The Founder
Port Sunlight may seem an odd name for a village but it is all to do with the founder, William Hesketh Lever, and not the weather! What nowadays might be described as the upstart son of a Bolton grocer, he saw the opportunities afforded by branding what was, until then, a commodity item. Formerly laundry soap was sold by cutting off pieces from a long bar as required by the customer but Lever presented his product ready cut and packed in an eye-catching wrapper bearing the name ‘Sunlight Soap’ and promoted it with a £1000 guarantee of purity – a small fortune in those days. Demand grew so rapidly that Lever quickly outgrew his production facilities in Warrington. A canny lad, he saw the potential of the boggy strip of land between Bebington and the south bank of the River Mersey at Bromborough Pool, with the promise of excellent communication and transport links to the whole country and the whole world via the busy seaport of Liverpool. In 1888 the first sod was cut, with occupancy of the first houses in the 26 acre garden village named Port Sunlight, and operations at the adjacent soap factory, commencing the following year.

The Church
Lever not only wanted to provide his workforce with comfortable surroundings both at home and at work, but he felt he must also provide guidance on how to live! He founded, amongst various welfare services, the ‘Women’s Helpful League’ – note the initials are those of the founder himself! He built a village hospital and school and, of course, the Sunday Schools which is where the local community worshipped until the magnificent Christ Church building, described locally as ‘The Wirral Cathedral’, was opened for worship in 1904. No expense was spared in the building of the church, the best materials and workmanship being employed throughout. This included the four-manual Henry Willis II organ and a peal of eight bells.

Worship
At the laying of the foundation stone, the staunch Congregationalist, Lever, explained that he “wanted a church that would be a visible expression of Christian Unity, a church in whose worship all Christian people, except those of extreme views, could share”. It is understood that “those with extreme views” meant Roman Catholic! Although Christ Church was non-denominational for many years (and at that time the only such church with bells), the clergy (with the exception of the very first incumbent) were always Congregational ministers. The window in the South Transept, a later memorial to the founder by his son, depicts his aims more clearly. It represents the main streams in which English church life has flowed since the Reformation, the four figures, in separate lights, being Thomas Cranmer (first Archbishop of the Reformed Church), John Robinson (Congregational minister), Richard Baxter (Presbyterian) and John Wesley (founder of the Methodist Church). With the ‘merging’ of the majority of Congregational churches with Presbyterian churches in 1972, Christ Church became a founder member of the new United Reformed Church (URC) denomination.

The Bells
The peal of eight, tenor 14-3-11, was cast by Mears and Stainbank and hung in time for the opening of the church. In 1951, to mark the centenary of Lever’s birth, the bells were removed for rehanging, the wooden headstocks and plain bearings being replaced by ‘H’ section iron headstocks (the canons were removed) and ball-bearings. The bells were quarter-turned, somewhat prematurely, and retuned. The offer to augment to ten was declined, it is believed, by the tower captain! The trumpet-blowing in-house company magazine at the time described the bells as now being amongst ‘the best in the land’, not a view shared by discerning bell-ringers of today nor supported by recent tonal analysis! They do, however, have a pleasant sound else why so many peals? Details are shown in the table at the end of this report, the inscriptions on the fifth, sixth and seventh being particularly apposite! The weights are after the retuning. Apart from general maintenance, the only significant changes since have been the replacement of all of the clappers in the mid-nineties, following frequent breakages and temporary repairs, and the installation of an 8-Bell Simulator in 2003.

Early Ringing
Almost from the outset there were problems. It is widely rumoured, although unsubstantiated and uncharacteristic of the man, that Lever had wanted Christ Church to be the ‘parish church’ of the village and had offered Christ Church to the Bishop of Chester. Such offer was, apparently, declined on the basis that the adjacent St Mark’s in New Ferry already served this purpose. Whatever, just a few days after the first service, Lever was admonished by the Bishop who asked that seven of the clappers be removed so as to comply with his claim that only parish churches were allowed to have more than one bell! In his reply, Lever said he would gladly acquiesce if the Bishop could show which law of the land applied. The Bishop was unable to do so! (We do now have some of the old clappers if the present Bishop would like them!)
There are other indicators of this conflict both in the peal records and in the 22nd December 1906 issue of The Bell News and Ringers' Record : “On Saturday, December 8 [1906], the Liverpool branch held their monthly meeting at Christ Church, Port Sunlight; this being the first meeting held at the above town (sic), which has just been included in the Lancashire Association…one of the most successful meetings ever held in connection with the Liverpool Branch. The following towers were represented : Liverpool, Tuebrook, Garston, Cressington, Woolton, Huyton, Aughton, Bootle, Rainford, and the local company”. The ‘local company’ (the Port Sunlight ringers), were now members of the Lancashire Association.
The peal records show that although the first two peals (25 June 1904 and 25 February 1905) were rung for the Chester Diocesan Guild, the next twelve peals, from February 1906 until December 1912, were all credited to the LACR! Thereafter, until the 1990s, apart from the odd handful, it was CDG peals all the way.
Lever was a keen supporter of ringing, and although adamant that the church should be self financing from the outset he was not prepared to see economy measures jeopardising the ringing. This is well illustrated in the following extracts from the Church Committee Meeting minutes:
9 April 1908 "In discussing the expenditure upon Bell Ringing, it was suggested that it might be possible to obtain a voluntary set of bell Ringers, and also that there was no necessity for the bells to be rung each Sunday but that the chimes might be substituted. It was eventually decided that the Chairman interview Mr Breeze - the leader of the Bell Ringers, hear his views and report to a subsequent meeting."
29 April 1908 "The Chairman intimated that he had seen, as desired at the last meeting, Mr Breeze and that the latter had explained that for the bells to be chimed three men would be required. The Chairman also stated that from a conversation he had had with Mr. Lever, he gathered it was Mr. Lever's wish that the bells should continue to be pealed as heretofore. The matter was then dropped."
In 1924, at a ceremony unveiling the carved wooden tablet commemorating the first peal of Surprise Major by a Wirral band (which included two Port Sunlight ringers) rung the previous year, Lever said: “Port Sunlight would be much the poorer if there were no bells there... They were an important feature of church life.” (This peal, incidentally, preceded the first such achievement by an all Liverpool band the following year at Pier Head).

Peals and Quarter Peals
Including the 10,080 Uxbridge S Major (see Umpires' Report), rung to mark the Centenary of the Church and Bells, there have been 118 peals on the bells. Apart from the early peals reported above, landmarks include the first Sunday Service band peal in 1984, its first of Surprise Major in 1988 and of Stedman Triples, with seven ‘firsts’, the same year. By some oversight, the 100th peal was rung in 1993 by a visiting band from the Yorkshire Association. (Who let the Tykes into a former LACR tower?)
Despite searches, there is very little information, and then only partial, of quarter peals rung before the first ever by a Sunday Service band in 1982. Whatever there were, they would likely be very few in number. But subsequently amends have been made with the 600th on the bells likely to be rung within the next twelve months. Most have been rung by the Sunday Service band, more often with local assistance, while very few have been rung by visiting bands. A report of the 500th QP on the bells appeared in RW No. 4674, p1164, November 24, 2000.

The Present Band
While we are unlikely, in the short term, to see a return to the heady, late-eighties ‘standard 8’ levels, the band still continues to flourish. Over the past 20 years, despite many comings and goings, we have the most consistent record (13 wins), in the Wirral Branch striking competition. And how many towers can manage QPs on 8 with just their Sunday Service band? More to the point, the bells have now been rung consistently for most morning and many afternoon/evening services for almost a quarter of a century. Of late, quarter peals are attempted (usually with local assistance) for afternoon services twice a month with the latest recruits from 2002 featuring with increasing prominence.

Centenary Ringing
In addition to the Uxbridge Peal, Quarter Peals were rung by the Sunday Service band firstly for Centenary Sunday afternoon service after which we were joined by ringers from Saltaire, the only other URC with bells, thus reciprocating the hospitality afforded by the Saltaire ringers last year (See RW No 4823, October 3, 2003). It really was a pleasure to see a largely novice band ring all eight bells, massive by their own experience at Saltaire, to well struck rounds. The QP on the exact date of the Centenary was the pinnacle – at least as far as the local band was concerned. Lever, surely, would have been pleased too.
Port Sunlight, Wirral. 6 Jun, 1260 Grandsire Doubles: Katy J Adkinson 1, Brenda D Humphreys 2, D J Hocker 3, P F Humphreys 4, G W Phillips (C) 5, Laura K Davies 6. For afternoon service on Centenary Sunday.
Port Sunlight, Wirral. 8 Jun, 1260 PB Triples: Katy J Adkinson 1, Brenda D Humphreys 2, D J Hocker 3, S D Speechley 4, G W Phillips 5, Michelle C Dixon 6, P F Humphreys (C) 7, Laura K Davies 8. To mark the Centenary of the opening of the church on 8th June 1904. £BD

Websites
If you’re still awake, you may wish to look at the church website and the tower webpage on www.wirralbranch.org.uk (if you are reading this then you are already there!) where further information, including numerous photographs, can be found.