Poynton People

Peter Dyson

‘The further you go, the more you see.

A church without a steeple and a bell hung in a tree’

Why does this old Poynton rhyme speak of the church bell hanging in a tree? Today we’re used to hearing the very English sound of bells pealing across Poynton, calling us to weddings, church services, or an event of national importance like a royal wedding. They toll on Remembrance Sunday and sometimes for a funeral, when a leather pad is tied to one side of the clapper and the ring is half-muffled. At Poynton there is a group of bell ringers led by the tower captain, David Friend. They ring at St George’s on Sundays and Fridays is practice night. Peter Dyson has been 53 years a bell ringer and a member of the Poynton team for 49 years.

‘Years ago, at All Saints Church, Stand, Whitefield, I was in the choir singing at a wedding. It was very windy and one of the louvres in the tower was banging. The curate raced up the stairs to fix it and we rushed after him. Seeing eight ropes hanging silent in the bell chamber he let us toll a bell. We were hooked! So, he began a team of new bell ringers.’ Peter has rung bells ever since, both locally and nationally, entered competitions successfully with the Poynton St George’s team, written a book and studied

the history of bells and bell foundries going back to the 1200s.

Peter explains that part of the history of Poynton can be told through its bells, as can the three ways of making a bell sound. Today St Martin’s bell at Higher Poynton hangs outside and is swung by a rope. It was cast in 1748 and hung in St Mary’s Chapel, which served Poynton Towers (the ‘big house’) and the Poynton villagers. It was demolished because it wasn’t big enough and St George’s Chapel was built in brick and timber on the site of the present-day church. There was no tower and so the bell was hung in an oak tree. Eventually this bell was taken to the school in what is now Poynton Centre. It hung in the belfry there and called children to lessons. Later still the bell was taken to St Martin’s.

In 1857, St George’s as it stands today was built, the tower and spire completed in 1887 and a ring of six bells installed. They hang from a wheel, pulled by bell ringers in the ringing chamber, up a level through the clock chamber, and through a full circle in the bell chamber above.

The third bell of Poynton came from Towers Yard where it rang to call the labourers to work – no watches in those days – and chimed as it was hit by a hammer. When the estate finally closed with an auction, the bell was bought by Jack Shrigley, stored in his garage, then in St George’s tower and is now at the Anson Engine Museum.

‘Some of the best ringing I’ve ever done is peal ringing,’ says Peter. ‘A peal can last for three hours, the team bond together and we can produce some really top-class ringing. Bell ringing’s an all-age activity and combines both physical skill and mental energy.’

So, if the bell-ringers hold an Open Morning it’s worth going along.

www.poyntonbells.net www.ringingworld.co.uk