War Diaries Talk

New bells for St George's Memorial Church, Ypres

  • David_Underdown by David_Underdown moderator

    After the war St George's Memorial Church was created as an Anglican place of worship in Ypres, and a memorial to British servicemen who died in the area. The tower was strong enough to hold an English-style ring of bells, and there do seem to have been plans to include a ring originally, but there wasn't enough money, so a simple set of chiming bells was installed instead. Now though as part of the centenary commemorations a ring of bells is finally to be installed in the church adn this very English sound will soon be sounding out over the fields of the Ypres Salient. The bells left the foundry in Loughborough yesterday, and are now on their way to Ypres (via the Great Dorset Steam Fair this weekend). more info, and some pictures https://halfmuffled.wordpress.com/2017/08/22/bells-on-their-way-to-st-georges-ypres/

    Posted

  • marie.eklidvirginmedia.com by marie.eklidvirginmedia.com

    Thanks for posting the article about the bells, really interesting. good images also.

    Posted

  • ral104 by ral104 moderator, scientist

    Great to see the original plans finally coming to fruition!

    Posted

  • erik.schaubroeckscarlet.be by erik.schaubroeckscarlet.be

    By chance I saw the truck with the bells in Ypres today.

    Posted

  • marie.eklidvirginmedia.com by marie.eklidvirginmedia.com

    Thats amazing that you seen them!

    Posted

  • cyngast by cyngast moderator in response to erik.schaubroeckscarlet.be's comment.

    As Marie said, Amazing that you should see them on their way to the church! Any photos?

    Posted

  • marie.eklidvirginmedia.com by marie.eklidvirginmedia.com

    Cynthia, there are some photo's, one of the Bells on their way to St George’s, Ypres on the lorry, As David commented on in his article. link: https://halfmuffled.wordpress.com/2017/08/22/bells-on-their-way-to-st-georges-ypres/

    There is also photo of St Georges Church Ypres on this link http://www.stgeorgesmemorialchurchypres.com/

    Article also states 31st August 2017, 17:00 Service of Celebration for the arrival of the new church bells at St George’s church followed by refreshments in the church hall.

    PS Article and more photographs of the Church on this link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_George's_Memorial_Church,_Ypres

    Posted

  • cyngast by cyngast moderator in response to marie.eklidvirginmedia.com's comment.

    I was just wondering if Erik had taken any photos.

    Posted

  • David_Underdown by David_Underdown moderator

    I updated the blog post yesterday evening with a link to this Flickr set of photos which follows the bells from the Foundry, via the steam fair, to Ieper https://www.flickr.com/photos/keltektrust/albums/72157685212300141

    Posted

  • marie.eklidvirginmedia.com by marie.eklidvirginmedia.com

    Thanks for posting all those interesting photo's. An amazing good project.

    Posted

  • erik.schaubroeckscarlet.be by erik.schaubroeckscarlet.be in response to cyngast's comment.

    Sorry no photos Cynthia, but apparently plenty of photos on the flickr website. By the way I wouldn't know how to show a photo in PWD. The bells also made the local newspaper http://www.hln.be/regio/nieuws-uit-ieper/klokken-van-t-engels-kerkje-gezegend-a3247727/ and http://www.hln.be/regio/nieuws-uit-ieper/klokken-zijn-thuis-in-t-engels-kerkje-a3246854/ and the regional;television http://www.focus-wtv.be/nieuws/britse-kerkklokken-ieper

    Posted

  • marie.eklidvirginmedia.com by marie.eklidvirginmedia.com

    Erik, I have just had a message from my brother regarding the St. George's Memorial Church, Ypres as follows:

    “I have been in the church and it is full of all the Army Regiments emblems on the seats and walls. It is only a small place but nice."

    Posted

  • cyngast by cyngast moderator in response to erik.schaubroeckscarlet.be's comment.

    Erik, Thank you for posting the link to the television. Although the narrator is speaking Dutch (?), the woman talking about the bells in English was very informative.

    Interesting to see the men's names on the side of the bells.

    Posted

  • erik.schaubroeckscarlet.be by erik.schaubroeckscarlet.be

    The narrator speaks Dutch, indeed. He tells (among others) that the bells will chime for the first time on Oktober 22 after being sanctified (?) by an Anglican bishop.

    Posted

  • cyngast by cyngast moderator

    I don't know if I've ever heard Dutch spoken before. I've only been in Brussels in Belgium, and it was a long time ago, but I remember people there speaking French.

    I think the English word you need for sanctified is blessed, but it has the same meaning.

    Posted

  • marie.eklidvirginmedia.com by marie.eklidvirginmedia.com

    Dutch is the official language of the Flemish Community and the Flemish Region (merged to Flanders) and, along with French, an official language of the Brussels-Capital Region. The main Dutch dialects spoken in Belgium are Brabantian, West Flemish, East Flemish, Antwerp and Limburgish. ‎Official languages • ‎Use • ‎Multilingualism • ‎Non-official languages

    Link: https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Languages+spoken+in+Belgium&rlz=1C1DSGL_enGB426GB426&oq=Languages+spoken+in+Belgium&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l5.32192j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

    Posted

  • David_Underdown by David_Underdown moderator

    In the photo in the newspaper, the tall man at the front right of the photo is Alan Regin, one of the main people behind the project (if you look at my other thread on ringing for Pte George Honeyball you'll see he was involved in that too). The lady talking in English in the video is the (fairly new) chaplain of St George's Memorial Church.

    Posted

  • erik.schaubroeckscarlet.be by erik.schaubroeckscarlet.be

    A course for volunteers for change ringing in Ypres on the news: https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2018/02/16/-de-cooerdinatie-tussen-je-lichaam--het-touw-en-de-klok--dat-is-/

    Posted

  • cyngast by cyngast moderator

    Very interesting, Erik. It looks like a challenge to do it correctly. I used to do handbells but this is completely different.

    Posted

  • David_Underdown by David_Underdown moderator

    Thanks Erik.

    In the back of a couple of shots you can see a display including a replica Victoria Cross relating to Sjt William Henry Johnston of the Notts and Derbys (Sherwood Foresters), the only bell ringer to win a VC. He was a ringer at Worksop Priory in Nottinghamshire.

    Cyngast, was that tune ringing on handbells or methods?

    David

    Posted

  • cyngast by cyngast moderator in response to David_Underdown's comment.

    I haven't a clue what kind of bell ringing it was. I've been looking on Google and I think I just don't know the right question to ask.

    Anyway, here's a video of the sort of thing I did: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fEa1eVw7uY I played at this church where there are six handbell ensembles for various ages and abilities. This group in the video is the best one but we all played in two concerts every year.

    Posted

  • David_Underdown by David_Underdown moderator

    That's tune ringing, ringing methods on handbells is more like the tower bell ringing in the video. Ringing tunes I believe the bells are set so they'll only strike on one side, for method ringing it strikes both sides, and similarly for tower bells it strikes twice, (once on a full turn in each direction), once you pull on the fluffy bit of the rope (the sally) called the handstroke, and once following a pull on the end of the rope, the backstroke.

    Posted

  • cyngast by cyngast moderator in response to David_Underdown's comment.

    Yes, the bells I used do only strike on one side. They're marked on the outside as to which way is up so they are laid out on the table properly. Our director would be most annoyed if one was put down the wrong way! Or in the wrong spot! The idea was that we should not look at the bells at all but just learn where our hands were to go. Take your eyes off the music for even a second and you can be totally lost.

    Posted