10 October 2026
Welland Valley ringers joined other members of the Kettering Branch of the Peterborough Diocesan Build of Church Bellringers for a trip out to Rugby on 10 October.
Organised by Cottingham’s Hannah Conlon, the first stop was a 6 bell ring at All Saints Church in the village of Honington where, rather strangely, the bell tower was completely cut off from the church itself with a bricked up archway and a separate entrance door. Then it was on to St Peter and St Paul’s Church in Butler’s Marston for another 6 bell ring.
After lunch, the team rang the 8 bells at St John the Baptist in Brinklow and the 6 bells at All Saints Church in Stretton on Dunsmore, before heading into Rugby town centre to ring at the beautiful St Andrew’s Church (pictured above), which is unique in having two working bell towers. The 14th Century West Tower has a ring of 5 bells cast in 1771 by Joseph Smith, and the Victorian East Tower, added to the church in 1895 by local benefactors the Benn family as Rugby expanded with the coming of the railways, boasts a ring of 8 bells with the tenor weighing a mighty 24 cwt!
