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Parish News

The Parish of Kellington is situated in the Osgoldcross Division of North Yorkshire.   It is a large country parish, including the villages of Kellington, Whitley and Eggborough, and the hamlets of Kellingley and Roall.   It has the River Aire to the north, the Aire & Calder Navigation to the south, with the parishes of Knottingley and Hensall to the west and east respectively.

Before the Norman Conquest Kellington, then including Beal as well as Roall and Eggborough, belonged to a Saxon named Baret.   According to the Domesday Survey Baret's lands were granted by William the Conqueror to Ilbert de Lacy.  Whitley remained in the King's hands with a local lord, Aelric, holding it as King's tenant.

Kellington parish has a considerable connection with The Order of Knights Templar which was founded in 1119.   In England they held land in most counties and although their headquarters were in London their largest possessions were in Yorkshire.   Temple Hirst, probably, after Faxfleet, the oldest Yorkshire property, is the only preceptory in the county of which remains survive.

The Church Bells

Have you heard the church bells recently?  Our church, St Edmund’s Kellington, has three chime bells in its tower.
All three are of a considerable age; one dating from 1520 and two from the 1600’s.  The tenor bell, the largest of the three is 994lbs or 451kgs in weight.

We are blessed to have these wonderful bells in good working order in our church, however they had not been rung on a regular basis for some time.
A few church members decided it was time for the bells to be heard again and for the past few months have endeavoured to ring them before the Sunday Eucharist Service each week.

Being chime bells they are rung differently from the more commonly found full circle bells, not difficult but definitely improved through practice.
So, as well as ringing on Sundays, the bell ringers also meet and practice on Wednesday evenings.

Although the ringing of three chime bells will never produce the highly coordinated musical result of a large group of change ringing bells, our aim is to improve and be able to ring out a pleasant sound.

We are also aiming to contribute to ‘Ring for the King’ for the King’s coronation on May 6^th, when bell ringers are being called to keep this fabulous tradition alive and ring every church bell in the country on this day.

If you would like to join the group and try your hand at bell ringing please speak to a church member; you would be most welcome.