All Saints Church Marlow

Not a ringer? Would you like to try? If so, please visit the belfry on pratice night or contact one of the ringers.

If you would like information about the art of bellringing click here "What is Change Ringing?"

Here is the most recent article from the Church magazine, The Bridge

It is well known among the ringing fraternity that church towers differ considerably, one from another, according to the weight and number of bells, and the length of the ropes. It has long been the custom for bands of ringers to visit other towers where they are sure to encounter bells with different handling characteristics than their own.
In October we visited four towers in East Bucks. There were just eight of us, small in number for a ringers' outing, but nevertheless hoping to give a good account of ourselves.

Chalfont St Giles 'a delight'

Our first appointment was with the bells of Chalfont St Giles, a ground floor ring of eight, the tenor weighting ten hundredweight, much lighter than our own. They were easy to handle and a delight to ring.
Here we began with call changes and finished with Grandsire Doubles.

Beaconsfield 'familiar'

Our next assignment was with the bells of St Mary and All Saints at Beaconsfield. We found a fairly heavy eight with a tenor of 19 hundredweight. They were familiar to several members of the band, as we had rung there two years ago in a striking competition.
Our itinerary allowed us only 20 minutes, which was just long enough for us to ring call changes and a plain course of Grandsire triples.

Denham 'greatest challenge'

From there we went to St Mary's, Denham, where we encountered our greatest challenge. They have a heavy ring of eight, with the tenor weighing 22 hundredweight, and the bells were down.
Eric, our captain, volunteered to pull the tenor up, but after about three minutes had to hand over to David Milne. After a great deal of effort he managed to complete the task.
The rest of the bells were pulled up without much trouble, but we decided to ignore the tenor and the seventh, and ring rounds of front six. We could not possibly trust ourselves to attempt the full ring of eight.
After we had finished we were required to bring the bells down again - a less exhausting exercise.

Fulmer 'fairy bells'

Our next visit was to the tower of St James's at Fulmer. What a contrast. They were almost like fairy bells to those at Denham.
They have a light ground floor ring of six, which are very easy to handle, with the tenor being a mere seven hundredweight. During the next half hour we managed to ring one or two faultless touches of Grandsire Doubles, and even a plain course of Stedman which is practically our complete repertoire.
This was our last tower and we returned to Marlow having been well satisfied with out efforts. We had glorious weather throughout the day.

We are now back to normal ringing, and on Remembrance Sunday we rang the bells half muffled. On 29 November we rang for the last wedding of 2003.

You can see pictures from our outing here "Bellringer's outing photographs"

A Brief History of The Bells of All Saints Church - Marlow

There has been a church on this site since before 1070. We know that by 1593 the building had a wooden tower with four bells, and these had been increased to five by 1610. In 1719 the five bells were recast into six. Three of these six still exist in our present ring of eight bells. In 1834, when the present church was under construction, the six bells from the old building were installed and augmented to eight by the addition of a new treble and tenor. In 1934, all eight bells were re-tuned and re-hung on ball bearings.

The present tower contains:-


Bell		Diameter	Weight (Cwt)	Note	Date

Treble		2' 5"		  5		F	1834
2		2' 5"	 	  4 1/2		E	1827
3		2' 5"		  4 1/4		D	1934
4		2' 7"		  6		C	1719
5		2' 9"		  7		Bb	1719
6		3' 0"		  8 1/2		A	1719
7		3' 4"		 11 1/2		G	1978
Tenor		3' 8"		 15		F	1834
The present eight first rang together on 25th February 1835 and the 
first peal was rung on 5th June 1843.




Eric Silvey, 1936-2005 – A Tribute by Bernard Poole.

The only son of a local gardener, Eric was born and brought up in Marlow. As a young boy, he joined the band at All Saints' in 1949 and became one of its most enthusiastic and committed members, serving as steeple keeper since 1969 and as captain for the last 21 years. Eric worked tirelessly and gave generously, without seeking praise or publicity, and passed on his knowledge and love of bellringing to many groups of schoolchildren and learners over the years.
With his wife, Cynthia, Eric established their own garage business in1970, which they ran until their retirement last July. Eric played a significant part in the life of Marlow and was a member of the Rotary Club of Marlow for several years. Amongst the many fundraising and community activities that Eric supported were the annual river trips on the Thames that he helped to organise for the senior citizens of Marlow.

Having suffered ill health towards the end of last year, Eric relinquished the duties of steeple keeper in January but continued as tower captain until his sudden death on 24 February. He will be greatly missed by all members of the band at All Saints' and his friends from neighbouring towers in the East Berks and South Bucks branch of the Oxford Diocesan Guild.

last updated by MTJ Oct 2005

Eric Silvey, 1936-2005

Ringing Times

Current news for the Belfry

A Brief History of Marlow's Bells