers, the enforced silence for church bells during the Second World War caused a hiatus in ringing by the Guild. But since something of a revival in the 1970s, the Guild has again been very active. The Bellringers perform regularly for Sunday morning and evening services, not just at St. Mary Abbots, but at a number of other London churches as well. They also ring for special occasions, Church festivals and weddings.
On 7th November 1899, saw the 100th anniversary of the first peal rung by the St. Mary Abbots Guild.