An “elite” international team of bell ringers has chimed in with a three-hour performance on Geelong’s only set of traditional English-style church bells.
St Paul’s Church tower captain David Heyes said the English team rang the eight bells around 5000 times to create a heavenly peal.
“In bell-ringing terms we would say the team goes quite well. Their striking was good, not too many crashes and bangs of bells sounding all at the same time,” Mr Heyes said.
“The team rang the bells for three hours non-stop – no toilet breaks, no food breaks, no drink breaks and for the entire period with quite a lot of concentration.
“And they enjoyed ringing our bells because they were restored in the early ‘80s to a fairly high standard, so they ring quite easily.”
Mr Heyes said the concept of a bell-ringing team was generally “unfamiliar” in Geelong, so he warned neighbouring businesses on the Princes Highway to expect the extended melodious racket.
“It doesn’t happen often but from time to time some English bell-ringers will come out on a tour.”
