Dylan Thomas rings in Windsor Castle after several years as bellringer

St George’s Chapel where Dylan Thomas has rung the bells.

When ex-Kāpiti College student Dylan Thomas started bellringing seven years ago, he never knew he would end up ringing a bell in the UK at Windsor Castle.

It was pure luck that Thomas, 20, met the ringing master of the castle’s Curfew Tower one day while bellringing at Isle of Dogs, in London.

But it was even luckier when he asked the ringing master “how does one get a ring at Windsor?”, and the ringing master responded by putting him on the waiting list.

Thomas said initially he was invited to ring for a wedding, but he had to turn it down, and eventually he was able to ring for the celebration of the installation of the new dean of St George’s Chapel.

He said when he got to Windsor Castle there was a lot of security he had to go through due to it being such a historically important place, including surrendering his passport and other personal details.

The tower has eight bells, so he and seven selected members of a local band each took a bell each.

Inside Windsor Castle where the eight bells were rung.

Due to how old the bells were, Thomas said they were pretty difficult to control.

“The fittings haven’t been renovated for many years making them difficult to control and strike in the right place in the sequence.”

He said the eight of them rang what is called a quarter peal, which consists of at least 1260 changes on seven bells, with the largest bell ringing in the same place in the sequence throughout. The sequence took about 50 minutes.

“I was very excited and honoured to have had the chance to ring at such a culturally important and historic place.

“It is one of the places where most people don’t normally ring, so it’s quite special.”

Thomas said he got into bellringing when he was 13, after watching a video on YouTube of bells being rung first in continental Europe, and after later watching a change ringing video he was “hooked”.

“It was the sound of bells that first pulled me in. I love the sound – they are unique and beautiful instruments.”

Dylan Thomas ringing in St Mary’s Church, Walthamstow.

In 2017, he visited the bellringers of Wellington Cathedral and got in touch with the tower captain, but it wasn’t until 2019 when he started taking lessons.

He said the training differs depending on the person, but he picked it up quite quickly and was able to confidently handle a bell after a few weeks.

“From then on you progress to learning how to change the speed of the bell in order to be able to ring methods, which requires a lot of control and skill as the bell is moving around in the sequence constantly.”

Now, Thomas said he rings in many places in central London, including St Magnus-the-Martyr, Holy Sepulchre, Southwark Cathedral, St Martin’s Gospel Oak, and occasionally St Paul’s Cathedral.

His next bellringing goal is to ring at Westminster Abbey - “possibly the trickiest place to score a ring”.