There have been five bells here since 1929 when the Osborn/Dobson four of 1804 were rehung in a six bell frame together with a new treble bell by J.Taylor, the augmented five being pleasant sounding and easy to ring. Despite this ringing has been inconsistent with only 10 peals ,the first in 1934, the second 34 years later in 1972 and the last , one of 11 Doubles Methods on May 29, 2010. Service ringing has also been intermittent, bursts of activity followed by long periods of silence. The bells of Gedney Hill had indeed been silent for many years when in June 1983 Michael Slater was asked by Revd. Oliver Folkhard to train a band, a task which he readily accepted, the trainees comprising five adults including John Grevatt and one Betty Richardson who acted as Tower Secretary and was the main force behind recruitment of new ringers and also organised social activities and outings. During this time there were several fund raising events in an effort to fill that sixth empty pit, Betty being actively engaged in promoting this cause. Unfortunately all came to an end when she sadly died of cancer in October 1989 at the early age of 44 years.

Michael continues with the story and tells us that following her death ringing at Gedney Hill gradually ceased and the bells remained practically silent for almost 30 years until the recent revival lead by Luke Tobin. During a visit to their Wednesday practice, my attention was arrested by a plaque on the ringing room wall, a tribute to Betty which was inscribed;

            IN MEMORY
        BETTY RICHARDSON
    BORN 1945        DIED 1989

 and in recognition of her contribution
to bell ringers in this church and district

In her obituary, written by Michael and published in the Ringing World there is no doubt that Betty was very much appreciated and as Michael tells us "was warm hearted, generous and everyone's friend" meanwhile giving enormous help in the fund raising towards a sixth bell. Today a suitable bell, newly cast would cost about £6500 with fittings, wheel etc an additional £4000, plus of course the cost of hanging . Well readers, those long gone promoters of the 1929 scheme must have thought of and hoped for a bell to complete the six. Luke you have a task ahead of you but surely it would be joyful were their hopes to be at last realised, the new treble inscribed as written above, a permanent memorial to Betty Richardson a woman I am sure much loved and greatly missed. John Bennett

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This story was added on 07 April 2020