The Brookhampton Bellringers are a unique group of tintinnabulating musicians who perform throughout WA bringing the pleasure of beautiful handbell music to one and all. We are one of a very few teams in the WORLD who play in the "off the table" method of bellringing and we live in your neighbourhood in the lovely Southwest of WA. Listen to the story of the Brookhampton Bellringers on Western Tourist Radio's Local Talent Time

History

BROOKHAMPTON BELLRINGERS

CENTENARY CELEBRATIONS

1904 – 2004

The Brookhampton Bell Club celebrated their 100^th year of bell ringing on Saturday 10^th April 2004 at the historic Brookhampton Hall, 7km east of Donnybrook in Western Australia.

Miner Frank Young brought the 37 bells of 3-octaves to the Brookhampton district from Coolgardie in 1904, they were subsequently purchased by the “Thomson’s Brook Musical Club” for thirty pounds and have been rung almost continuously ever since. In 1933 the group became known as ‘The Brookhampton Bellringers’.

Many of the current bellringers are descendants of the original ringers of 1904.

The group is one of only few groups in the world who ring by the “off the table” method; picking up bells from the table, ringing them and putting them down to ring others. Each player can have up to eight bells to play in just one piece of music. Most of the music played is Traditional, the soft haunting resonance of the bells achieves an ageless appeal and visitors were spellbound by a variety of pieces from all over the world. At the celebration the group played the beautiful ‘Music Box Dancer’, a piece arranged by former member Jill Cain, who had never heard it played and debuted a medley from the Phantom of the Opera that received a standing ovation much to the delight of our current musical arranger Deirdre Winsor.

 The group have played at various functions all over the state from performances in Donnybrook starting in 1904 to Kalgoorlie and the wheat belt, church & school concerts, balls and dinner dances, district shows, fund raising events and a big highlight was the opening of the infamous Bell Tower in Perth.

 Past bellringers began returning to the district to join the celebrations around 10am, some staying all day to reminisce with their fellow bellringers.  The oldest surviving bellringer who attended was Mr Alf Cain who joined the group in 1932. Also attending was 100-year-old Polly Miller who assisted with music coaching in the 1950’s. The current senior and junior ringers played concerts throughout the day with a highlight of the day being past ringers Jill & Curly Cain, Vern Padman, Keith Miller, Alf Foan and Max Gibbons (representing his dad, Eric Gibbons) reforming a team from 1950 to play a wonderful rendition of an old favourite tune, The Bells of St Marys. There were a few false starts, plenty of nervous giggling and red faces but they got through in style and received a huge round of applause. Alf Foan is the only member from the 1950 group still ringing bells, a veteran of well over 50 years of bellringing experience.

 There were displays and photographs of the group’s 100-year history, bell ringing demonstrations and artefacts, including the original Minutes Book and Cash Book from 1904 written in beautiful copperplate handwriting and a Medal struck especially for, and presented to Frank Young by the club for bringing and teaching the art of bellringing to members over many years.

 People attending as part of the reunion were asked to assemble at the Brookhampton Hall with a picnic lunch and enjoy sharing memories of their playing days under the huge old oak tree. Many of Frank Young’s relatives including his daughter, Gladys Reed, numerous grandchildren and great grand children came many kilometres to delight in the music brought to the district by their ancestor.