Up date from the Belfry
June 2026
St Mary’s band of ringers have continued to ring the bells for morning service on most Sundays over the past 12 months. We also rang for Christmas, Easter and Remembrance Sunday, and to celebrate two weddings.
We joined ringers across the country to mark the 80th anniversary of VE Day on the 8th May and the 80th anniversary of VJ day on 15th August.
On Friday 25 July we rang a quarter-peal (45 minutes of non-stop ringing without mistakes) to celebrate David Bennie’s 24 years of dedicated service to the young people of Leigh and to wish him the best for his retirement.
We also rang a quarter-peal at Leigh on 23 August during the cricket match between Leigh and an MCC team on the village green.
Over the year three groups of visiting ringers rang at Leigh.
Leigh’s band of ringers currently has just six members. However, we have continued to join with ringers from other nearby towers (including Penshurst, Chiddingstone, Tonbridge, Cowden, Edenbridge and Withyham) for weekly practices at which our ringers have been able to develop their skills and support other bands. We are grateful to ringers from several of these towers for helping us make up the numbers to ring all six of the bells at St Mary’s whenever anyone is on holiday, unwell or otherwise indisposed.
Our ringers continue to maintain the bells and their fittings, and to wind and tend the church clock. Some of our ringers also helped in March when Penshurst church bells returned after a year’s absence, during which they were retuned and refurbished.
However, as far as the band is concerned, the best news from the tower is that we are teaching three new recruits (Izzy, Zac and Chris) and one returning ringer (Vicky). All four are making good progress and we hope to add them to the band who ring on Sundays and for weddings very soon.
If anyone else in the parish would like to know more about the bells, the art of bellringing, or even learning to ring then please contact Dave James (01732 833938) or any of the other ringers. We would be delighted to show you what goes on up in the tower and perhaps to teach you the intricacies of the ancient art of Campanology.
Ringers are a very welcoming group of people who span all social classes, ages and occupations in thousands of towers across the British Isles and even further afield.
The ringers are very grateful to the PCC, the congregation, and residents of the wider community of Leigh for your continuing support as we ring the bells to declare the presence of the church, and to celebrate important occasions in the life of the village.