Little Bob Royal at Rickmansworth, Herts

Saturday, 13th July 2019 - The first quarter peal on Euan's day took us to the pretty, country-like town of Rickmansworth, for a spot of Little Bob Royal. The tower dates from around 1630; the remainder of the church dates from two rebuildings in 1825/6, and again in 1889/90 (the earlier 'new church' having been described as "ghastly"!). Rickmansworth is situated in Zone 7 on the Metropolitan Line, and Tube aficionados will spot the deliberate colour scheme used for the captions here :-) Three extracts from the first half of the quarter are included here, with thanks to Euan himself for the use of some of his footage within. This is followed by some grand Grandsire Triples on the back 8 (sadly with a blurred picture), concluding with a belfry tour, sanky grab and view from the church roof :-) The bells form a colourful ring of ten, in a grumbly, old-fashioned sort of way. In 1765, the original five bells were recast into a ring of 8 by Lester and Pack of Whitechapel. The treble and tenor were recast by Warners of Cripplegate in 1913, at which point the bells were put in a ten bell frame; the augmentation came in 1935, courtesy of two Taylor trebles. The present sixth was recast in 1964, and the eighth has been welded twice! A rather mixed bag of bells, the bells handle reasonably, albeit they aren't easy to strike accurately. Tonally, they work OK as a ring (the tenor is not a bad bell at all), although they would be improved if the pan of a ninth was replaced! Tenor 20-0-20 in D http://www.stmarysrickmansworth.org.u...