St Mary's Twickenham Fair | Bell Ringing & Tower Tour

Every year St Mary's Church in Twickenham hosts a town fair. This year, it included an art & textiles section within the church itself, alongside outdoor stalls which comprised of face-painting, tombola and many more. The best bit - however - was the Tower Tour & Ringing Demonstration!

The first part of the day was focused on ringing. We gave ourselves the task opening the fair with some ringing at 11am, along with a demonstration at 12PM. The bells are notoriously loud outside hence why we kept the ringing to a minimum. They are quite a meaty octave: cast by William I Eldridge, Richard Phelps, John Saunders and John Taylor's to the key of Eb - the tonal properties of the bells have connotations of not only age, but also grandness. They are a fairly mid-weight ring, coming in at 18cwt on the scales. Here, we have Call Changes on all 8 - including Queens and Kings.

At 2pm, Thomas and I decided to join the next Tower Tour, where one could head all the way up the spiral staircase, past the bells and on to the roof. The view - on a day like that - was stunning. We could see landmarks tens of miles away! I point out the key Points of Interest in this video, including: St Matthias' Church in Richmond, All Hallows Church in Twickenham, The Arch of Wembley Stadium, and the Control Tower of London Heathrow Airport! Oh, and Thomas investigated how loud he needed to shout so that one of the ringers in the fair below could hear him!

What a good way to spend a delightful Saturday morning & early afternoon. Afterwards I headed off to Battersea for a wedding, alas this was not recorded!

The Church of St Mary, Twickenham, is affiliated to the South & West District (S&W) of the Middlesex County Association & London Diocesan Guild of Church Bell Ringers (MCALDG).