Church Handbells Appeal

The Parish Handbells of St. Nicholas and St. Mary's Winnersh, most of which are very old, need total refurbishment so that they can be played in concerts and continue to raise funds for local charities, writes Ellen Langton.

The two octaves of handbells were cast at the Whitechapel Bell Foundry, and we need to raise £2,500 to enable all the necessary work to be carried out at the Foundry.

We are holding a jumble sale at St. Mary's Church Hall, Winnersh on Saturday 12 October as part of our fund-raising efforts. All offers of jumble and help will be gratefully received - sorting starts at 10am and the doors will open at 2pm.

The Hurst Handbell team was well known about 50 years ago when it used to play carols at some of the big houses in and around Hurst at Christmas. The bells fell silent for a while, and about 20 years ago a new team started playing. We struggled to learn how to play the bells by numbers, but now we have an enthusiastic team of 14 bell ringers playing from music.

During the last few years we have given small concerts to raise money for Wokingham Cancer Care, Helen House Hospice and along with many other Berkshire handbell teams, raised money for MS. We have raised more than £1,000 so far, and need to raise the rest of the money so that the bells can be recast and repaired. Contact Ellen Langton on 0118 934 xxxx for more information.