Film Number

9224

Title

RINGING THE CHANGES

Producer

Eric Dunnill & Sheila Sutcliffe

Date

1980-3

Gauge

16mm

Colour

colour

Sound

sound

Running Time

20 mins 2 secs

Description

In September 1980 the Blackburn Branch of the Lancashire Association of Bell Ringers put forward an idea to move the bells from the Parish Church of the Holy Trinity, which had been forced to close as it was structurally unsafe, to St. Silas Parish Church, Blackburn. This film, with a full commentary by Nigel Sharples, documents this process. In order to save on costs officers from the Blackburn Branch of Bell Ringers (Alan Schofield, Vic Wood and Frank Anderson) volunteered to remove the bells themselves from the tower of the Holy Trinity. The film documents the difficulties in the process and how they overcame them. We see them successfully remove the bells and get them on to a flat bed truck to be taken to John Taylors Bell Founders in Loughborough. At the Bell Founders we see the bells being restored and retuned by Bell Master Mike Milsom. In January 1983 the restored bells arrive at St. Silas Church where we see them lifted by crane into the grounds of the church where volunteers are waiting to receive them. A group of bell ringers are then seen ringing the bells while being filmed by a BBC TV crew. The film ends with a service for 'The Dedication of the Restored Ring of Eight Bells' on 12th February 1983, conducted by the Right Reverend Victor Whitsey.