2nd May 2025

I love the sound of church bells. Radio 4’s ‘Bells on Sunday’ at 5.45am is on ‘series record’; later I can greet the day of Resurrection with a peal from some small village church or great cathedral.

Twice recently, while away from home, I heard church bells begin ringing on a Thursday evening, the favoured practice time for bell-ringers nationwide. These joyful sounds announce weddings, national celebrations, or simply each Sunday call the faithful to worship. In sombre contrast, a single bell tolls for one who’s died, as friends and relatives gather for ‘last good-byes’.

For centuries, church bells carried news or warnings to nearby towns and villages. Bells were silenced in wartime, only to break out either when the enemy approached, or to signify victory and an end to hostilities, such as VE Day.

When I was living in the old Baptist College in Woodland Road, ‘Great Tom’ in the university’s Wills Tower nearby boomed out the hours. We can hear it too in Rachel’s garden if the wind is in the right direction, accompanied of course by Tyndale’s clock’s chimes from much nearer.

Geoff Fisher, later a Tyndale life deacon, but then a young member, tells of the bombing of the church in December 1940: of how, with the help of others, the lecture hall was saved   from going up in flames as the sanctuary had done. He ends his account of that night :

“Just one cheerful fact, however, emerged out of this desolation… throughout the night Tyndale’s clock valiantly chimed out the hours, telling the world that the spirit of Tyndale and freedom was not dead”.

Dave Bell