The church is situated in Bidston Village, just off junction 1 of the M53. Five of the bells date from 1868, the treble having been added in 1882. They were a ground-floor ring until 1988, when the church was substantially redesigned and refurbished to provide a Church Centre for community activities. Visitors between then and 1994 will have fond memories of ringing the bells from the church office. The bells stopped ringing regularly in 1991, but in 1995 further work was carried out so that they could be rung from a cosy room further up the tower.
St Oswald’s Bell ringers update 2009
Many changes have taken place since Peter Hughes wrote his 'report' for this page of the Wirral Branch Website. Peter became tower captain in 1994 up until 2006. Peter has since become married to Jenny and moved to York. Congratulations Peter!!
Roger Newton took over as Tower captain in April 2006 and became an inspiration and great teacher to the new band of ringers at Bidston. Roger encouraged all members of the church and the community to come along and learn to ring, interestingly a lot of young children wanted to learn. Roger never turned them away and had shown great patience and dedication to get the youngsters to the standard they are at today. They are: Rhian Bailey 11, Dean Iveson 11, Grant Henderson 11, Shannon Lewis 11, Alex Iveson 9, Scott Henderson 9 and Olivia Gartland 9.
Roger used the Sherborn badge award system with the children to encourage them to progress further, and also to enable them to see the progress they are making. The children have made great progress and are a credit to Rogers teaching. Rhian Bailey has shown great skill with her ringing and is now able to lead the adults in rounds and call changes. She is definitely a future tower captain in the making.
Along with the children Roger encouraged their parents and members of the community to come along. These members are: Arthur Winn, who has rung for many years and has been a great help to Roger in the teaching of new ringers, Geoff Cowell, John & Heather Henderson, sue and myself (Claire Gartland). All the adults have been committed to both themselves, the children and to Roger, this shows when entering the tower as there is always a lovely atmosphere and a sense of belonging.
As I am sure many of you will know, Roger is very ill and over the last few months had had to take a step back from ringing, unwillingly I must add, this had not deterred the new band of ringers who, under the guidance of Arthur, have been determined to carry on and make Roger proud and proud he is. Roger was delighted to arrive at church at 10:00 am on Sunday morning to hear the bells strike up with his very own band of ringers.
Sue and Geoff Sparling from St Nicholas Wallasey and Peter Charmly also of St Nicholas have been coming along to practice sessions and supporting myself and other in Rogers’s absence and I would like to pass on our many thanks and great appreciation to them. The band is ringing at a steady pace and we can only go from strength to strength.
All the ringers would like to thank Roger for his support, kindness, dedication and lots and lots of patience, because without him personally I would not be writing this update never mind ringing. So thank you Roger for everything. At the last guild A.G.M Roger nominated myself, Geoff and Rhian to become members of the guild, these nominations were accepted and I hope to be able to nominate more of our ringers this year.
I as I write this Roger had passed over the tower captaincy to me which I accept with great sadness, as we will miss him dearly in the tower, and pleasure as I am looking forward to taking over where he left off. I would like to acknowledge Arthur and Geoff and thank them for all the support they have given me and long may we continue as a good team. We have a great team of ringers and long may it continue.
I originally wrote this update for Roger himself to read before I posted it on the website, which he did. It is with extreme sadness that Roger passed away on Monday 30th March 2009 at 6:00pm, peacefully in his sleep. We would like to send our condolences to both Norma and his children. Our thoughts and prayers are with them all.
Claire Gartland
Tower Captain
2009