Our Tower Captain
Paul learned to ring in the 1960s to get his scout badge. He has rung over 1,400 quarter peals and conducted nearly 950, so the retirement target is conducting 1,000.
Paul moved to Kingston in 1985 when he met Kate and has been Tower Captain since 1988. He’d quite like to hand the reins on to somebody else now!
His favourite bell at Kingston is the 9th. Memorable towers include Liverpool and St Paul’s Cathedral and ringing for the Queen’s birthday at Westminster Abbey.
Paul is the current Master of The Surrey Association.
Kate
Kate is the Kingston bell ringers’ chief organiser and ringing teacher. She is married to the Tower Captain, Paul.
Kate learnt to ring at Stoke D’Abernon, Surrey (3cwt 6) while still at school. In 1978 she moved to Kingston and has rung there ever since. She met her husband Paul (our tower captain) through ringing and they married in 1985.
Kate has been Vice President and President of the Central Council of Church Bell Ringers as well as Chairman of first the Bell Restoration Committee and later the Public Relations Committee. She has also been General Master of the Surrey Association, a post now held by Paul.
She has rung nearly 150 peals but now prefers to ring quarters for pleasure and for special occasions as well as to help learners. She is a qualified ART teacher (Association of Ringing Teachers) and is enthusiastic about teaching new ringers.
She also loves tower grabbing and has rung at over 3500 towers, including all the English Cathedrals and towers in the USA, Australia, France, Holland & Belgium. One of her favourite towers is Ditcheat in Somerset – a glorious 8.
Favourite method is probably Stedman on any number but particularly well-struck Stedman Cinques.
Chris T
I’m self-employed and work online, at home, and all alone – which can be quite isolating. My wife spotted an ad for bellringing and, concerned that her husband was turning into a hermit, gave me the details.
I’ve been ringing now for a little over two years, and my hermit days are long gone. Through ringing, I’ve met dozens of genuinely interesting and delightful people. And – what with beers at pubs, coffees at cafés, ringing road trips, social events, extra ringing classes, practice sessions, and actual bellringing at Sunday services – my social calendar is now as pleasantly full as I want it to be.
As for the ringing side of ringing, I love it. The sound of church bells has always moved me, but learning how those sounds are organised and how to perform them myself has been a revelation. Bellringing is both mentally stimulating and good physical exercise. It’s also a form of focused meditation in that it as good as shuts down your inner dialogue and keeps you very much in the moment. I generally leave our ringing sessions feeling fantastic!
Colin
Colin is a master baker and celebrates his ringing anniversaries with delicious brownies.
Ed
I am Ed and I have taken up bell ringing for my Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Award. I chose bell ringing because my grandma does bell ringing and I was always fascinated by how the bells worked so I saw this as my best opportunity to do it.
Some highlights of bell ringing are being able to ring plain hunt on the treble, second and third bell. Another highlight of bell ringing would definitely be going to all the different churches with the Surrey Association young ringers, the Surrey Strikers, and ringing the bells.
One of the things I like about bell ringing is the sociability of it, just getting to know everyone in the tower was very fun for me as everyone is so nice.
Judith and David
Taken from article in March 2023 issue of The Diocese of Southwark’s newspaper, The Bridge.
David, “Well, the story for me started at the age of 18 when I went to university. I heard two of my fellow students talking about bell ringing. It sounded fascinating and I decided to learn. After several years, at the University of London Society of Change Ringers Annual Dinner, I met Judith.”
David likened bell ringing to riding a bicycle and said: “Once you can do it, you don’t understand quite why other people can’t.”
Judith, “I was about 15 and went to an all girls school. I came from an all girls family and I wanted to meet some boys. A request was put out for young people to come and learn bell ringing. I thought, ah, that might answer my question! I wasn’t part of a church, but it sounded fun. I first learned to handle a bell and then to ring methods. Then I went off
to university and went to my first annual dinner and sat opposite me was this young man – David – and we had quite a lot of the same interests.”
Judith describes bell ringing as “an art and a science, it’s physical and intellectual. You never stop learning: it requires coordination, listening, rhythm, and it’s very much about teamwork.”
For the last 30 years they have rung with the Kingston band.
Max
I started learning bell ringing for my bronze Duke of Edinburgh award. The Duke of Edinburgh award is a youth programme set up to encourage self-reliance, responsibility, social interaction and teamwork and is active in over 144 countries. I chose to start learning bell ringing for the Skills element of my Bronze award alongside my friends Max and Ed, whose grandmother is a ringer and introduced us to the tower captain at All Saints Church in Kingston. I have really enjoyed learning to ring, and my favourite part is going to different
towers across the country and meeting new people. In the future I hope to learn more methods and visit more towers.
Max C
I started bell ringing in late February 2024 as I was looking for a fun, interesting activity to do for my skills section of my DofE. I chose my skill to be for 3 months as I didn’t expect to continue bell ringing but as soon as I started I got stuck in.
I was taught by two lovely spirited people, Paul and Kate, who helped me become the great bell ringer I am today. It really is quite the skill and so took me some time to learn but after I had gotten the hang of it I really started to enjoy it.
It’s really interesting also to see the history of bell ringing on the walls of the ringing room – it seems to be a part of the Kingston community since the 19th century, maybe even further back. To complete my section I had to learn bell ringing up level 2 and participate in various social events. However it was only after I had completed it that I realised how fast it had gone by. The whole experience doesn’t feel like work and more like a fun hobby.
One of the highlights of my bell ringing journey so far would definitely be exploring different bell towers and trying to ring their bells. You get to see different towers and ring different bells, and belong to a strong community. I am looking forward I hope to become more able in different pieces such as plain hunt and then method ringing.
Mike
Pip
I returned to ringing in March 2023 in response to the Ring for the King call up, having learned initially in the late sixties at Winchester Cathedral where my Dad was captain. Initially I was just interested to see if I could still ring a bell but now I am thoroughly enjoying the opportunity to do something that is ‘just for me’ and excludes all other thoughts while I am concentrating on where my bell should be!
I never expected to meet such an amazingly friendly group of people, thank you Kingston regulars for making me feel so welcome and thank you Paul and Kate for your patience.
Roshan
About Roshan: A gardener, a novice bell ringer and a Churchwarden at All Saints, Kingston.
I have always loved the church, music and bells since my childhood days. After moving to Kingston, I used to come early to the Church to listen to the bells ringing out on Sunday before the morning service and Evensong. While attending the AGM meeting as a Churchwarden on Sunday 20th February 2021 in the ringing room, decided to join the band as a learner and to join other friendly ringers.
I started learning on 12 March 2022 and after three lessons, there was a break as Kate and Paul were on holiday. Lessons were continued from 14th May 2022. Now I’m confidently ringing rounds of 12 and practising call changes and dodging. I also achieved my Level 2 in handling the ropes.
Especially for me, the sound of the bells and ringing in a band is always soothing and calms down the mind and is a perfect example of teamwork. I do appreciate and am thankful for the patience of my teachers Paul and Kate and the support and encouragement from all the other bell ringers.
So-Shan
So-Shan started to learn to ring for Ringing Remembers – a campaign to recruit 1400 new ringers to ring for the First World War 100 commemorations on 11 November 2018.
She is now addicted and ringing Plain Hunt on 7 and inside for Plain Bob Doubles, although progress is rather slower than she’d like!
She looks after this website and does our social media for us.
