We are sorry to have to announce the death of Geoff Foster, current Secretary of the St Martin-in-the-Fields Band of Bell Ringers.

Geoff learned to ring as a youngster in St Alban’s and continued as a student at Cambridge, where he met his wife, but the pressures of work and family life meant he gave up. He came back to ringing after a 40-year gap when he retired six years ago. In those six years Geoff's ringing improved far beyond both where he was at 40 years ago and where he expected to be when he restarted his ringing.

Geoff was a regular and loyal member of the St Martin in the Fields Band of Bell Ringers where he served as Steeplekeeper 2017-19 and was the current tower Secretary. Geoff also supported ringing across London, including at St Mary-le-Bow, St John’s Waterloo plus a number of other towers both north and south of the river, particularly Garlickhythe where he was a regular member of the practice night band.

Geoff was always willing to get his hands dirty with tower maintenance and was very useful when ropes needed splicing, a stay needed mending or just a second pair of hands were needed in the tower.

When he returned to ringing, he set himself the goal, that he expected at the time to be a bit far fetched, of a peal of Stedman Cinques.
He was justifiably delighted and proud to have achieved his goal in September 2018.
https://bb.ringingworld.co.uk/view.php?id=1247810

Any first on 12 is a big achievement, but to do it with such aplomb and when close to 70 is no mean feat at all and showed how hard Geoff worked at ringing.

The effort Geoff put into ringing didn't stop once he had reached his Stedman goal and went onto learning methods which, when he returned to ringing in 2014, he originally described as methods he could and would only aspire to ringing. As the COVID lockdown happened, Geoff was becoming a lot more confident with Cambridge S Max, and had rung a few leads of Bristol.

The more Geoff learnt about ringing the more he wanted to help others. As a regular and much-loved member of the Garlickhythe band, he was willing support anyone in their progression and pass on his wisdom on ringing and on life to everyone.

We have lost a dear and loyal friend, and he will be missed by many. Our thoughts are with Hilary and their children, Amy, Robin and Jack.

We are sorry to have to announce the death of John Barnes, who passed away peacefully at home on Saturday following his most recent spell in hospital just a few days beforehand.

72 years ago John learnt to ring on the second at Holy Cross, Caston in Norfolk - a ring of six bells with a tenor of 9 cwt. John first rang for a service on the Sunday after Christmas, 1947 and it is very likely that his tutor, Charles Banham, stood beside him.

John first rang at St Martin-in-the-Fields in early 1953 on a Sunday for service when he was stationed at RAF Ruislip. He was then was then posted to RAF Mildenhall, Suffolk, where he worked in the Meteorological Office.

In 1961 John moved to Orpington, having taken a teaching job in Orpington, and started ringing regularly with the Society of Royal Cumberland Youths in London and elsewhere from 1962 onwards, one of their regular practices being at St Martin's, the Society's Head Quarters, on the first Wednesday in the month.

John was involved in removing the old bells at St Martin's in about 1989 and, when the new bells were installed about 1990, began ringing at St Martin's regularly on Sunday mornings, being formally elected to the band in 1991.

Aside from ringing at St Martin's John has been involved in huge advances in ringing including ringing in the first peal of Bristol Surprise Maximus for the SCRY.

John rang 504 peals of which St Martin's is his third leading tower at 23 peal and his leading society was the Society of Royal Cumberland Youths, which he rang 268 peal for.

In John's spare time, aside from being in the tower, John serverd as the Parish contact on the Bell Restoration Committee of the central Council of Church bell Ringers. A Committee which had contact with over 60 projects during 2016.

In 2017 the St Martin's band marked John 70 years ringing during the morning ringing on Sunday 14th January which was followed by John giving a brief, 3 minute talk about his ringing career to the congregation at the end of the service. Following the service, the band rang a specially organised a quarter peal of 1270 Spliced Maximus followed by a lunch to celebrate this huge dedication to bellringing.

John's contribution to ringing in general and to St Martin's is unrivalled and he will be greatly missed.

The St Martin’s Band of Bellringers gathered in the crypt at St Martin in the Fields at noon on the 4th February to attend our Annual General Meeting, it was a productive meeting covering several topics, including officers’ reports for the year, election of new members and the ringing programme for 2018.

A copy of the minutes and a ringing programme for 2018 is available from the Secretary, Chris Rimmer.

The UK's largest festival of lights returned to London in January - bigger and better than before.

For four evenings in January Lumiere London turned the capital into a dazzling nocturnal art exhibition.

Installations from some of the world's top light artists in five key areas were displayed across the city, each illuminated for five hours every evening for four nights.

St Martin's Church hosted 'Echelle' by Ron Haselden - a neon pink illuminated ladder that was attached to the spire.

70 years ago John learnt to ring on the second at Holy Cross, Caston in Norfolk - a ring of six bells with a tenor of 9 cwt. John first rang for a service on the Sunday after Christmas, 1947 and it is very likely that his tutor, Charles Banham, stood beside him.

John first rang at St Martin-in-the-Fields in early 1953 on a Sunday for service when he was stationed at RAF Ruislip. He was then was then posted to RAF Mildenhall, Suffolk, where he worked in the Meteorological Office.

In 1961 John moved to Orpington, having taken a teaching job in Orpington, and started ringing regularly with the Society of Royal Cumberland Youths in London and elsewhere from 1962 onwards, one of their regular practices being at St Martin's, the Society's Head Quarters, on the first Wednesday in the month.

John was involved in removing the old bells at St Martin's in about 1989 and, when the new bells were installed about 1990, began ringing at St Martin's regularly on Sunday mornings, being formally elected to the band in 1991.

Aside from ringing at St Martin's John has been involved in huge advances in ringing including ringing in the first peal of Bristol Surprise Maximus for the SCRY.

To date John has rung 504 peals of which St Martin's is his third leading tower at 23 peal!

In John's spare time, aside from being in the tower, John servers as the Parish contact on the Bell Restoration Committee of the central Council of Church bell Ringers. A Committee which had contact with over 60 projects during 2016.

The St Martin's band noted this occasion at the morning ringing on Sunday 14th January and John gave a brief, 3 minute talk about his ringing career to the congregation at the end of the service. Following the service, the band rang a specially organised a quarter peal of 1270 Spliced Maximus followed by a lunch to celebrate this huge dedication to bellringing.

Quarter peal details: https://bb.ringingworld.co.uk/view.php?id=1207132

The Christmas period is always a busy time at St Martin's and the bell ringers are no different. This year we are ringing for a total of twelve services over December, each requiring between 8 to twelve ringers per service!

Aside from the normal Sunday service ringing, we are ringing the bells for the following services:

- Advent Carols Service - December 3rd 16:15-17:00
- Victims of Homicide - December 9th 12:00 - 12:45
- Nine Lessons & Carols - December 17th 16:15 - 17:00
- Community Carols - December 19th 17:30 - 18:30
- Christmas Eve - 18:00 - 19:00
- Christmas Day - 9:30 - 10:30

This morning, on Remembrance Sunday, the bells were rung half-muffled in remembrance and honour to those who have sacrificed themselves to secure and protect our freedom.

The ringing included a 25 minutes touch of Stedman Triples.

Following the unforeseen error with both our primary and secondary servers we host the St Martin's band website on, we have taken this opportunity to launch the new website.

As this is earlier than planned it is not 100% finished and whilst the majority of the work is completed, we are still trying to improve it. Due to this we would appreciate any feedback you have!

To submit feedback, please either email Ben M directly or use the contact form on this website.

Please do let us have any feedback!