A concise history of the Guildford Diocesan Guild

Proposals to divide the old ecclesiastical Diocese of Winchester had been discussed as early as 1903 but it was not until 1924 that the decision was ratified by the Church Assembly and both Houses of Parliament.
Soon after, suggestions that the bellringers' Winchester Diocesan Guild be similarly partitioned were discussed at Guild and District meetings, particularly the Guildford and Yorktown Districts. Firm moves towards the formation of the new Diocese of Guildford Guild were finally made with a proposal put before the Guildford District of the Winchester Guild at a meeting on November 12th, 1926.

The area to be included in the new diocese was nominally covered by the Guildford and Yorktown Districts. However, a large number of towers, particularly in the east of the new Diocese, were not affiliated to the Winchester Guild and the two Districts between them only represented 28 of the 57 towers in the new diocesan area, many of the rest having strong ties with the Surrey Association. The Guildford District was the stronger of the two; indeed it was numerically the largest in the whole Winchester Guild so that a concerted action by its members carried considerable weight in Guild affairs.

In December 1926 five members from each District met at Woking, and this was followed by a Special General Meeting of the Yorktown District in January 1927, when it was agreed to support the Guildford District Plan for the new Guild.

Organising Committee

An Organising Committee was then set up, comprising the District representatives together with others invited from towers not affiliated to the Winchester Guild. The Guild Central Committee acknowledged the wishes of the Guildford and Yorktown Districts to form a separate Guild, and at an Annual General Meeting of the Winchester Guild, held in Guildford on July 2nd, 1927, terms for the separation were agreed.

The new Diocese came into being on May 1st, 1927. A preliminary General Meeting of the new Guild was held in Guildford on November 19th, 1927, attended by nearly 200 prospective members from 42 towers in the Diocese. This meeting endorsed the proposal to form the Guild, approved the draft rules prepared by the Organising Committee, selected the Guild's first general officers and agreed the division of the Guild into four Districts for administrative purposes.
The Inaugural Meeting of the Guild was held in Guildford on December 31st 1927, and here the motion to found the Guild was unanimously accepted.

Original Object

One of the original stated objects of the Guild was "to assist, by instruction, those desirous of acquiring the art of change ringing". To this end the Districts each set up practice schemes to help the weaker towers. These appear to have been quite successful in the Leatherhead District and moderately so in Guildford, but elsewhere they received little support. It is apparent from the peal records of the early years that the centres of enthusiasm for ringing were Guildford and Leatherhead, with Alf Pulling and Bert Harman being the principal conductors, whilst there was virtually no peal ringing activity in the Chertsey District.

The Early Years

The four Districts of the new Guild were centred on Chertsey, Farnham, Guildford and Leatherhead. The Guildford District was by far the strongest in all respects, being centred on the Cathedral Church with its "crack" band, led by Alf Pulling, and including 22 of the Guild's towers and an initial membership of 145. Numerically the Farnham District under the Mastership of Richard Hasted was the next biggest, its 11 towers producing 104 members whilst the Chertsey and Leatherhead Districts with 12 towers apiece mustered less than 70 members each.

Early Peal Ringing and Pre-war Times

When the Guild was formed, Alf Pulling was recovering from a serious accident which kept him out of peal ringing for nearly two years, so the field was left wide open for others to score first peals for the Guild. In the event, the local band at Capel forestalled all others by ringing a peal of Oxford TB Minor the day after the Inaugural Meeting. This was followed by the firsts on eight and ten on the next two Saturdays at Ashtead and Leatherhead respectively.

With Alf Pulling out of action, it was over a year before the Guild's first peal of Stedman was rung, but after his return to fitness, peals of Stedman Triples at Holy Trinity, Guildford, predominated in the Guild's peal reports. However it must not be supposed that the Trinity band could only ring Stedman, as peals in various Surprise methods including London, Bristol and Double Dublin were also scored. Nevertheless, one may note that of the first 500 peals for the Guild, Alf Pulling conducted 250 and 138 of these were of Stedman (over 100 were rung at Holy Trinity, Guildford alone)!

In the years before the Second World War both the Farnham and Guildford Districts gradually increased their memberships whilst Leatherhead's numbers kept fairly steady. The Chertsey District struggled to survive; initial enthusiasm for the new Guild waned rapidly and in just two year numbers halved, never rising above 50 until after the war.

The War and its Aftermath

The War was, naturally, a very quiet time for the Guild. Two of the most respected members, Jack Goldsmith and Walter Harrison both died in 1942. A few handbell peals were rung during the period of the ban and monthly silent practices were held at Leatherhead, where the clappers had been removed from the front eight.

At the end of the War things quickly revived, membership increased and peals were more prolific than in earlier years. In 1950 a reorganisation of the Districts took place with a view to equalising the number of towers in each. Three towers were transferred from the Guildford District to each of the other Districts, giving each about 15 towers. This move certainly improved the Leatherhead District's membership but it was a number of years before it made any difference to Chertsey, whilst the Guildford District in fact suffered for the next decade.

The early 50s saw Alf Pulling's retirement from the peal ringing scene. This left a gap which nobody has subsequently managed to fill to the same extent. In all but one of the Districts there were frequent changes in officers, a pattern which, with one or two exceptions persists to the present day. At the time, the installation of two new rings of bells, at Stoke-next-Guildford and Stoke d'Abernon, and the rehanging of St Mary's, Guildford (they had been out of action for half a century) and Capel (they had been unringable since shortly after the first peal for the Guild) brought new life. The Guild started to look a lot younger than it had done in its earlier years.

The New Cathedral

The Guild's biggest challenge, the provision of a ring of bells for the new Cathedral, faced the membership from the early '30s. A Cathedral Bells Fund was set up in 1933, before construction of the new Cathedral had even started. It received little support for many years but a Sacring bell, cast as a memorial to John S Goldsmith, was hung in the incomplete building in 1947 and a further bell, the ninth of the present ring, provided as a memorial to Alfred H Pulling in 1961.

Fund raising started in earnest in 1962 with considerable encouragement from the new Bishop, Dr G Reindorp. Each District attempted to raise enough money for one bell. Another had been promised, and donors were sought for the remaining four. In 1964 following a very generous gift the outstanding amount was found and the ring of 10 was dedicated on May 17th 1965, the fourth anniversary of the consecration of the Cathedral.

In 1969 when the Guild President, the Bishop of Guildford, said he would like to see the ring augmented to 12, the project was restarted. The goal was eventually achieved in 1976, the construction of the additional frame and the hanging of the two new bells being undertaken by Guild members to help defray the cost.

Guild Dinners and The Ringing World

One of the features of Guild life over the years has been the annual dinner event. This was first held in 1931 and proved to be a popular function with after-dinner entertainment provided by the members. The War caused the cessation of the event but it was revived in 1950. Since then the interest has been maintained to the present day, in spite of ever-increasing costs. In the early post-war years the main entertainment was provided by the Farnham District Glee Club, Messrs E J Bragg, C W Denyer, G S Joyce and W H Viggers, whilst in more recent years a dance has been organised.

As every ringer knows, the home of The Ringing World was in Guildford and the Guild is proud of its long association with the journal. Not only was the Founder, Proprietor and First Editor of The Ringing World the Guild's first General Secretary, but except for four years after John Goldsmith's death in 1942, the editorship was in the hands of Tom White, Charles Denyer and David Thorne, all members of the Guild.

Modern Times

In the 1970s there was a significant change in the relative strengths of the four Districts. Starting in the late 50s, the Chertsey District has risen from its many years in the doldrums to being the largest, liveliest, most youthful District with the interest being spread right across the District, not just maintained in one or two towers. The Guildford District too is healthier than it was at the beginning.

In 1977, at the time of its Golden Jubilee, the Guild was stronger than ever, the membership having risen from the 300 or so Founder Members of 1927 to a current total of well over 600. In the same time the number of towers has increased from 57 to 63 with 471 bells as against 408. Only one tower in the Diocese did not have ringing: this was Ranmore, where the tower was declared unsafe.

Since then the Guild's Bell Restoration Fund was started and has been very successful. It was administered for a long time by Tim Wellen who was in charge of the restoration at Ranmore, now a 19cwt ring of eight. This was followed by the augmentation of Compton to a ring of 6, and in 2001 Alfold was also restored. With three new bells joining the existing three, this is the newest ring of bells in the Diocese.

Many thanks to Sally Schupke for providing this text.

Guildford Diocesan Guild of Church Bell Ringers

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