THE eight bells of St Mary's Church, Twyford - some brand-new, some newly restored - have been dedicated and blessed by the Right Rev Debbie Sellen, Bishop of Southampton at a special evensong service.
The £85,000 rstoration project started on New Year's Day 2018, with a sponsored winter walk to inaugurate fundraising. The bells were last overhauled shortly after the end of the Second World War, and needed a complete restoration, including repairs to the frame and fittings, and three new bells and retuning and remounting the other five bells.
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The restoration was undertaken and overseen by Whites of Appleton, bell-hanging specialists. The three new bells - Nos 3, 4 and 5 - were generously donated by churchwarden Juliet Hawkes, Dr Bruce Lees, former family doctor of Twyford, and Rev Canon Dr Peter Lippiett, minister at St Mary's. Funding for the 6th and 7th bells to be restored was provided in memory of David Abbott, and of Robert and Diana Purvis. The remaining costs were met by 60 individual donations, and grants from trusts and organisations including Emmanuel College, Cambridge (patron of the benefice), the Keltek Trust and the bell restoration funds of the Diocesan Guild of Church Bell Ringers and the Central Council of Church Bell Ringers.
Further contributions came from fundraising events over the past five years. Following the dedication the bells have now been reinstalled, and recruitment and training will resume in earnest in the New Year, with a taster evening on Tuesday January 17 at 7.30pm.
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