Music to their ears

The Hooe resident has been hand bell ringing for more than 40 years and since moving to the village 18 months ago has started a group of ringers.

This is the second time Alan has formed a group as he left behind St Lawrence Chobham Hand Bell Ringers when he and his wife semi-retired to the area. That group is still going strong having taken Alan and its members to America, Canada, Barbados, France and Holland, as well as appearing on TV's The Generation Game, Barrymore and with Cliff Richard. They also played the bells in the film The Madness of King George.

Senlac Bells has so far attracted ten members whose ages range from 20 to 70 but ideally needs another five or six people.

Alan says any newcomer would have no problems catching up. "You just need to be able to count to four and distinguish between red or green."

The reason for this is they colour in the notes to make it easier to follow.

He has built up a music library of some two thousand pieces and says it is easier to play a "busy" piece than one with a single line melody.

"If you ring music with five or six bell chords, you can lose three and still keep going."

Alan came into hand bells through church bell ringing and his fascination is not confined to just playing the instruments. He collects, renovates and tunes them and even the light illuminating his front door is mounted on a bracket depicting a bell ringer.

The group play on a five octave set of bells which were made for a special friend by the chief tuner after he had been at the bell foundry for 50 years.

Previously, Alan had gathered together a mismatch of bells. "It's like learning any instrument you start off with a basic instrument but to progress you need something better." He found out that there was a three year waiting list for a new five octave set but did not know where the money would come from to buy them when he was offered the set of bells secondhand.

The name Senlac Bells was chosen for the group because of its local historical connections and because two hand bell ringers are shown under the funeral cortege of Edward the Confessor on the Bayeux Tapestry.

Alan is in fact Dr Collings by profession and his interest with all things related to bells has given him some light relief from his work as a consultant toxicologist (the science that treats poisons, theirs effects and antidotes).

"One is knowledge based and the other is more skill based," he said.

Surprisingly, the smaller bells require more skill to play than the larger bells that can weigh as much as 14lbs. New players always begin with two bells which equate to four notes.

Senlac Bells made their first public performance at the carol service at St Oswald's Church and although the nerves were in evident, Alan praised their abilities.

"They have done brilliantly. A lot of teams have been going for years and not a patch on these people in a few weeks."

But some of the credit is down to Alan who has been able to pass on his expertise and 25 years practice of running a very big team.

Senlac Bells practice on Monday evenings between 8-9.45pm and anyone interested in joining the team should contact Alan on 893313.