Abbey Church Tower - Waltham Abbey, Essex, UK
N 51° 41.253 W 000° 00.233
30U E 707092 N 5730537
The tower of the Abbey Church is at the western end of the building and contains twelve bells.
Waymark Code: WMJBKD
Location: Eastern England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 10/25/2013
Views: 2
The
Epping Forest Council website tells us, in an article dated 23rd march 2011:
Waltham Abbey will be a first stop for bellringers
from all over the UK converging on London on Saturday 26 March to celebrate
the centenary of their weekly journal, ‘The Ringing World’.
‘The Ringing World’ was first issued on Friday 24 March 1911 and its
centenary is being marked by a big celebration in central London on
Saturday.
Bellringers from all over in the UK have a number of different routes to get
to the celebrations via churches at which they are able to ring.
For those coming from the north east (M11/A10), Waltham Abbey Church will be
their first port of call and they will have the opportunity to ring the
Abbey`s twelve bells between 9 and 10am on Saturday morning before
continuing their journeys into London.
Jane Walters, Tower Captain at Waltham Abbey, said: “It is a great privilege
that the Abbey will be one of the first churches where the bells will be
rung on this great day”.
As well as ringing at towers in and around London throughout the day the
celebrations include exhibitions, Evensong at Westminster Abbey and a
Centenary Reception at Central Hall, Westminster, and a handbell concert at
St Margaret`s Westminster.
In the entrance to the church there is one bell pull.
It is thought that these bells are those mentioned in Alfred, Lord Tennyson's
poem "Ring Out, Wild Bells".
Wikipedia tells
us:
"Ring Out, Wild Bells" is a poem by Alfred, Lord
Tennyson. Published in 1850, the year he was appointed Poet Laureate, it
forms part of In Memoriam, Tennyson's elegy to Arthur Henry Hallam, his
sister's fiancé who died at the age of twenty-two.
According to a story widely held in Waltham Abbey, and repeated on many
websites, the 'wild bells' in question were the bells of the Abbey Church.
According to the local story, Tennyson was staying at High Beach in the
vicinity and heard the bells being rung. In some versions of the story it
was a particularly stormy night and the bells were being swung by the wind
rather than deliberately.