St Mary's Church is getting ready for the Coronation weekend

As we begin to prepare the Church for the weekend celebrations with suitably red, white and blue decorations and flowers, St Mary's Congregation is also proud to be sending a representative to the Ceremony in Westminster Abbey. 

Our Victoria Pooley was honoured as a recipient of a British Empire Medal last year, for her community service over many years providing hospitality and putting on events for elderly citizens in Hitchin. Having now received her formal invitation to the Coronation, Vicki will be setting off very early to take her place in the Abbey on Saturday. We look forward to hearing all about it at first hand!  

VICKI WITH HER INVITATION. CREDIT: ST MARY'S CHURCH

In order to ring in King Charles in proper style on Saturday, this week St Mary's bellringing team has been preparing the new Tenor Bell, the largest in the Tower which has an impressive and historic set of twelve.  

The Tenor is the most important and has the deepest tone, this replaces one which has served the Church for 250 years, as described last week. After nearly a year in preparation, the new casting duly arrived on Friday and was rung for the first time after much work to install it three stories up in the belfry. 

The new bell in place at St Mary's Church. CREDIT: ST MARY'S CHURCH

The new bell, which does actually weigh a ton, has already been striking the hours with a much improved tone, the old one had grown thinner over the years and could not be retuned further. On Wednesday the bell's clapper was fitted and the set could be rung together for the first time. On Coronation Day the team will aim to ring 'rounds' using all dozen bells from 1.30 pm, maybe attempting a difficult 'quarter peel'. You can read more about St Mary's Bells here https://www.stmaryshitchin.co.uk/bells/ and see a video of the installation here https://fb.watch/kinWC3IsDa/ on our St Mary's Church Facebook page. 

St Mary's is holding a Civic Service of Celebration for the Coronation on Sunday at 10 am to which all are welcome to attend. The Church choir will be providing some wonderful music also used in the Coronation Service, some of which was heard at our Jubilee Service last summer and which you can still see on YouTube.  

Further updated details of our services, opening times and events are found on our public Facebook page @StMarysChurchHitchin   . 

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