St Andrew’s has six bells, a number of experienced ringers, and an active programme to train new ringers to all levels. Rehearsals take place on Thursday evenings from 7.30 to 9.00 pm. Successful learning requires a reasonable level of regularity and commitment.
Contact: chestertonringing@
The bells are rung every Sunday for the 10 am service and at Festivals (e,g, on Christmas Eve and Ascension Day). In addition, outside these times we have visits from other tower groups and our own band occasionally ring a quarter peal (about 45 minutes) or a full peal (about 3 hours) to celebrate a special occasion such as the 60th anniversary of the coronation. The ringers always seek permission from the vicar for these special occasions. We are aware that while most people love to hear the bells, some of our neighbours find them intrusive and so we ensure that these extra occasions do not happen over-frequently – in particular, ringing a full peal is very rare. If you would like to be alerted when such special occasions are coming up then please email admin@standrews-chesterton.org and we will ensure you are put on the distribution list.
The church clock, including its chiming mechanism, was installed in 1921 – a gift to the local community by Mrs Wragg Gurney, then the owner of Chesterton Hall. Since then the quarter hours have been marked by what is usually called the ‘Westminster Chimes’, though these in fact originated very close to Chesterton, at Great St Mary’s in the city centre.