“From time to time, complaints are made about the ringing of church bells,” the English detective novelist and Christian apologist Dorothy L. Sayers wrote in The Nine Tailors (1934). “It seems strange that a generation which tolerates the uproar of the internal combustion engine and the wailing of the jazz band should be so sensitive to the one loud noise that is made to the glory of God.”
“We feel we live to the glory of God, because the noise just goes up and spreads around,” St John’s bellringer Jennifer Lawson agrees.
The Anglican church’s eight bells were a gift from Governor-General Lord De L’Isle (1961–65), in memory of his wife, Jacqueline, who died in 1963.
Bellringer Charles Body, “a very young kid” then, remembers: “The De L’Isles would walk up the path on a Sunday morning at 8 o’clock like any other parishioner; they became regular parishioners. When she died, he retired as Governor-General and moved back to England, but wanted to give something back to the church and the whole community, because he and his wife had loved the place so much.”
The bells were cast at England’s only bell foundry, John Taylor & Co., Loughborough — which manufactured the National Carillon’s bells — and installed in 1964.
The bells are fixed to steel girders, rather than swinging loose, as in most belfries. There was not enough room, and the weight of the bells — the lightest weighs 100 kg and the heaviest 660 kg — would have put massive strain on the tower, Mr Body explained.
The bells are rung at Sunday services, weddings, funerals (one peal for every year of the deceased’s life), Christmas carols, and on Anzac Day.
They play both tunes (including Christmas carols and non-church tunes like Waltzing Matilda) and changes based on mathematical combinations: St John’s row of eight bells can produce 40,320 different changes (8 x 7 x 6 x 5 x 4 x 3 x 2 x 1).
“I got fascinated by how they were worked out,” says Mr Body, who started bellringing when he was a teenager. “My sisters were very good pianists. I was absolutely hopeless musically, but I reckon I can count to eight, ring the bells… That’s more than 50 years ago I’ve been ringing. I still love it — I love the sound and I love the fact that other people can enjoy it. It’s something I can do because I can count to eight!”
Traditionally, church bells are worked by a team of ringers, each pulling on a rope, but at St John’s, one or two people ring all eight — a boon for the COVID lockdowns, when Ms Lawson could work the bells solo every Sunday morning. (Her playing was recorded for a series of sounds of COVID.)
The church uses a system developed by the Revd. Henry Thomas Ellacombe, a Victorian clergyman and engineer. The bellringers in his parish of Bitton were drunken, lewd, and unruly; seldom attended church services; and refused to play, or played badly, unless they were given more money. He devised a mechanism whereby a single responsible bellringer could operate all the bells: the bell ropes are attached to a clapper, and pulling the rope makes the clapper hit the bell. Ellacombe also introduced 29 bellringers’ rules — among them: “Punishment for beerish belfry behaviour, like squabbling, swearing or excessive drinking, six months exclusion from the belfry.”
St John’s and St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Forrest are the only two in Australia — and possibly the world — that ring changes on Ellascombe bells. Indeed, the John Taylor bell foundry came to St John’s specially to see change ringing on an Ellacombe chime bell; they had never heard of it being done before, Mr Body said.
Tourists come to the bell tower several times a year: walking over Anzac Parade or Commonwealth Avenue, they hear the bells rung, and are “drawn into where the lovely sound is coming from”, Mr Body said. Likewise, people who recently moved into Reid or Campbell hear the bells and come and see where the sound is coming from; the bellringers invite them to see the bells, and perhaps to ring them.
“It’s not just an entertainment, it’s actually having the original intent of drawing locals and tourists into the church,” Mr Body said.
“Some tourists have come here and said that coming up and ringing the bells was the highlight of my trip. On more than one occasion, they said: ‘We went to Parliament House and the National Gallery and the War Memorial and all the tourist places, but this has been the most memorable part of it. We knew what to expect at the others, but this has been fantastic.’ I like the idea that we’re bringing people into the church.”
The best time to hear the bells is before and after the 9.30am Sunday service. The public can try bellringing (learn the ropes, so to speak) at an open ringing session on the first Sunday of every month, 5pm to 6pm.
