Joan Mary Peel 31/1/1936 - 13/3/2010

Bellringing, as ringers know is a wonderful fraternity, and Joan Peel found this to be the case when she became a bellringer. Through ringing she made a great number of friends, many of whom were present at the Thanksgiving Service held at Tillington on 26th March.

Joan had learnt to ring in 1950; she was taught by Les Weller at Itchingfield. She must have been a naturally gifted ringer and well tutored by Les, and George Francis for in 1951 George called her first quarter, the treble to Grandsire Doubles and then in February 1952 she trebled to a quarter commemorating the reign of King George VI. Perhaps a forerunner to her love for what she always referred to as her ‘specialist bell’!

Her first peal followed quickly – in the same year she rang the treble to Grandsire Triples at Pulborough – conducted by the great Len Stillwell – who many of us will remember with great fondness.

Itchingfield, although a five, had a strong band at that time; George Francis Bryan Burrough and his cousin Janet, or Bunny as she was known, Les’s father Fred, Chris Godfrey, Barwell Dibben, Shirley Richardson – and of course Joan’s younger sister Valerie who started ringing in the mid 50s. Joan and Valerie rang two peals together in 1955.

Handbell ringing was also very much part of the scene, and in 1956 Joan rang the tenors to a peal of spliced Doubles in hand conducted by George – 20 methods with 267 changes
of method.

She was elected to the Sussex Association in 1951 but there was then a period away from ringing pursuing her nursing career. She started her training in 1953 at the Lord Mayor Treloar Hospital in Alton, then on to Westminster and finally to the Churchill Hospital in Oxford where she completed her midwifery training.

All this, a family and other commitments meant she didn’t return to ringing until the late 70s when she was the Health Visitor and Midwife at Wisborough Green. However, by 1985 she was back to peal ringing, and 25 years on from her previous peal she rang in the first peal on the newly augmented ring
at Graffham.

She was also very proud to be a member of the Society of Royal Cumberland Youths.

In all Joan rang 168 peals including two in South Africa in 1998. Her most recent peal was in celebration of the 125th Anniversary of the Sussex Association – rung at Northchapel only a few weeks ago.

However Joan was always a person who was willing to – and wished to give. This was shown in her many other interests and was equally so in ringing.

She was not content to just enjoy ringing for herself but wished to contribute – to give something back – and thus in 1988 when a Divisional Secretary was needed Joan willingly took on the task serving as Secretary for a good number of years.

More recently, she represented the Association on the Central Council and was – until her passing a Trustee.

She helped with teaching the band of ringers at Northchapel where a new ring of bells was installed for the Millennium.

She helped on ringing courses and at the Roadshows – she was always there when needed and gave countless hours of assistance and encouragement to new ringers. It is through her efforts – since she moved into the village that the bells at Tillington are rung every Sunday by a local band.

Another of her favourite pastimes was ringing holidays. Apparently the first was a cycling tour in East Anglia in the 50s; many years and ringing jaunts later she joined the legendary Easter Tours and provided not only ringing expertise but tea, coffee and nourishing rock-cakes, and other goodies.

Marriage and family had taken Valerie away from ringing, but she came with Joan on a ringing tour of Scotland in 2005, strictly for the ride, scenery, shopping etc., or so
she said!

However before halfway through the tour Valerie had been persuaded to take up a rope again – and has never looked back.

The full circle had come round – the two Phillips girls were back to ringing again ... and this was such a great joy for Joan – to be able to share her ringing with Valerie.

One cannot think of Joan without remembering her beloved Bethan, her last Border Collie, veteran of many a ringing outing and tour, not only a tower grabber, but also a prolific stick gatherer – the longer the better! But Bethan never quite mastered manoeuvring a long stick through a smaller gateway, much to the amusement of onlookers.

A wealth of other memories: ringing outings on open top buses in the rain, alphabet Sussex place names, Sussex Castles, A272 quarter peals, Sardinia, Scotland, a Northchapel outing to London – but without any ringing that included tea at the Dorchester where Joan poured tea without – a tea strainer!.. the list goes on …

The suddenness of your going is incomprehensible – one can only wonder? Had the call gone out from ‘above’. “WE” are in need of a specialist treble ringer?”

So thank you, Joan, for bringing so much to our lives, for encouraging us with our ringing, for helping new ringers and – for being a Great Treble Ringer.

Geoff Rix
Petworth West Sussex