Pilgrim Ringers
updated 12th February 2009
Musical Director: Shirley Aston
Godalming 2004
photo: Ralph Page
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The Pilgrim Ringers are a local team with three octaves of handbells. We practise weekly on Wednesday evenings 7.30pm - 9.30pm at Normandy Village Hall.
(map: click here)
Concerts are given to local groups, WI members, elderly and disabled people.
We welcome new members aged nine to ninety, but it helps if you can read music. We gain satisfaction from giving pleasure to others and we have a lot of fun in the process.
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20th Anniversary
Shirley Aston January 2009
In January 2009 The Pilgrim Ringers celebrated their 20th Anniversary
with a festive lunch, created by ourselves, to which we invited past
members and others who have helped us over the years.
We have come a long way from our early
beginnings, when a group of us, most of whom
could not read music, met once a fortnight at
Wanborough Hall, Surrey, where, in those days
there was no car park, the local residents did
not like us to park outside their cottages and the
muddy lane was was full of potholes and unlit,
so we had to carry torches as well as all our
equipment whenever we met. Gradually, the
members who didn't really want to be there
drifted away and others came.
click
photo
to enlarge
photo: Ralph Page
The Handbell Ringers of Great Britain offered a course on conducting in 1991 and thus we acquired our
permanent conductor and musical director. By this time we had a core of members who could read
music and we agreed to meet weekly for practice. The first rally which we attended was at Old Woking
and we learned to play the St. Antony Chorale which was four lines long! We played our first team solo
piece, a simple version of My Grandfather's Clock, at a rally in St.John's, Woking. At Christmas 1993,
four years since our founding, we finally plucked up courage to give our first concert. It was at a Care
Home in West Horsley where we played carols for half an hour. Steady progress and improvement of
skills has taken place since then and we have now given over 250 concerts in the Guildford area. Our
current team consists of fourteen lovely and enthusiastic people.
We had a new bell engraved to commemorate our anniversary. It reads:-
"The Pilgrim Ringers 20th Anniversary 18.1.2009"
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Handbell Tune Ringing
Bells probably originated in ancient China, but they were also in use in Israel in Old Testament times, though mainly as a decoration for the priest's robes.
The first Christian missionaries to Britain rang a handbell to summon people together. In medieval times, a handbell was rung by the priest when leading a funeral procession to the churchyard. Gradually it became necessary that a larger bell should summon workers in fields to the daily offices of the monastery churches. This was the origin of church tower bells.
The art of change-ringing began in England in the 16th century. In order to practise the changes, the small handbell evolved in the late 17th century. Two hundred years later, these sets of handbells were often used to ring tunes.
The popularity of tune-ringing on handbells spread through Britain and the USA and in 1967 a national society was founded in Great Britain. Now there are teams of handbell ringers throughout this country, with rallies in each area. Guildford Cathedral holds a festival service with massed ringing every November.
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