St. Mary’s Wymeswold

Methodist Chapel

Groups and Organisations and when they meet:-

Bible Fellowship/Study
An ecumenical group which meets every Monday evening at 7.45pm in the Methodist Church.
Contact: Sue Fossey 01509 881469

MiniFish
Meets fortnightly at the Methodist Church on Thursdays 1.30pm-3pm during term, and is an informal worship time with  Bible stories and play for pre-school children and their carers.
Contact: Sue Fossey 01509 881469

Junior Church
Meets monthly as indicated on the service pattern information.
Junior Church provides Christian teaching suitable to their ages for children aged from three upwards, whatever church (if any) their parents attend.
The meetings take place in the Upper Room of the Methodist Church on the corner of Brook Street and The Stockwell from 11am to Noon one Sunday every month.   The exact week can vary, so is shown on the service notices outside the Churches.  The Junior Church Members attend the beginning of the Methodist service together before they upstairs for their time of learning together.
Children are often given take-home material so families know what is being discussed and can share in their children’s learning.
Any questions, please contact Sandi Cowell 01509 881365  or visit www.wymeswold.com/churches for the service pattern showing which week the group will meet during the month.

For more information about any of these groups speak to Senior Steward Margaret Folwell 01509 880770 or visit https://loughboroughmethodistcircuit.org/churches/

St. Mary’s, Wymeswold, has a ring of six bells which dates back to 1795, when they were cast by Thomas Osborn of Downham Market, Norfolk. These replaced an earlier ring of four bells which were damaged when the church spire was struck by lightning and subsequently demolished.

The current bells were tuned and rehung by John Taylor & Co. of Loughborough in 1937.

The present band of bellringers was formed in the late 1980s and has been slowly growing in numbers and repertoire ever since.

According to an agreement dated 4th August 1742 (now in Leicestershire Record Office) between Thomas Hedderley of Nottingham, bellfounder, and the churchwardens, Hedderley undertook to recast the third bell and ‘uphold the same sound and tunable’ for a year and a day for the cost of 20 shillings per hundredweight. The ring was increased to six bells in 1795.

According to The Church Bells of Leicestershire of 1876 the daily bell was rung at 5 a.m. during the summer months and at 6 a.m. in the winter, also at 6 p.m.. Tradition says that the parish clerk formerly received the proceeds of a close of land for performing this duty. He now receives, according to this book, £1/10/- per annum in lieu.

The current band meet every Tuesday from 7.30pm-9:00 pm for practice and ring for Sunday Service from 10.30am to 11.15am. We are a friendly band who welcome new ringers and provide tuition. Typical standard is plain minor and doubles methods (this will mean something if you are already a ringer).

Please feel free to drop in on a practice night and see how we perform the 350 year old historic art of church bell ringing. Have a go! You may even find yourself wanting to learn more..

Contact: Richard Thomas (Tower Captain) on 01509 881750 for further details.

“In country churches, old and pale,
I hear the changes smoothly rung
and watch the coloured sallies fly
from rugged hands to rafters high
as round and round the bells are swung”

John Betjeman

Wymeswold United Sunday School provides Christian teaching suitable to their ages for children aged from three upwards, whatever church (if any) their parents attend.

The meetings take place in the Upper Room of the Methodist Church on the corner of Brook Street and the Stockwell from 10:45am to 11:30am most term-time Sundays. The exception to this is the third Sunday of each month when an All-Age Worship service is held at 11am alternately at the parish church (St. Mary’s) and the Methodist church.

The meeting time means that Methodist families can attend the beginning of the Methodist service together before the children move to Sunday School and Church of England families can attend the end of the Anglican service together as children can be escorted from Sunday School up to St. Mary’s.

All children are given take-home material so families know what is being discussed and can share in their children’s learning.

Any questions, please contact Sandi Cowell 01509 881365 or Marilyn Rowley 01509 880843 or by email to mail@wymeswold.fsbusiness.co.uk.