Рет қаралды 872
The church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Gressenhall holds a ring of 10 bells. Looking at the dates and founders on Dove's Guide makes one wonder how good they are in person. An old primarily John Warner & Sons ring of six, augmented to eight in 1955 by Mears & Stainbank with the tenor being recast in 1997 by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry with the final augmentation to ten coming in 2007, again by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry.
With a tenor of just over 9 and a half hundredweight and the treble dipping into the top end of 2cwt, one might expect a slightly challenging ring of bells, but this is far from the case. The bells are incredibly easy to ring, dare I say it perhaps one of the easiest rings of bells in Norfolk, and getting good striking on the bells takes some working but is easy to maintain with the right band.
The central tower is built on Norman foundations. The original ring of five bells were rehung in a new 'A' frame for six in 1879, when the upper part of the tower was rebuilt. Three bells were re-cast by John Warner & Sons during that year. A treble was added in 1909 and two more in 1955 completing the octave. This provided a very strong local band with a regularly pealed ring of eight. In 1993 a new project was proposed which would see a major restoration of the ring of eight and also an augmentation to ten. Today, the ten bells are put to regular use with regular district practices, visiting peal and quarter peal bands and the local band. The ringing recorded in this video was during a visit in October of 2022.