AFTER 50 years of ringing the bells at his village church, William Haynes has no plans to give up the family tradition.

William Haynes, from Charlton-on-Otmoor, this year celebrated 50 years of sounding the six bells of the St Mary the Virgin. He took on the role at the North Oxfordshire church after the death of his father Henry Haynes, aged 54, in 1964.

He said: “I started going up to the tower with my father when I was around six years old in about 1944, just after the bells had been allowed to start ringing again following the war. That is how it all started off.

“It was when I went up to the Charlton church to organise my father’s funeral that they asked me to carry on from him. I was not elected in those days just expected to carry on so I did.”

Half a century on and the 76-year-old is still ringing out as the Church of England’s church’s tower captain and steeple keeper.

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And he has even taught the family the “knack” along with lessons to one of his two daughters, Teressa Pickford, and one of his three grandchildren, Curtis Geddes, 18.

Mr Haynes said: “My father and I used to go about teaching others and when he died I have been teaching beginners ever since.

“Some have gone to high places which makes me very proud that I have done my job.

“Two or three people have said that I must be quite pleased and say that my father would be very proud. I think he would have, I have done a bit of good in my lifetime.”

He has also rung bells in Islip, Bletchingdon, Banbury and Bicester.

Mr Haynes said: “One of my most memorable moments was when I was invited to ring the bells at Westminster Abbey. I had rehung the bells in Islip, the mother church to Westminster Abbey, and they invited me up to ring on one of the 30 days in the year they ring for the Queen.

"It was a very good day and the best bit of it was that when I was introduced some of the ringers there already knew me.”

The church's vicar, the Rev Andrew Rycraft, said: “William has always been very enthusiastic and is well known in the bell ringing community and beyond.”

  • The bells will be rung in celebration peal, which is made up of 5,040 strikes, for Mr Haynes’ 50 years on the hour today from 10am to 1pm.

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