WHITECHAPEL AND A PASSION FOR CHURCHES

At 7.30pm on Wednesday 1st March, the BBC 2 programme 'A Passion For Churches' was broadcast on British TV. This particular installment looked at St Mary's Church at East Raynham and the efforts of Charles Townshend - the current Viscount Raynham - along with local parishioners, to get the three unringable bells in the church converted to a fully ringable peal of eight.

The Foundry and its staff featured extensively in the programme, camera crews having filmed bells being cast and tuned here and also conducted interviews. Mark Backhouse, the Works Manager, was shown with the Foundry day books from the 19th century that listed the casting of the original three bells for St Mary's. At the church itself, Whitechapel bell hangers Neil Thomas and Peter Scott were filmed installing the new frame and hoisting the bells, and Neil was interviewed about the process.

The programme is due to be repeated at some point in the near future. We don't yet know the date for this, alas, but in the meantime the BBC's own webpage for this can be seen at:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/programmes/churches/raynham.shtml

News Archive:

September 2005: Late-April 2005: April 2005: Late-October 2004: October 2004: July 2003: June 2003: September 2002: Late-August 2002: August 2002: April 2002: February 2002: September 2001: May 2001: February 2001: December 1999:

Report on 2005 Ringing Roadshow Three Decades of Charlie Smith Ringing at the Royal Northern 100 Years of the Hughes Family at WBF Lord Mayor Opens WBF Shop Extension Report on Ringing Roadshow, 2003 Ringing Roadshow, 2003 New York: The 9-11 Bell Dedication The 1881 Libel Case Casting the 9-11 Bell Another Liberty Bell A Big Wheel Open Day 2001 (with photos) Historic Finds at the Foundry Open Day 2000 (with photos) Masham and the Millennium