First posted: 26 September 2023

St Boniface Bunbury - a ring that nearly was ...

St Boniface Bunbury

The Anglican Cathedral of St. Boniface in Bunbury has a solid and dominating tower, originally planned to contain a peal of bells. In 2009 eight eighteenth-century bells from the redundant 28cwt twelve at St. Leonard’s Shoreditch, London, arrived as a donation from Laith Reynolds. Plans were drawn up for them to be hung in a radial frame. But the main problem was that access to the tower is by an internal vertical ladder and an external staircase. Because of this, extensive rebuilding would be needed to provide a ringing chamber. Quotes for the required work were upwards of $500,000.

After sitting in the Cathedral narthex for fourteen years the Shoreditch bells were returned to their donor in April this year.

But the tower of St.Boniface Cathedral may not remain silent for ever, as a further promise has been made by Laith of a donation of a much lighter chime of bells which would be installed as a stationary ring, electrically rung. The cost of this to the Cathedral authorities would be the more achievable sum of $50,000, and although this is not currently available, the Dean, The Very Reverend Darryl Cotton, hopes that one day funds will materialise and the project can proceed. Until then a second peal of bells in Bunbury remains "a ring that nearly was" ….

Abbreviated version of an article in Look To! September 2023
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