Back in 2014 David Turner, the organist at All Saints, visited our group to give us some musical advice. Interestingly his wife, Betty, used to ring tower bells at All Saints and set up a handbell lunch club in the 1980s when she taught at Gilstead Middle School so he had a vested interest in our progress..
The bells she used had previously been the property of the Bingley branch of Toc H and had been donated to the school when the branch closed in the early 1980s. However with the reform of the school system back to two tiers at the turn of the century the activity ceased and no one knew what happened to these handbells.
Over the years I have asked in Connect 4 and at our Heritage Day event if anyone knew what had happened to the bells but drew a blank.
However out of the blue we were contacted last week by Lloyd and Jackie Heseltine who now own the set of bells. They brought them down to our practice and, although they are clearly in need of some maintenance, it was very pleasing to see the full set in the flesh.
A mystery solved!
Solna Burnham
07884 233382
