St Mary's Bell Ringers
In November 2025, we celebrated 300 years of bellringing at St. Mary’s, Dover, and we are very proud to be playing our part in this longstanding tradition. Have you ever asked yourself why do they ring?
In some ways the tower and bells are part of an aural information system similar to that of the mobile phone. Our phones bleep or ring to let us know there is a new message or that you need to remember to do something and many years ago the bells were used in a similar way.
They were rung to remind the local community that a service was about to begin (and sometimes after the main ringing has finished a ‘hurry up’ bell is rung to chase people up the path and into church). In some towns and villages a bell was rung to denote certain points of time in a day (nobody wore watches or had a smart phone) and you may also have heard of a curfew bell which rang around 8.00 pm.
Our community will still be able to hear a single bell tolling for a funeral or to mark the passing of a monarch or notable person. We can ring for weddings to let everyone know that a happy event is being celebrated. We ring for important dates in the national and local calendar and we participate in certain local and national events for example, VE Day ringing on 8th May 2025.
Last but not least, we ring for the sheer joy of doing so. Whether it's because the ringing went well or at an individual level when someone has mastered a particular piece or method, the whole band feels uplifted!
A bell ringer is part of their local church band and as such, ringing is a community activity which then contributes to the wider community. There are so many tales to tell, not least the one about why the pub over the road is called The Eight Bells! However, bell ringing and pubs or coffee shops do feature in our day to day ringing lives as do other social events.
Get involved
Would you or a friend like to learn to ring? We welcome your interest and would be happy to "show you the ropes”!
If so, why not could come in to see us ring on a Sunday morning between 10.00 am and 10.40 am when we can then arrange a date and time that is mutually suitable for you to try out the skills of ringing.
More information and updates to follow.