BELL RINGING
The initial peal of six new bells was installed at St. Giles during 2012.
Two further bells were added during April 2021. The pre-existing fourth bell was removed and retuned. Read More
If anyone is interested in finding out more about bell ringing and/or would like to have a go they should contact Nick Wilkins on 01689 830844 nickwilkins36@gmail.com
Note: Minor means a method on six bells, Major means a method rung on eight bells and Triples means seven bells were interchanging with the tenor, bell number eight, ringing last throughout.
Recent Peals and notable Quarter Peals rung at St. Giles
Peal rung Sunday 4 January 2026 in 2h 22mins
(3–1–18 in D) 5040 Minor (5m) Two extents each of Cambridge S and Plain Bob and one extent each of Kent TB, Beverley S and St Clements CB.| 1 Steve Newlands 2 Colette Schrier 3 Fraser A Storie 4 Oscar Brooks-Wilkins 5 Svetlana Sokolova 6 Nicholas Wilkins (C) First Minor inside - 2. Most methods - 4. To welcome the New Year and first peal in 2026 for all the band. |
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Quarter Peals rung for Christmas, Tuesday 23rd December 2025
A couple of the quarter peals rung in December including young local ringers::| In 43m
(3–1–18 in D) 1325 Stedman Triples Composed by Daniel W Brady 1 Rupert Cheeseman 2 Nicholas Wilkins 3 Oscar Brooks-Wilkins 4 Jane L Kostelnyk 5 Fraser A Storie (C) 6 Janice Byrne 7 Nigel Pointer 8 Olivia Stanton |
In 41m (3–1–18 in D)
1440 Minor (2m) 720s of Kent TB and Beverley S Minor
1 Nicholas Wilkins (C) 2 J Richard Anthony 3 Oscar Brooks-Wilkins 4 Jane L Kostelnyk 5 Rupert Cheeseman 6 Fraser A Storie |
Peal Rung Tuesday, 21 October 2025 in 2h 28mins
(Tenor 3–1–18 in D) 5056 Cambridge Surprise Major Composed by C Middleton (Johnson's variation)
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1 Nicholas Wilkins (Conductor) 2 Svetlana Sokolova 3 Jane Kostelnyk 4 Alexander E Gray 5 Oscar Brooks-Wilkins 6 Fraser A Storie 7 Stephen R T Pocock 8 Stephen Coakey |
First Surprise Major - 5 First Surprise Major inside - 2
The school summer holidays allowed two of our young ringers, Olivia and Oscar, to achieve notable firsts as can be seen in these recently rung quarter peals. Congratulations to both!
Tuesday, 2 September 2025 in 45mins(3–1–18 in D) 1440 Cambridge Surprise Minor Composed by Paul J Flavell1 Nicholas Wilkins 2 Fraser A Storie 3 Anne M Anthony 4 Oscar Brooks-Wilkins 5 J Richard Anthony 6 Paul Flavell (Conductor) Probably first quarter with no plain leads for all |
Tuesday, 2 September 2025 in 42mins(3–1–18 in D) 1250 Yorkshire Surprise Major1 Catherine M Lewis 2 Oscar Brooks-Wilkins 3 Lesley Barclay 4 Nicholas Wilkins (Conductor) 5 Paul Flavell 6 Jacqueline M Barlow 7 Steve Coaker 8 Fraser A Storie First Yorkshire - 2. |
Tunday, 31 August 2025 in 39mins(3–1–18 in D) 1260 Plain Bob Minor1 Nicholas Wilkins 2 Catherine M Lewis 3 Debra Say 4 Peter A Norwood 5 Angela Wilkins 6 Oscar Brooks-Wilkins (Conductor) Birthday compliment today to Charlotte Wilkins, daughter in law of the treble ringer. |
Friday, 15 August 2025 in 39mins(3–1–18 in D) 1260 Plain Bob Double1 Olivia Stanton 2 Graham Long 3 Oscar Brooks-Wilkins 4 Nicholas Wilkins (Conductor) 5 Angela Wilkins 6 Judith Bagshaw Marking the 80th Anniversary of VJ Day. First away from tenor cover - 1. |
Peal rung Tuesday, 15 July 2025 in 2hrs 33 mins
(3–1–18 in D) 5056 Spliced Surprise Major (5methods) Contains 1344 Rutland; 1216 Cambridge; 1024 Superlative; 768 London; 704 Bristol; 111 com; all the work Composed by Glenn A A Taylor and Anthony J Cox1 Michael J Uphill 2 Nicholas Wilkins 3 Katie E Abraham 4 Jane L Kostelnyk 5 Isaac W Johnson 6 Peter J Joyce 7 Stephen A Coaker (Conductor) 8 Alan Regin Rung in memory of Reginald ‘Reg’ Kenneth Still 1921-2025 on the day of his funeral, father of Liz Brown one of the local ringers. |
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Peal Rung Sunday, 8 June 2025 in 2hrs 23 mins
(3–1–18 in D) 5044 Minor (4m)
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One extent each of Double
Oxford and St Clement’s, two extents of Plain Bob and three
extents of Cambridge S Minor 1 Peter A Norwood 2 George J Hart 3 Diane J Reynolds 4 Svetlana Sokolova 5 Oscar Brooks-Wilkins 6 Nicholas Wilkins (C) Most methods and first peal of Minor - 5. |
Quarter Peal and Peal rung to celebrate the 80th anniversary of VE Day
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Sunday, 4 May 2025 in 38m
(3–1–18 in D) 1260 Doubles (6m/p) 60 changes of Stedman and
240 changes each of Grandsire, Reverse Canterbury, St
Simon’s, St Martin’s and Plain Bob. 1 Lesley Barclay 2 Philippa Rooke 3 Svetlana Sokolova 4 Peter A Norwood 5 Nicholas Wilkins (C) 6 Elizabeth Brown Rung during the flower festival at St Giles marking the upcoming 80th Anniversary of VE Day. |
Tuesday, 6 May 2025
in 2hrs 45mins (3–1–18 in D) 5088 Yorkshire Surprise Major. 1 Svetlana Sokolova 2 Ian H Oram 3 Nicholas Wilkins 4 Katie E Abraham 5 Paul J Flavell (Conductor) 6 Shirley E McGill 7 C Mark G Ockleton 8 Stephen J F Mitchell Rung immediately prior to Rosemary Fordyce’s funeral and to mark the upcoming VE Day celebrations. With warmest wishes and an appropriate length to celebrate Ian's 88th birthday next Saturday! |
Peal rung on Tuesday, 18 March 2025 in 2hrs 39 mins
| (Tenor 3–1–18 in D) 5024 Bristol Surprise Major
Composed by Mark Davies no2 1 Anne M Anthony 2 Peter J Joyce 3 Peter W Emery 4 Thomas F Lawrance 5 Stephen Coaker (Conductor) 6 Jacqueline M Barlow 7 Nicholas Wilkins 8 Alan Regin |
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Celebrating the life of Paul Rason, member of the St. Giles churchyard
Tuesday Team, whose funeral followed by burial took
place at St
Giles on Thursday 20th March.
CONTACTS
Bell Ringers Meal 2025
We are fortunate at St Giles to have an enthusiastic, committed and growing team of bell ringers. I was delighted to be able to organise a social evening for our happy band, held at Ephesus restaurant in Orpington in Octover 2025.
At this meal I was able to express on behalf of all of us at St. Giles our gratitude and appreciation for all their bell ringing, rehearsals and practice that goes on behind the scenes.
Matthew
Quarter Peal rung Tuesday 1st June 2021 in memory of Revd. Graham Shaw
This was the first quarter peal in the tower since augmentation to an octave, the new tenor being rung to a QP for the first time. However only six of the bells could be used, due to COVID restrictions governing the number of people allowed in a confine space.
This was rung in memory of Revd. Graham Shaw, 21.2.1944 - 21.4.2021, former Rector (1987-1995) and in the presence of Graham’s partner, Jorge Toro
(3–1–18 in D) 1260
Plain Bob Minor
1 Caroline A Stockmann
2 Jacqueline M Barlow
3 Michael J T Stuttard
4 Terence V Barnard
5 E Lesley Barclay
6 Nicholas Wilkins (C)
By way of explanation, the 1260 refers to the number of changes (different combinations rung on the bells) and Plain Bob Minor was the method (tune to the layman!). 3-1-18 is the weight of the new tenor bell in hundredweights, quarters and pounds and the new tenor note is D.
Caroline Stockmann of Sevenoaks, who rang bell number 1, kindly and generously contributed to the augmentation and her name, as well as her mother’s, is on the new tenor bell along with the names of other former parishioners. Caroline’s husband, Michael, who rang bell number 3 helped with the physical . augmentation works as did Lesley Barclay.
In fact, a number of current Parishioners listened to the ringing of the quarter peal and it was also the first quarter peal rung on the bells since the start of the Coronavirus pandemic.
We looked forward to the relaxation of restrictions so that eight people could mix indoors and we could then ring the newly augmented full octave.
About St. Giles Ringers
The band of St. Giles ringers, all novices when we started in October 2011, practised under the guidance of experienced local ringers.The Tower Community at St. Giles includes the following:
Tower Captain: Nick Wilkins
Deputy Tower Captain::Lesley Barclay Secretary: Nick Wilkins
Treasurer: Liz Brown
Steeple Keeper: Lesley Barclay
Ringers: Lesley Barclay, Oscar Brooks-Wilkins, Liz Brown, Julie Cox, Sam Cox, Emily Cunnane, Carol Fryer, Joadie Lovrencic. Alex Moore, Jacqui Moore, Megan Smith, Olivia Stanton, Helen Stockman, Nick Wilkins
Sunday service ringing 9.20-10.00am, practice alternate Mondays by arrangement and QPs/peals Tuesdays 11.00am by arrangement.
If anyone is interested in finding out more about bell ringing and/or would like to have a go they should contact Nick Wilkins on 01689 830844 nickwilkins36@gmail.com
See also Installing the St. Giles Bells.