If you think of Colchester and more particularly of St Leonard-at-the-Hythe then inevitably you will think of Bernard Fairhead. For this is the church that Bernard was associated with for almost all of his life.

Although Bernard had not enjoyed good health over the last few months, his death on 12th March was totally unexpected and left us all saddened by the sudden loss of a good friend.

Bernard was born on the 1st April 1937, a date that always amused the younger ringers, but Bernard, who had probably heard it all before, always took this in good part. He learnt to ring at St Leonard’s and rang his first peal there in May 1954, conducted by Harry Millatt. It was also about this time that he joined the firm of Davey Paxman & Co. Ltd and worked in the boiler drawing office. This firm was situated just up the hill from St Leonard’s church and in the 1960s many of the ringers worked here. Following a change of ownership in 1968 the boiler division was closed a year or so later. Bernard was one of those made redundant and a move to Woods of Colchester followed. He remained at this firm until he had the opportunity to take early retirement in 2001.

Bernard, like a number of the other ringers, was also involved in the activities at the other end of the church. For Bernard this was singing in the choir. The ringing would stop five minutes before service time and most of the ringers would make the journey to the other end of the church; those who were left would lower the bells. This was a signal to the parishioners who had not yet arrived to hasten their step.

In the late 50s and early 60s a number of young ringers were taught at St Leonard’s – Bernard’s sister, Doreen, being one of them. At first Pat Oliver taught bell handling with Bernard providing the expertise for method learning, it was not long before Bernard had taken on both roles. We were all encouraged to visit other towers and Bernard would regularly cycle with two or three other ringers to the nearby towers of Ardleigh and Great Bromley for their practice night. Thursday night would see him at St Peter’s in Colchester. This only left Friday night, which of course was choir practice.

Bernard enjoyed ringing and even in those early days would take on the task of organising coach outings to other towers. The outing was nominally a St Leonard’s outing, but in reality more like a district outing with ringers from other towers joining us. At that time the coach was hired from Gilbert Osborne of Tollesbury and this lead to a long friendship between Bob Leavett, the local tower captain at Tollesbury, and the ringers at St Leonard’s. Soon, Bernard was arranging ringing holidays to various parts of the country. The holidays that he arranged to Ireland and Scotland were two of the most memorable, perhaps because of the long journeys involved just to get there, but mostly because of the bells and being with good friends. Over the years quite a few well known ringers have been on one of Bernard’s holidays; good ringing and good company were always to be had, even if you did have to go home for rest afterwards. The one thing that became apparent on these outings was the number of people that knew Bernard; it never seemed to matter where we went – he nearly always met someone he knew.

Living so close to Suffolk it is no great surprise to find Bernard that had many friends there. It was Bernard who introduced us all to Jim and Sylvia Pipe at Grundisburgh and through them many ringers from all over the country. Being with Bernard seemed to guarantee that we younger ringers were given a good welcome by everyone we met, as though his presence gave some form of assurance as to our level of competence. Probably better than we deserved at times, but a great boost to our confidence!

It was about 1968 that a change of rector at St Leonard-at-the-Hythe brought about changes that caused the ringers, organist and a large part of the congregation to leave and go to other churches in the town. This was not a particularly happy time. The ringers, Bernard included, went to ring for services and practice at Wormingford, a village about eight miles northwest of Colchester. Ted Leggett, the tower captain had always been a good friend and was pleased to give us a second home. The congregation at Wormingford made us very welcome and were pleased to hear the bells being rung regularly again as the old band of ringers had sadly diminished over the years. Bernard once again found himself singing in a choir. Time moves on and the appointment of a new rector, Reverend E. John Sibson, saw a return to St Leonard’s. The Wormingford connection remained, Bernard continued to travel to Wormingford as the times of the services allowed just enough time to make the journey. 1978 saw Bernard help to teach of a new band of ringers at Wormingford and the return of some of the old band, most notably Bertie Leggett and Barry Gibbons.

1982 saw a major change at St Leonard-at-the-Hythe. The preceding years had seen St Leonard’s amalgamate with two adjacent parishes to form a joint ministry. Despite the best efforts of the congregation, St Leonard’s was declared a redundant church and passed into the care of the Redundant Churches Commission, now the Churches Conservation Trust. Bernard, who was one of the churchwardens at the time, always thought that St Leonard’s should never have been made redundant. In an interview with the local newspaper only a few days before his death, Bernard had said that things were starting to change; in the intervening years more than 200 new homes had been built in the parish. Discussions were at an early stage, but St Leonard’s could be one of the first disued churches to return to being a parish church. This was something that he had hoped to see happen. St Leonard’s has been described as "a redundant church, although you would never know it". It has retained all of the furnishings and fittings and looks the same today as it did when it was active. This is the result of a great deal of hard work and dedication by a very loyal group of people, The Friends of Saint Leonard’s, of which Bernard was one.

When St Leonard’s was declared redundant and all services ceased, it was only natural for Bernard to return full time to his second home, Wormingford, joined by some of the other ringers. Here he continued to ring for service and then sing in the choir. Bernard had never driven a car, but even if no one was available to give him a lift, he would still make his way to Wormingford either by bus or taxi to be at ringing practice or service. It was also through Bernard’s discussions with the Redundant Churches Commission representative that a ringing practice still continues at St Leonard’s.

Bernard rang in many peals over the years and conducted quite a number of them. In a recent conversation with Barry Gibbons, he had said that he had rung over 600 peals, but I do not think that the exact number really mattered to Bernard. What was more important was if it had been a good peal or not. Most of these peals were rung either for the Essex Association or for the Suffolk Guild. In 1983 he took part in a local peal of Surprise Minor for the Ancient Society of College Youths as well as a series of ‘Bernard’ peals during the 1970’s. Bernard was a very competent ringer and would ring all of the standard Surprise Major methods at the local practice nights. This did lead to one incident that concerned a peal where one of the ringers had been taken ill. I was asked to telephone Bernard to see if he was able to ring that afternoon? He duly agreed and I arranged to pick him up. As we arrived at the tower he asked me what the method was? Eight-spliced surprise I replied. He chided me for not having told him sooner, but he rang the peal without any problem. It was only afterwards that he disclosed that this was actually his first of eight-spliced surprise and he would have liked a little more notice! We all knew that he could ring the methods and in the rush just forgot to tell him what they were.

The Essex Association of Change Ringers has also figured greatly in Bernard’s life and not just at district level. Over the years he has been the District Committee Representative, the District Master and ultimately the Master of the Association; he was one of the Life Vice Presidents of the Essex Association and one of the Association’s Trustees. Throughout his life he has been very loyal to the Essex Association and the Association Officers, this had not always been an easy task, but one that he undertook with great diplomacy. He was greatly respected for the manner in which he carried out any task that was presented to him.

Over the years we have all travelled many miles with Bernard as our friend, not just ringing, but also taking part in other activities. For many years now, an annual week on a narrow boat on the canals has taken place. This started in 1976 as something different to a ringing holiday. Different people have joined in on these trips, but Bernard has been on all of them. More recently he had taken part in the trips to Italy to visit the ringing towers there. The most recent one was just last year. He returned with fascinating tales of where he had been and how the bells were rung.

It is difficult to find the right words to describe Bernard’s life, I am sure that we all have our own memories and tales to tell. These will doubtless be retold over a drink after a practice night or a peal somewhere. He gave many of us great opportunities and encouragement to progress in ringing.

His funeral was held at St Leonard-at-the-Hythe, Colchester on the 6th April. Many friends from the parish, from Wormingford and from ringing attended the service.

The final words are those of Ronald Blythe. He has kindly allowed me to include the following excerpt from his ‘word from Wormingford’ that was published in the Church Times; it was read at Bernard’s funeral and I cannot think of a more fitting tribute:

"Bernard has died. He was our life vice-president of the Essex Association of Change Ringers, and many other great things. He said the office for belfry use, which begins with: "Praise him upon the well-tuned cymbals, Praise him upon the loud cymbals". He carried the processional cross before me at matins. He had what is known as "presence", and just seeing him unlooping his rope in the tower brought stability to the service.

His spiritual home was the lovely church of St Leonard-at-the-Hythe in Colchester, whose 1985 redundancy brought him to us; and what a gift!

And now he is gone. The Church of England has its true servants, its confident artists, men and women who know its ways, odd though they might seem to some. Last summer, Bernard sat in my garden, looking not quite himself, while his friends gathered greenery for a wedding.

It was he who must have made me an honorary ringer, though I have never pulled a rope. My contribution has been to provide a bit of bell-history, although I am pretty certain that Bernard knew it all.

How shall we honour his passing? With what quarter peal? Who will now carry the psalm, the Benedicite in a thin congregation? He was Master of the Association, its property trustee, and a dozen other things. He rang in all the cathedrals. And when he took the chair after our annual ringers’ evensong, it was like the arrival of someone in authority, the chatter dying away, the respect mounting.

It was through him that I entered the esoteric world of bell founding and casting, handbells, and all the successors of Stedman’s bell tunes."

Neil Avis