Bell Ringing at St.Mary’s

Church Bells

St Mary’s has an active and enthusiastic band of bell ringers, with 6 fine bells: dove.cccbr.org.uk/tower/11107.

Practices - Mondays 4.00 - 5.30pm and Fridays 7.30 – 9.00pm

Bell Ringing - Sundays 10.15 - 11.00am to welcome everyone to the Sunday service (see also info below).

We are members of the Gloucester and Bristol Diocesan Association of Church Bell Ringers, which has a good website packed with information - including for the Stroud Branch: www.bellsgandb.org.uk.

For more information about visiting, please contact our Tower Captain, Phil Taylor email.

For information about learning to ring, please contact the Stroud Branch learning coordinator, Sue Pouncey Telephone or email

AN UPDATE REGARDING CHURCH BELLS - 9th April 2026

While most in our community welcome the sound of the church bells we realise the need to limit ringing times, so no one living nearby starts to think they are getting too much of a good thing!

We’ve taken a couple of steps recently to help with this:

1. Limiting ringing times

   Our regular bell-tower team practice twice per week for 90 minutes – on Mondays (4.00 - 5.30pm) and Fridays (7.30 – 9.00pm) and ring the bells from 10.15 to 11.00am on a Sunday morning to welcome everyone to the service.

   Bells are also generally requested at weddings about 4 times per year.

   Over and above this, visiting bell-ringing teams contact us intermittently to request the use of our tower, but we have now limited this to a total of four visits per year for no more than 60-90 minutes.

2. Steps to insulate/reduce the impact of the sound in the church’s immediate vicinity

   Progress on this project has been delayed recently due to the spire repairs, however, work is now underway to install special sound insulation. The insulation is designed to dampen the sound in a dome immediately around the church without changing anything for those listening from further away.

   All being well, we hope the project will be completed within 3 months.

Please contact the tower captain Phil Taylor on philt@woodchesterstmarys.org or church wardens Liz Cole (lizcole@woodchesterstmarys.org) and Nick Ardagh-Walter (nickaw@woodchesterstmarys.org) with any questions.