Pershore Abbey, Holy Cross

The Abbey Church of the Holy Cross in Pershore is the most unusual church that I have rung at. Ringing in this tower is not for the faint-hearted, getting up to the ringing platform is not an easy journey and involves three spiral staircases (with a total of 110 steps) and a couple of cross walks [more information].

I visited for the first time on Saturday 13^th October 2007 with the WDCRA Southern Branch at their Annual General Meeting. The tower captain rang up bells #7 and #8 and then we rang up the front six in peal, with me on bell #2. This first experience of ringing was certainly interesting, I had my back to the railings so there was a feeling of "emptiness" behind me and a 72 foot drop to the floor. I then sat and watched some ringing on all 8 bells and could feel the platform moving. In this tower they call to the back. I rang again on bell #7 for some call changes. This was a little daunting as I had to ring on a box which is something I have never had to do before, but after a short while I settled down and the ringing went quite smoothly. I then sat out and listened to a full course of Grandsire Triples which sounded really good. Lots more ringers arrived and I decided to leave to make some room for them.

In 2009 I started to ring at the Abbey on a fairly regular basis and I am slowly getting used to the idiosyncrasies of the bells, as an example both bells #4 and #5 are odd struck. On Monday 11^th May I rang the Tenor for the first time and is the heaviest bell that I have at this time rung. I think that it will be good for me to get to grips with this bell since it will force me to ring the Tenor with a constant rhythm when covering.

The tower has a ring of 8 bells with a tenor weighing ~25-2-0 in D. Dove's Guide includes details of the bells at Pershore Abbey. No information on the bells history or inscriptions was to be found in the tower.

The Worcestershire & Districts Change Ringing Association have additional information on Pershore Abbey.