History and activities

The Guild was founded in 1988 at a meeting held in Grahamstown cathedral. The first Chairperson was Jane Gant (subsequently Webster) of Durban. Dr David (Dai) Herbert was elected Chairman in 1994 and Professor Colin A. Lewis in 1996. Mr Simon Milliken became Chairman in September 2004 and Dr Edward Elderkin in 2006.

The Guild holds an annual meeting, which rotates between the four ringing centres in South Africa, publishes a newsletter (The South African Ringing Circle), awards a Certificate of Proficiency as a Change Ringer to members who prove themselves competent to at least ring the treble through 120 changes of Doubles or cover for a quarter-peal, supports bell augmentation and restoration schemes, maintains a record of peals rung for the Guild and is affiliated to the Central Council of Church Bell Ringers.

Towers

Members of the Guild come from all eight towers with rings of six or more bells in South Africa. These towers, listed in order of installation of their bells, are:

• Grahamstown Cathedral (eight bells, tenor 25-2-15 in Eb, by John Warner and Sons, installed in 1879, augmented to ten with two Whitechapel Bellfoundry trebles in 1997);
• St Mary's Church, Woodstock, Cape Town (eight bells, tenor 11 cwt in G, by James Barwell Ltd of Birmingham, installed 1902);
• St Paul's Church, Durban (eight bells, tenor 14-0-0 in F#, by John Taylor and Co., installed in 1921)
• St Mary's Church, Greyville, Durban (ten bells, tenor 18-0-25 in E, by John Taylor and Co., also installed in 1921),
• St George's Cathedral, Cape Town (ten bells, tenor 25-0-0 in Eb, by The Whitechapel Bellfoundry, installed in 1979),
• St George's Church, Parktown, Johannesburg (eight bells, tenor 4-2-12 in D, by the Whitechapel Bellfoundry, installed in 1980);
• the monastery of the Order of the Holy Cross, Hillandale, Grahamstown (six bells, 4-6 by Eayre and Lewis and cast at the foundry of Xmeco Engineers, Port Elizabeth, tenor 3-2-0 in F#, 1-3 by John Taylor and Co.; the ring was completed in 2003).
• All Saints Anglican Church, Fourways Gardens, Johannesburg (six bells, 1-3 by Taylor Eayre and Smith Ltd., 4-5 by Eayre and Lewis, 6 by Eayre and Smith. 4-6 cast at the foundry of Xmeco Engineers in Port Elizabeth. Tenor 2-2-20. The ring was completed in 2008).

Projects

• To install a frame for five additional bells at Queenstown cathedral, to provide a light ring of six using the existing 250 kg bell as Tenor of the new ring.
• A light ring of six bells, to be hung for change ringing, has been ordered by St Peter's School, Johannesburg, from Matthew Higby of Somerset, UK.

Guild Officers

Chairman: Dr Edward Elderkin, Cape Town..

Secretary and Treasurer: Dick Holmes, Cape Town.

Newsletter editor: Dr Christina Geddes-Elderkin, Cape Town.

Bell augmentation/restoration officer: Prof Colin Lewis, Grahamstown.

Central Council representative: Derek Carr.

Visitors

The Guild welcomes visiting ringers and encourages bands from overseas to visit South Africa and ring at the Guild towers.

In 2004 the Guild welcomed a band led by Jackie Roberts from England, and in 2007 a band led by Paul Harden. Previous bands since the Guild was founded have come from The Oxford Diocesan Guild (1993), The St James' Guild (1995), The Scottish Association (1996), The Oxford Society (1998), Bob Cater's band (1998), David Manger's tour (1990) and Jackie Roberts' band (2004).

The Guild is prepared to help visiting bands with ringing and other arrangements. Individual visitors are most welcome.

Contacts

Prof Colin Lewis
e-mail: C.Lewis@ru.ac.za

Note: The contacts for Hillandale and Grahamstown are the same.

Cape Town:

Mr Dick Holmes
e-mail: dholmes@ingerop.co.za
Telephone (SA) +27-21-696-2107

Mr Ed Elderkin
e-mail: geddeselderkin@gmail.com
Telephone (SA) +27-21-689-5235

Durban:

Mr Simon Milliken
e-mail: simon_milliken@yahoo.co.uk
Telephone (SA) +27-83-336-7081

Ms Catherine Alborough
Telephone (SA) +27-82-564-1674

Mrs Nola Mitchell
e-mail: nolam@mweb.co.za
Telephone (SA) +27-31-209-2706

Parktown (Johannesburg):

Dr Richard Roberts
e-mail: rroberts@iafrica.com
Telephone (SA) +27-11-867-4473

Mrs Elspeth Kempe
e-mail: elspeth@kempe.net
Telephone (SA) +27-11-787-6842

Fourways Gardens (Johannesburg):

Mr Chris Fitter
e-mail: cfitter@hatch.co.za
Telephone (SA) +27-82-377-4505

Central Council representative:

Derek Carr

Published history of ringing in South Africa

Lewis, C. A. (1999) "New bells, new founder", The Ringing World, 25.6.1999, 598-9. (PDF format, 2MB file)

Lewis, C. A. (2001) "Bells and bell ringers in South Africa, 1835-2000", The Ringing World, 6.3.2001, 341-3, 367; (PDF format, 4.5MB file) 27.4.2001, 425-8. (PDF format, 4MB file)

Lewis, C. A. (2003) "Peals in Africa", The Ringing World, 25.4.2003, 385-8. (PDF format, 4.5MB file)

Lewis, C. A. (2006) "The Johannesburg Project", The Ringing World, 3.3.2006, 197-9. (PDF format, 3MB file)

Lewis, C. A. (2006) "Bells in the Province of Southern Africa", The Ringing World, 17.11.2006, 1099-1100.

Peals

The first peal credited to The South African Guild was rung on 3/7/1982, before the Guild was formed (!), at St George's Cathedral, Cape Town: Plain Bob Minor, conducted by Paul Spencer. This was the first peal on the Cathedral bells. Twenty peals had been rung for the Guild following its foundation until the end of 2006, as follows:

1.	Durban, St Paul's	Plain Bob Major	30/6/1989	S. W. Barton.
2.	Durban, St Mary's Greyville	Stedman Caters	1/7/1989	J. Clatworthy *
3.	Durban, St Paul's	Plain Bob Minor	19/8/1989	Andrew C. Bolton
4.	Durban, St Paul's	Plain Bob Triples	24/11/1990	Alan Regin
5.	Durban, St Mary's Greyville	Plain Bob Royal	13/7/1991	S. W. Barton #
6.	Durban, St Mary's Greyville	Yorkshire S. Royal	19/4/1993	Timothy Pett
7.	Durban, St Paul's	Rutland S. Major	19/4/1993	Bernard F. L. Groves
8.	Cape Town, Cathedral	Cambridge S. Royal	22/4/1993	Bernard F. L. Groves
9.	Cape Town, St Mary's Woodstock	Yorkshire S. Major	23/4/1993	William Butler
10.	Grahamstown	Cambridge S. Major	17/12/1995	Alan Regin
11.	Grahamstown	Plain Bob Royal	12/9/1998	David Hird
12.	Cape Town, Cathedral	3m/2v Doubles	14/7/2001	Colin A. Lewis
13.	Grahamstown	3m/2v Doubles	29/12/2001	Colin A. Lewis
14	Cape Town, Cathedral	4m/5v Doubles	19/7/2003	Colin A. Lewis
15.	Hillandale	Plain Bob Minor	3/11/2003	M. J. Turner
16.	Cape Town, St Mary's Woodstock	Plain Bob Minor	27/3/2004	S. W. Barton
17.	Cape Town, St Mary's Woodstock	Grandsire Triples	14/11/2004	Frank R. Morton +
18.	Cape Town, St George's Cathedral	Doubles (5m)	26/2/2005	B. H. Taylor
19.	Cape Town, St Mary's, Woodstock	PB Minor	27/2/2005	B. H. Taylor
20.	Grahamstown	PB Caters	28/7/2007	Paul N. Harden

* First on ten in South Africa.

# First of Royal in South Africa

+ To mark the centenary of the first peal in Africa, rung at Woodstock on 15/12/1904. Three of the conductors were residents of South Africa: S. W. Barton, Andrew C. Bolton, Colin A. Lewis.

Quarter peals

Quarters are rung regularly in all ringing centres.

Webmaster

E-mail your webmaster with corrections and additions at c.lewis@ru.ac.za

This page was last edited on 25.2.2011.