Richard Offen has had a long association with bells and bellringers, and he attended our meeting to tell us all about the situation in Perth and WA generally. Richard grew up in England, and from an early age he had an interest in bellringing – so much so that his first job was as a trainee engineer at Whitechapel Bell Foundry! In the 6th century bells became linked to the Christian Church, but it was much later in the mid-1500s when Henry VIII became head of the Church of England that ‘change ringing’ was introduced. This is the art of ringing a set of tuned bells in a tightly controlled manner to produce precise variations in their striking sequences, known as ‘changes’. Richard explained the interesting methodology and told us that the concept spread to most of the British colonies including Australia. The bells at St George’s Cathedral in Perth were first introduced in the 1890s, and it now has 8 bells which are hung in a full circle for change ringing. There were quite a few bumps in the road at St George’s, but the current smaller sized bells were installed in 1975. Christ Church in Claremont was the next church in Perth to get bells, and these 6 came from an old London church that closed down. St Hilda’s School Chapel has 8 bells, and Richard does a lot of teaching there. The Perth Bell Tower was custom built in 1999 to house the historically significant bells from St Martin-in-the-Fields Church in London. These are rung 4 or 5 times a week, and prior to the Covid lockdown they attracted around 100,000 visitors per annum. The ANZAC Centenary Bell was installed there in 2018 and weighs 6,500 kg! It is rung daily at 12 noon (1 pm on ANZAC Day). Other bells of this change ringing type can be found in York, Rockingham, Mandurah and Bunbury.
