Alcester, St Nicholas
The Alcester Parish Church of St Nicholas is in the middle of the town. There is road side parking in the High Street and there is also a car park that is only a short walk away but must be driven to from the North off School Road.
The ringing room is reached by climbing the 39 steps of a wooden spiral staircase that is not in great condition. The entrance to the staircase is outside the South face of the tower. The ringing room is a good size with windows on three sides and half-panelled walls.
2008-09-20 [ expand ]
I visited for the first time on Saturday 20th September 2008 as part of the WDCRA Southern Branch 2008 tour.
I only managed to ring for a short while on bell #4 so could not form much of an impression. However, while sitting listening to others ringing I became aware of how much the tower was moving.
2011-05-21 [ expand ]
I visited for the second time on Saturday 21st May 2011 to try for a Quarter Peal of Grandsire Triples.
We had the tower from 14:30 but at 14:50 the eighth member of our band hadn't arrived so we decided to ring Plain Bob Minor with the Tenor covering using all the bells except bell #2. We had barely started whem Michael arrived. We started our originally planned Quarter Peal of Grandsire Triples with me on bell #4 but ran into trouble after about 20 minutes and had to stop. We now did not have sufficient time remaining to try again so we rang a long touch of Plain Bob Triples, this time I rang the Tenor.
This was the first time I have failed to get a Quarter Peal, very disappointing!
The Bells
The tower has a ring of 8 bells with a tenor weighing 12-2-13 in F♯. Dove's Guide includes details of the bells at St Nicholas. All the bells are named but I could not determine whether those names are inscribed in the bells, the names are shown in the following table.
The 8 bells can also be chimed.
Bell | Note | Diameter | Weight | Inscription |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 |
Dove's Guide to the bells at St Nicholas |
St George | ||
2 | PEACE | |||
3 | UNITY | |||
4 | CONCORD | |||
5 | FAITH | |||
6 | HOPE | |||
7 | CHARITY | |||
Tenor | St Nicholas |
The Coventry Diocesan Guild of Church Bellringers also have information on the Alcester Parish Church of St Nicholas.