All Saints' Tower Dash

Saturday 5th September saw the intrepid All Saints’ bell ringers head off on their second “tower” outing.
Our morning started in the picturesque village of Laughton. Set on the outskirts of the village All Saints’ was built in 1466 with the tower being erected in the fifteenth century. Under the chancel of the church is the Pelham family vault where there are 31 coffins, including those of two prime ministers and three Earls of Chichester but it was the bell tower that took our interest – climbing up the narrow wooden staircase and through the trapdoor a ring of 6 bells awaited us. With the tenor weighing just 9.5cwt this ring is much lighter that our own tower and we all found that a very light touch was needed with these bells.
Our time at Laughton was soon over and we headed off to the village of East Hoathly.
The Parish Church of East Hoathly stands in the heart of the village. The Church acquired a minor ring of five bells in 1723. In 1876 the bells were rehung, with the old tenor recast and a new tenor bell added to make a ring of six in a major key. By 1990 the bells and their frame required major refurbishment the refurbished and rehung bells were ready to ring at Christmas 1992.
No trap door (or stairs) awaited us this time but again we all enjoyed the experience of ringing this very tuneful ring of 6 bells.
I’ve been told that no bell ringing outing is complete without a trip to a local hostelry and so it will come as no surprise to learn that we took our lunch break at the Highlands Inn, Ridgewood.
Our first stop after lunch was Uckfield. Undaunted by the fact that the village carnival was taking place later in the day we fought our way through the traffic and arrived at Holy Cross church. This church has a ring of eight bells, the original six bells with the tenor weighing 12cwt were installed with two treble bells added in 1785. The bells remained more or less untouched until 1905 when all eight bells were taken back to London for recasting and tuning.
After Uckfield we headed to St Margaret the Queen Buxted. St Margaret is a 13th Century church set in the beautiful surroundings of Buxted Park. It has a ring of 8 bells, with the tenor weighing 15cwt this was the heaviest set of bells we rang, although the ropes have been recently refurbished which made the ringing seem quite light and springy.
We rounded off our day at St. John the Baptist church, Ripe. This tower caused the greatest interest and confusion with our group, with a ring of only 5 bells set in an anticlockwise direction it took as much brainpower as we could muster to ring this very interesting set of bells.
A wonderful day of ringing was had by all our bell ringers and we extend our thanks to all the churches that so warmly welcomed us.
Melanie Churchyard