Wigan church's bells brought out of retirement

Because a devoted group of parishioners have restored a tradition that many feared had died out altogether at the Church of St James with St Thomas, Poolstock.

More than two decades had gone by since the church’s bells had last been rung regularly, and perhaps some had been deterred by the state the peal and its tower had got into when previously considering a revival.

But a former St James’s chorister and one of the present wardens took the initiative and now it looks like the sounding of the bells is back here to stay.

Alex Fishburn, 25, sang in the church choir as a child and doesn’t remember the bells then. These days he is the verger at Livepool’s Anglican Cathedral but has moved back to live in Wigan with a renewed zeal for bellringing, having learnt his craft while at St Botolph Without Aldgate down in London.

Meanwhile, warden Carole Simm got together a team of volunteers to clean up the tower free of charge in an operation which would otherwise have cost the church an eye-watering £4,000.

A team of ringers has been built up which regularly practises at 7pm on Monday evenings (“no later than 8.30pm - we are very conscious of the neighbours,” says Alex and the plan is to ring the bells for Sunday morning services between 10am and 10.30am and also be available for special occasions, including weddings.

Alex said: “It seemed such a shame that there were eight bells sitting in the tower but no-one was using them.

“The tower was full of dead pigeons and pigeon poo. It was a real mess and would have cost a lot to clean up but Carole and her team did a magnificent job.

“And it is fabulous to hear the bells ringing out again.”

Alex is the “tower captain” in charge of his team of up to eight ringers and there are literally thousands of different combinations in which the bells can be rung.

He added: “It is as much as if not more of a mental exercise than a musical one, although you don’t have to be particularly mathematical either as we work through our methods.

“I love traditions and bellringing is one of them. I also enjoy the social side it of it and have made a lot of new friends through it.

“Some local people may have found the bells a bit of a shock at first after all this time but we hope they like an appreciate them. We certainly don’t want to be ringing them at anti-social hours, that’s for sure.”

Carole said: “We spent two or three weeks doing it all up and it looks so much better now.

“That said No7 bell is not in a good state - its bearings have gone and so we leave the ringing of that one to the most experienced.

“But it needs repairing urgently. That’s going to cost around £1,400. But in the meantime it’s wonderful to hear the bells again.”

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