Bell ringers
Our excellent team of Bellringers are looking for more recruits. Teaching and bellringing practice is held in the tower on Friday evenings from 7:30 until 9:30. Many of our adult ringers have been ringing at Woolton since childhood and bellringing can be a great way of involving the family in a very positive service to the church and wider community of Woolton. Why not give it a try?
Ringing times
The bells are rung before morning service from 9:45 to 10:30 and before evensong from 6:00 to 6:30 each Sunday. We provide bells at weddings and special services, ring in the new year and chime carols on the bells on Christmas day. Learning to ring Teaching and bellringing practice is held in the tower on Friday evenings from 7:30 until 9:30. Many of our adult ringers have been ringing at Woolton since childhood and bellringing can be a great way of involving the family in a very positive service to the church and wider community of Woolton. There is always a need to recruit more people to take up bellringing, which is a skill that you can practice anywhere and be made welcome in church towers up and down the country. So, if you’d like to try bellringing and become a ringer at St Peter’s, please do come to the tower on any Friday evening and you will be made most welcome. Tower contacts Tower Captain: Nick Willasey 0151 426 4699 Tower Corresponding Member: Kate Skinner 0151 428 8807
The tower bells and clock The tower of St Peter’s Church, Woolton is built of locally quarried Bunter Sandstone and is 90ft in height. Some would say it is built in the ‘Somerset style’ as many similar towers are to be found in that part of the country. The tower contains a ring of 8 bells, which were cast by John Taylor & Co, Bellfounders of Loughborough, in 1888 for the new church. The tenor bell weighs just less than one ton. Details of the bells are:-
Bell | Weight (Hundredweights, Quarters and Pounds) | Diameter |
Treble | 5-0-4 | 27″ |
2 | 5-3-0 | 28″ |
3 | 6-3-16 | 29 |
4 | 7-1-2 | 32″ |
5 | 9-1-9 | 35″ |
6 | 10-2-26 | 37″ |
7 | 14-1-14 | 42″ |
Tenor | 19-2-12 | 48″ |
Total weight of bells = 3 Tons 18 cwt 3 qr 27 lb. The ringers have financed the purchase of an additional 2 bells which will form the new treble and No.2 to make a ring of 10 bells. A project to install the necessary bell frame work, bells and fittings is ongoing and is being undertaken by the Merseyside Bell Restoration Group – a Registered Charity.
The clock at Woolton was purchased new in 1888 and was made by J B Joyce & Co, Clockmakers, of Whitchurch, Shropshire. Both J B Joyce & Co and John Taylor & Co are still in existence as clockmakers and bellfounders respectively. The clock is a 3 train, weight driven, flat bed pendulum clock with a double, four-legged grasshopper escapement. It is in original condition and still hand-wound. The clock strikes Westminster Chimes on bells 2,3,4,7 and Tenor.