All Saints' Bell Ringers

A new Team

Starting May 2006, a new team of thrusting young Bell Ringers have been trained by David and Marianne Leworthy. Called "Team Tadpole" the initial group were Sarah Adlam, Andrew Downs and Julian Dale with Walter and John C as the "old hands".

Now that he initial "Tadpoles" are reasonably competent, a second "spawn" of ringers is being trained (Kate, Pip, & Peter) and two junior froglets (Katie & Catherine) with the hope that we will have a ringing team of about a dozen - if you fancy a go please enquire from one of the above.

Practices are held every Wednesday from 7.30pm to 9pm, and progress is described as "remarkably good in the circumstances".

Currently the bells are being rung, on average, once every Sunday. All Saint's, of course, has a proud history of Bell Ringing but unfortunately in recent years they have fallen quiet due to lack of ringers (indeed John C and Walter claim not to have rung for 45 and 50 years respectively!)

The Bells of All Saints’ Church – a brief history

All Saints’ Church was built and consecrated on 11th June 1879, but the tower was not built until 1883 as there were insufficient funds to complete the building. It was through the generous gift of Mrs Atkinson, an occasional visitor to Eastbourne from London, given in memory of her husband, that the tower was built at a cost of £2,900. During the building, Mrs Atkinson added to her gift 22 clerestory stained glass windows [£1,000] (these were lost in the fire of 1924(?)), the clock, by Gilletts & Co. of Croydon, [£115], and the tenor bell costing £154. An extremely generous benefactor!
All Saints’ has a peal of 8 bells, all cast by John Warner in 1883. The Treble and no. 2 bells were donated by the Vicar, the Revd. James Harvey Usill, commemorating his marriage to Mrs. Lucy Barker in September 1882. The no. 3 bell was donated by Mrs Lucy Barker and the no. 7 bell by Mrs Basevi. The total cost of the bells in 1883 was £696 – it would now cost upwards £500,000 to for a new set in 2007!!!

The bells were first rung on 11th August 1883.
The inscription on the bells are:

No. 1 (the treble): “CAST BY JOHN WARNER & SONS LONDON 1883 / E DONO CONVENIENTIUM APUD / OMNIUM SANCTORUM AEDEMI PROPTER JACOBI HARLEII / LUCIAE QUE USILL NUPTIAS XI /ANTE KAL SEP MDCCCLXXII”

No.3: “CAST BY JOHN WARNER & SONS LONDON 1883 / E DONO LUCIAE BARKER”

Nos. 4, 5 & 6: “CAST BY JOHN WARNER & SONS LONDON 1883”

No. 7: “CAST BY JOHN WARNER & SONS LONDON 1883 / IN MEMORIAM NATHHANAEUS BASEVI”

No 8 (Tenor): “CAST BY JOHN WARNER & SONS LONDON 1883 / IN MEMORIAM GULIELMI ATKINSON”

(Notes on the names on the bells: The Revd. James Harvey Usill was the first Vicar of All Saints’ Church and responsible for the building of this new church in Eastbourne. He was previously Rector of Fulbourne, Cambridgeshire, where his first wife died in 1875. Mrs Lucy Barker was a young widow – she was 28 with a 4 year old daughter – Katherine – when she married the 53 year old widower in 1882. Following Revd. Usill’s death in 1884, she remarried. Nathaniel Basevi was a London Barrister-at-Law who died in 1869, and is descended from an Italian Jewish family prominent in early 19th Century London – Basevi is a derivative of Bathsheba. His brother, George Basevi, was a renowned architect, responsible for the design of the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge. George fell to his death whilst inspecting the belfry of Ely Cathedral in 1845. Their cousin was none other than Benjamin Disraeli, the British Prime Minister!)

By Pip P.