All Saints, Corn St, BS1 1JN
Letters published in The Ringing World 27 June 1997 p.652
Myths at All Saints, Bristol
I really must put the record straight before the mythology about Fred Leaker and his whisky bottle gets further embellished.
I came back from war service in October 1946 and immediately started ringing with the University of Bristol Society which I had joined in absentia in 1943 when it was formed; it was very much in its infancy in 1946-47 and we struggled with our Doubles and Minor at St. Michael’s.
By 1948 we had been joined by capable ringers like Jack Worrall and Ivor Trueman and it became desirable to try our hand at some Triples and Major. Not all Bristol City ringers were very keen on us at that time, with the notable exceptions of Mr. Bennett who taught some of our learners for us at St. John’s and Albert Tyler who was a great help, and as I was by that time Master of UBSCR I approached the Vicar of All Saints for his permission to ring at
his church and he was pleased to welcome us. We held practices there and some of our members attended Sunday services. There had not been a band of ringers there since long before the war but a few of the Bristol ringers were up in arms at our ‘taking over All Saints’. We never severed our connection with St. Michael’s and rang there as well as All Saints although we had not quite reached the close bonding with St Michael’s which came about later and which, I hope, still continues.
I then asked the Bristol City Branch of the G&B to a tea at St. Michael’s church hall and explained the situation to them; this calmed things down and we felt much happier about the situation.
The bells at All Saints did not go very well, but no worse than one could expect of bells which had been silent during the war and had been neglected for years before and after the war. I had rung a few rounds there, once, in 1938, as well as St. Nicholas only a few yards away; the latter were destroyed by enemy action as well as nearby St. Peter’s and St. Mary-le-Port, but I never rang at those towers.
We lost a peal of Grandsire Triples in 1948 at All Saints in the last few courses. A violent knocking on the door of the ringing room, which we had locked, upset our concentration even though Jack Worrall did his best to keep us right. When we stood and opened the door the Verger came in and said ‘don’t forget to turn the lights out when you go’. Did Ivor Trueman really throw a kneeler at him or is that another bit of mythology which has grown up through the years? I called a quarter of Grandsire Triples there in 1949 when my first son was bom and the bells were going reasonably well then. By
1950 the tenor was getting very difficult to ring. I went up the tower with Colin Barwick and Mary Bliss one Saturday and while I pulled the tenor up they stood by the frame and watched. Colin then came down and rang it and I joined Mary and watched. The frame around the tenor was moving several inches at each stroke and we reported this to the Vicar who, quite correctly, told us to stop ringing for the time being. Subsequently rot was found in the frame.
The Vicar then informed us that we had ruined his bells and we were expelled from having anything to do with them. I visited him, by appointment, one evening at his house in Clifton and offered to look into the matter of repairs. He was quite polite but was adamant that his churchwarden had told him to ban us permanently and to stop all ringing there by anyone. They remained unrung for many years. Mary was at that time Secretary of UBSCR and I
spoke to her a few days ago; she referred to her minute book and to my Master’s report from those days, so that I know that the above is correct.
Fred Leaker may have dropped his whisky in the chancel (he was fond of it and had a very expensive nose) but I doubt if it was on a Sunday in 1951; the Bristol City ringers never rang there on Sundays anyway, but he and his whisky were not the cause of the ban. The permanent ban really came from the churchwarden. I never met him and I never understood his antagonism, but the Vicar obviously did just as he was told. I am afraid I cannot remember the names of the Vicar or the churchwarden and Mary did not record them in her minutes.
CHRIS BROWN
* * *
Archdeacons get the credit for many things but I feel sure that neither Archdeacon Reddick or Williams was in any way responsible for the silence of the bells at All Saints for so many years. When I came to Bristol some 30 years ago to work just across the road from All Saints I was told that the tower was unsafe and that there was a risk that things would fall if the bells were rung. Further enquiries over the years produced a different story and laid the blame fairly and squarely on an “Unringable” Architect who was also churchwarden who just did not like bells. Things got in a terrible mess.
The 1966 “G & B” Report has the note “Bells not allowed to be rung” against All Saints but when restoration was finally undertaken nothing fell off the tower. The church is now used as a Resource Centre by the Diocesan Board of Education and it is fortunate that it contains the Tomb of Edward Colston or it might well have become a Climbing Centre or gymnasium. My friend “Old Bristolian” was around at the time so perhaps he can confirm this.
W. G. HARRIS
Bristol
Myths at All Saints, Bristol
I really must put the record straight before the mythology about Fred Leaker and his whisky bottle gets further embellished.
I came back from war service in October 1946 and immediately started ringing with the University of Bristol Society which I had joined in absentia in 1943 when it was formed; it was very much in its infancy in 1946-47 and we struggled with our Doubles and Minor at St. Michael’s.
By 1948 we had been joined by capable ringers like Jack Worrall and Ivor Trueman and it became desirable to try our hand at some Triples and Major. Not all Bristol City ringers were very keen on us at that time, with the notable exceptions of Mr. Bennett who taught some of our learners for us at St. John’s and Albert Tyler who was a great help, and as I was by that time Master of UBSCR I approached the Vicar of All Saints for his permission to ring at
his church and he was pleased to welcome us. We held practices there and some of our members attended Sunday services. There had not been a band of ringers there since long before the war but a few of the Bristol ringers were up in arms at our ‘taking over All Saints’. We never severed our connection with St. Michael’s and rang there as well as All Saints although we had not quite reached the close bonding with St Michael’s which came about later and which, I hope, still continues.
I then asked the Bristol City Branch of the G&B to a tea at St. Michael’s church hall and explained the situation to them; this calmed things down and we felt much happier about the situation.
The bells at All Saints did not go very well, but no worse than one could expect of bells which had been silent during the war and had been neglected for years before and after the war. I had rung a few rounds there, once, in 1938, as well as St. Nicholas only a few yards away; the latter were destroyed by enemy action as well as nearby St. Peter’s and St. Mary-le-Port, but I never rang at those towers.
We lost a peal of Grandsire Triples in 1948 at All Saints in the last few courses. A violent knocking on the door of the ringing room, which we had locked, upset our concentration even though Jack Worrall did his best to keep us right. When we stood and opened the door the Verger came in and said ‘don’t forget to turn the lights out when you go’. Did Ivor Trueman really throw a kneeler at him or is that another bit of mythology which has grown up through the years? I called a quarter of Grandsire Triples there in 1949 when my first son was bom and the bells were going reasonably well then. By
1950 the tenor was getting very difficult to ring. I went up the tower with Colin Barwick and Mary Bliss one Saturday and while I pulled the tenor up they stood by the frame and watched. Colin then came down and rang it and I joined Mary and watched. The frame around the tenor was moving several inches at each stroke and we reported this to the Vicar who, quite correctly, told us to stop ringing for the time being. Subsequently rot was found in the frame.
The Vicar then informed us that we had ruined his bells and we were expelled from having anything to do with them. I visited him, by appointment, one evening at his house in Clifton and offered to look into the matter of repairs. He was quite polite but was adamant that his churchwarden had told him to ban us permanently and to stop all ringing there by anyone. They remained unrung for many years. Mary was at that time Secretary of UBSCR and I
spoke to her a few days ago; she referred to her minute book and to my Master’s report from those days, so that I know that the above is correct.
Fred Leaker may have dropped his whisky in the chancel (he was fond of it and had a very expensive nose) but I doubt if it was on a Sunday in 1951; the Bristol City ringers never rang there on Sundays anyway, but he and his whisky were not the cause of the ban. The permanent ban really came from the churchwarden. I never met him and I never understood his antagonism, but the Vicar obviously did just as he was told. I am afraid I cannot remember the names of the Vicar or the churchwarden and Mary did not record them in her minutes.
CHRIS BROWN
* * *
Archdeacons get the credit for many things but I feel sure that neither Archdeacon Reddick or Williams was in any way responsible for the silence of the bells at All Saints for so many years. When I came to Bristol some 30 years ago to work just across the road from All Saints I was told that the tower was unsafe and that there was a risk that things would fall if the bells were rung. Further enquiries over the years produced a different story and laid the blame fairly and squarely on an “Unringable” Architect who was also churchwarden who just did not like bells. Things got in a terrible mess.
The 1966 “G & B” Report has the note “Bells not allowed to be rung” against All Saints but when restoration was finally undertaken nothing fell off the tower. The church is now used as a Resource Centre by the Diocesan Board of Education and it is fortunate that it contains the Tomb of Edward Colston or it might well have become a Climbing Centre or gymnasium. My friend “Old Bristolian” was around at the time so perhaps he can confirm this.
W. G. HARRIS
Bristol
Letter published in The Ringing World 25 July 1997 p.750
All Saints, Bristol
With reference to Canon David Sansum’s letter on p.556 I would mention that a reply was sent directly to David early in June after a discussion between the writer and John Hunt and we assumed that would be the end of the matter.
However, in view of the recent letters by Chris Brown and Wilf Harris on p.652 a group of senior Bristol ringers of the 1950’s have decided that a reply to The Ringing World is now necessary in order to give some further relevant information and to make a few minor corrections to what has been written by Chris and Wilf.
What follows, therefore, is the collected distilled essence from the memories, notes and archive material of Pat Bird, Richard Bowden, Mick Hobbs, John Hunt and Jim Taylor plus a reference to the tower inspection notes of David Cawley.
The incident concerning dear old Fred Leaker and the quarter-bottle of whisky which slipped out of his pocket and shattered on the chancel steps is not a myth but an historical fact which was related to the writer by Fred himself and other prewar ringers - some of whom allowed us to record their ringing memories on sound and video tape. It occurred sometime in the early 1930’s and unfortunately led to the cessation of Sunday service ringing at All Saints. Even so the bells were still available for quarter-peals and practices etc. up to 1950 when problems developed with part of the frame, as described by Chris Brown, and all ringing was stopped. What Chris omitted to mention was that in 1951 Mears and Stainbank removed the defective
section of timber frame and replaced it with a new C I side frame secured to an R.S.J. and at the same time the badly going tenor, which was found to have a broken gudgeon, was rehung on ball bearings. At that stage the bells could have and should have been rung again - especially by the UBSCR who were temporarily lacking a tower on their own as their usual tower, St Michael’s, was closed for repairs to a large crack in the stonework from 1949 to 1952.
All requests after 1951 for a resumption of ringing at All Saints were turned down in no uncertain matter by a churchwarden and onetime diocesan architect by name of Hartland Thomas who claimed that in his opinion the cupola on the top of the tower was unsafe. One might speculate that Hartland Thomas’s attitude stemmed from professional jealousy as another well known Bristol architect had supervised repairs to the cupola and replaced the stone urns with new ones made of fibre glass.
Archdeacon Reddick was approached on two separate occasions by the late Reg Hooper who suggested to him that it was a scandal that the inside of
the tower was getting into a state of sad neglect as ringers were denied access to maintain and occasionally ring a perfectly ringable peal of bells. John Hunt was present at St Ambrose in the mid-1950’s when the conversation between Reddick and Reg became somewhat heated. Pat Bird was witness to
a second conversation between the two at a branch dinner in 1957 but Reddick was still tacitly supporting Hartland Thomas and refusing to become involved in any way and so the silly and unnecessary impasse dragged on for some years until the death of Hartland Thomas.
A further approach requesting the opportunity to resume ringing was then made to the priest in charge but he was very much under the influence
of Mrs Hartland Thomas who was as unyielding as her husband and the ban still remained. It is interesting to note that our old colleague David Sansum used to visit Mrs Hartland Thomas as part of his pastoral duties as curate of Stoke Bishop and he was present at her deathbed.
Early in the 1980’s more work was done on the cupola and bronze ties were used to bond in the stonework. The breakthrough came in 1983 when Jim Taylor, with the backing of the Vicar of Christ Church, was able to approach the All Saints Land Trust with a carefully reasoned proposal to restore the bells and ringing room to a state worthy of the rest of the historic building by using the skills and experience of a dedicated band of volunteer ringers. Permission was readily granted and work soon commenced on cleaning out the bell chamber and all the necessary tightening of bolts, attention to
stays, sliders, pulleys, fitting new ropes etc. under the supervision of Jim and his principal assistants Andrew Mead sen. and Bob Caton. Down below in the ringing room other volunteers led by Jennie Taylor cleaned, whitewashed and painted the walls, cleaned and revarnished peal boards and fitted new carpet. Much of the work was done after 11 am on Sunday mornings when most of the band had rung for three services in nearby towers. This continued for some months and at the culmination of 700 hours of hard labour the try-out for all eight bells to be rung open was fixed for 23rd July 1984. It was a great joy after 33 years of enforced silence to realise that the pleasant sounding 1727 octave by Rudhall was at last being heard again by a new generation of ringers.
OLD BRISTOLIAN
P.S. There are a few corrections that need to be made in respect of John Hunt’s “Conquering Bristol” article on p.479 which prompted the
correspondence re All Saints.
1. St George’s bells were transferred to Warmley in 1976.
2. Emmanuel Clifton bells were removed and broken up for scrap in 1976.
3. The five at Horfield were made ringable again in 1966.
4. John Hunt’s peal at St Thomas was the seventh on the bells not the sixth.
All Saints, Bristol
With reference to Canon David Sansum’s letter on p.556 I would mention that a reply was sent directly to David early in June after a discussion between the writer and John Hunt and we assumed that would be the end of the matter.
However, in view of the recent letters by Chris Brown and Wilf Harris on p.652 a group of senior Bristol ringers of the 1950’s have decided that a reply to The Ringing World is now necessary in order to give some further relevant information and to make a few minor corrections to what has been written by Chris and Wilf.
What follows, therefore, is the collected distilled essence from the memories, notes and archive material of Pat Bird, Richard Bowden, Mick Hobbs, John Hunt and Jim Taylor plus a reference to the tower inspection notes of David Cawley.
The incident concerning dear old Fred Leaker and the quarter-bottle of whisky which slipped out of his pocket and shattered on the chancel steps is not a myth but an historical fact which was related to the writer by Fred himself and other prewar ringers - some of whom allowed us to record their ringing memories on sound and video tape. It occurred sometime in the early 1930’s and unfortunately led to the cessation of Sunday service ringing at All Saints. Even so the bells were still available for quarter-peals and practices etc. up to 1950 when problems developed with part of the frame, as described by Chris Brown, and all ringing was stopped. What Chris omitted to mention was that in 1951 Mears and Stainbank removed the defective
section of timber frame and replaced it with a new C I side frame secured to an R.S.J. and at the same time the badly going tenor, which was found to have a broken gudgeon, was rehung on ball bearings. At that stage the bells could have and should have been rung again - especially by the UBSCR who were temporarily lacking a tower on their own as their usual tower, St Michael’s, was closed for repairs to a large crack in the stonework from 1949 to 1952.
All requests after 1951 for a resumption of ringing at All Saints were turned down in no uncertain matter by a churchwarden and onetime diocesan architect by name of Hartland Thomas who claimed that in his opinion the cupola on the top of the tower was unsafe. One might speculate that Hartland Thomas’s attitude stemmed from professional jealousy as another well known Bristol architect had supervised repairs to the cupola and replaced the stone urns with new ones made of fibre glass.
Archdeacon Reddick was approached on two separate occasions by the late Reg Hooper who suggested to him that it was a scandal that the inside of
the tower was getting into a state of sad neglect as ringers were denied access to maintain and occasionally ring a perfectly ringable peal of bells. John Hunt was present at St Ambrose in the mid-1950’s when the conversation between Reddick and Reg became somewhat heated. Pat Bird was witness to
a second conversation between the two at a branch dinner in 1957 but Reddick was still tacitly supporting Hartland Thomas and refusing to become involved in any way and so the silly and unnecessary impasse dragged on for some years until the death of Hartland Thomas.
A further approach requesting the opportunity to resume ringing was then made to the priest in charge but he was very much under the influence
of Mrs Hartland Thomas who was as unyielding as her husband and the ban still remained. It is interesting to note that our old colleague David Sansum used to visit Mrs Hartland Thomas as part of his pastoral duties as curate of Stoke Bishop and he was present at her deathbed.
Early in the 1980’s more work was done on the cupola and bronze ties were used to bond in the stonework. The breakthrough came in 1983 when Jim Taylor, with the backing of the Vicar of Christ Church, was able to approach the All Saints Land Trust with a carefully reasoned proposal to restore the bells and ringing room to a state worthy of the rest of the historic building by using the skills and experience of a dedicated band of volunteer ringers. Permission was readily granted and work soon commenced on cleaning out the bell chamber and all the necessary tightening of bolts, attention to
stays, sliders, pulleys, fitting new ropes etc. under the supervision of Jim and his principal assistants Andrew Mead sen. and Bob Caton. Down below in the ringing room other volunteers led by Jennie Taylor cleaned, whitewashed and painted the walls, cleaned and revarnished peal boards and fitted new carpet. Much of the work was done after 11 am on Sunday mornings when most of the band had rung for three services in nearby towers. This continued for some months and at the culmination of 700 hours of hard labour the try-out for all eight bells to be rung open was fixed for 23rd July 1984. It was a great joy after 33 years of enforced silence to realise that the pleasant sounding 1727 octave by Rudhall was at last being heard again by a new generation of ringers.
OLD BRISTOLIAN
P.S. There are a few corrections that need to be made in respect of John Hunt’s “Conquering Bristol” article on p.479 which prompted the
correspondence re All Saints.
1. St George’s bells were transferred to Warmley in 1976.
2. Emmanuel Clifton bells were removed and broken up for scrap in 1976.
3. The five at Horfield were made ringable again in 1966.
4. John Hunt’s peal at St Thomas was the seventh on the bells not the sixth.
Frequencies of the bells measured in Hertz with the relative intervals from the nominal in cents
Hum Prime Tierce Quint Nominal Superquint Octave Nominal Note
Bell Freq. Cents Freq. Cents Freq. Cents Freq. Cents Freq. Cents Freq. Cents Freq. Cents
8 177.5 -2307 347 -1147 407 -871 530.5 -412 673 0 1010 703 1390.5 1256 E+36
7 201 -2299 393.5 -1136 458 -873 606.5 -387 758.5 207 1130.5 691 1559.5 1248 F#+43
6 233.5 -2240 431.5 -1177 521.5 -849 629.5 -523 851.5 407 1261 680 1728 1225 G#+43
5 254 -2214 450 -1224 551.5 -872 672 -530 912.5 527 1357 687 1861 1234 A+63
4 268.5 -2320 511.5 -1204 618.5 -875 802.5 -425 1025.5 729 1524 686 2083.5 1227 B+65
3 303 -2292 573 -1189 682 -888 858 -490 1139 911 1690.5 684 2319.5 1231 C#+47
2 337.5 -2322 583.5 -1374 763.5 -909 1026.5 -396 1290.5 1127 1919 687 2614.5 1222 D#+63
1 364 -2310 620.5 -1386 821 -902 1113 -375 1382 1246 2048.5 681 2781 1211 E+81
Hum Prime Tierce Quint Nominal Superquint Octave Nominal Note
Bell Freq. Cents Freq. Cents Freq. Cents Freq. Cents Freq. Cents Freq. Cents Freq. Cents
8 177.5 -2307 347 -1147 407 -871 530.5 -412 673 0 1010 703 1390.5 1256 E+36
7 201 -2299 393.5 -1136 458 -873 606.5 -387 758.5 207 1130.5 691 1559.5 1248 F#+43
6 233.5 -2240 431.5 -1177 521.5 -849 629.5 -523 851.5 407 1261 680 1728 1225 G#+43
5 254 -2214 450 -1224 551.5 -872 672 -530 912.5 527 1357 687 1861 1234 A+63
4 268.5 -2320 511.5 -1204 618.5 -875 802.5 -425 1025.5 729 1524 686 2083.5 1227 B+65
3 303 -2292 573 -1189 682 -888 858 -490 1139 911 1690.5 684 2319.5 1231 C#+47
2 337.5 -2322 583.5 -1374 763.5 -909 1026.5 -396 1290.5 1127 1919 687 2614.5 1222 D#+63
1 364 -2310 620.5 -1386 821 -902 1113 -375 1382 1246 2048.5 681 2781 1211 E+81
Matthews, J - 1825 - Bristol Guide The City Of Bristol, Hotwells & Clifton.
...is a very ancient, neat gothic structure, with a modern tower, built in 1716, in which are eight musical bells, On the tower is a handsome octangular lanthorn or dome of stone, supported by eight arches and coupled Corinthian columns at each angle, and crowned with a gilded ball and cross.
...is a very ancient, neat gothic structure, with a modern tower, built in 1716, in which are eight musical bells, On the tower is a handsome octangular lanthorn or dome of stone, supported by eight arches and coupled Corinthian columns at each angle, and crowned with a gilded ball and cross.