Our thanks to the village of Wroxall, Warwickshire for inviting us to play at your community Ceilidh on Saturday 4 July 2026. We don’t often play outside but on a warm July evening, your marquee was the perfect venue. You danced really well – especially in the second half, thank you!
St Swithin’s Parish serves a rural population of more than 2,500 people, in the villages of Lower Quinton, Upper Quinton and Admington, Warwickshire. St Swithin’s Church, built on a Saxon base, was originally linked to the Abbey of Polesworth, so came under the patronage of Worcester Cathedral, as it is to this day. The present church was consecrated in 1238.
This ancient church was beautifully decorated for their Peace of Christ Festival, running from Friday 3 July until Sunday 5 July and we were delighted to have been invited to play concert-style to a packed church on Friday evening, from 6.30pm to 8.30pm. Donald had put much thought into the ‘Peace’ theme and we incorporated poems, prayers and a few songs that are not normally part of our repertoire. We so enjoyed ourselves, playing to a capacity audience that sang along with us. During the interval, one couple said they were out walking their dog when they saw us carrying our gear into the church and were curious! They decided to investigate and said that they loved the whole evening. Thank you!
The family-friendly ‘Peace of Christ’ festival weekend features artwork, floral displays, poetry, other kinds of music, scripture reflections, treasure hunts, family crafts and quiet spaces. Our thanks to David and Fiona and to the Churchwardens and wider team for the invitation to participate in this fantastic event and to the village of Lower Quinton, who turned up en masse to share the evening with us.
Our thanks to Olivia and Barney at Talton House and Lodge for hosting us for a wedding celebration event on Saturday 13 June. Talton Lodge is an 18th-century converted barn and Victorian walled garden in South Warwickshire, originally used to feed the adjacent Grade II-listed Queen Anne manor, Talton House. Today, the multi-day venue combines historic country charm with a festival atmosphere, featuring tepees, yurts, and an 18th-century barn – the perfect venue in fact for a wedding celebration!
Our Silver Bough Ceilidh Band played for about 70 wedding guests who were all keen to dance and in between dances, we played some of the songs from our Gospel Bell repertoire.
After about an hour and half of outdoor dancing, the guests moved indoors to watch a Kraftwerk tribute band, who were excellent! This is a first for us, opening for an all electronic band – we think though that our exhausted dancers were ready for a more relaxing end to the evening.
Forthcoming Silver Bough and Gospel Bell dates include: St Swithan’s Church, Lower Quinton, Warwickshire (Friday 3 July 26); Wroxall, Warwickshire community Ceilidh (Saturday 4 July 26); Talton House (Private event) (Friday 10 July 26); Music in a Field, Oxfordshire (Saturday 25 July 26); St Mary’s, Cropredy Fringe (Thursday 13 August 26); St Leonard’s Banbury, (Saturday 26 July 26); Hook Norton Baptist Church (Saturday 26 September 26); Friends of Fifield Church (Sunday 31 January 27)
St Mary Magdalene, Duns Tew, in the Benefice of Westcote Barton is an ancient church built from Hornton stone. The porch and font date from 1200 AD and the arcade of pillars from the 14th century. We were delighted to return to Duns Tew Village Hall on Saturday 15 November to play a fundraiser for the church and thanks to the remarkable efforts of Clare Burgess and her team, the hall was completely full. Our thanks to all who came along and helped to make this such a memorable evening!
Clare writes: What a wonderful evening you treated us to last night. Our heartfelt thanks go to all of you. Your music is such a powerful way of sharing faith. I loved that many audience members were singing along. I was particularly impressed that so many people knew ALL the words. I particularly enjoyed hearing Rachel’s fascinating history and Donald’s additional stories. The context which gave rise to these Gospel songs was so interesting and inspiring to hear. Special shout out to Julie and Thabo, too. It would be great to hear more about the box drums. You’ll be pleased to hear we made an astounding £437 yesterday towards the upkeep of our church building.
The history of Shenington’s Holy Trinity Church can be traced to the 12th century with its Romanesque chancel arch, though it was rebuilt and expanded significantly over the following centuries. The south aisle was added in the 13th century, with further remodelling in the 14th century (including new windows and a rebuild of the aisle) and a 15th century porch. The most recent major additions were the Perpendicular west tower, completed in 1504, and a major 19th century restoration that relocated the original chancel arch. As with all ancient churches, restoration is ongoing and we were delighted to help with fundraising alongside the Community Choir of Oxhill, Tysoe and Shenington (CCOTS) who performed a wide selection of songs in the first half, opening with ‘Boogie woogie bugle boy’ first recorded by the Andrews Sisters in 1941 and closing with the Coldplay song ‘Viva la vida’ a Spanish phrase that can be translated as ‘live life’. Fabulous singing and harmonies, thank you!
It was a lovely evening of singing – not least because the choir sang along with us in the second half and they sounded great! Our thanks to musical director Anna and the CCOTS choir for such a special evening and to the Reverend Alicia Baker, Rector of the Ironstone Benefice for her invitation to participate in this unique fundraising evening in aid of repairs to the church porch.
St. Peter’s Church in Hanwell, Oxfordshire, has a history stretching back to at least 1154, though only its Norman font survives from that era. The church was significantly rebuilt in the early 14th century, featuring decorated Gothic architecture with distinctive carvings. Further additions included a perpendicular Gothic clerestory around 1400 and new windows in the Tudor period. The church served as a place of refuge for Royalist soldiers before the Battle of Edge Hill during the English Civil War and was later occupied by troops before the Battle of Cropredy Bridge. It is now a Grade I listed building in the heart of historic Hanwell.
We felt privileged to be back again at St Peter’s for the service of animal blessing (the Pet Service) which took place on Sunday 21 September at 3pm. There are normally plenty of dogs (with accompanying humans) and this year, we were also joined by a giant Japanese stick insect who is called ‘Sticky’ by his owner. Sticky was balancing on some foliage and during the service itself, seemed pretty lively – I’d like to think Sticky was dancing along doing a cross between a jive and a moonwalk!
It was really lovely to be joined by Alicia on violin for the two hymns and we all enjoyed Guy’s talk – an A-Z of animal names, with much human participation. Guy was fully prepared with fairly obscure names of animals for the more challenging ‘name that animal’ alphabet letters and he concluded his talk by making the point that they are all God’s creatures.
Our thanks to Revd Alicia Baker and Revd Guy Edwards for the invitation to participate and to the church wardens and team of helpers who put together a delicious post-service BBQ with salads. Our observation is that animals seem to enjoy this kind of event and the blessing component of the service when they receive a dog biscuit treat. Alas, the biscuits were a little too large for Sticky!
Richard
St Mary the Virgin is a large and ancient building with a rich history. The parish church of Shipton almost certainly started life as an Anglo-Saxon minster and the church is first mentioned in documents dating back to 1115. The present church is mainly early 13th century and the tower, spire and door are thought to have been started around 1200. Given the ancient status of this beautiful church, we were really pleased to support the fundraising efforts for a new heating system. Our contact, Rev. Canon Sarah Sharp, is a great organiser and fundraiser – skills that we discovered when Sarah was vicar of St John’s Bodicote. Last Saturday was just as I’d imagined it would be: lots of people came and their ticket included an interval drink. As ever, Sarah our thoughtful host, provided us with refreshments while we setting-up and in the interval. Given that we were ‘competing’ with the new series of ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ on TV, we were so pleased that a good-sized audience came and sang beautifully with us throughout.
We have experimented with narrative and visual material in the past and last Saturday, we trialled a new concert format: ‘Roots of Gospel music: A journey in songs, stories and history’ with four short sections of history (accompanied by projected images) read beautifully by Rachel and early photographs of some of the key songwriters in the genre to accompany Donald’s excellent story-telling. Donald, Rachel, Thabo and I were delighted that Adrian could sing and play harmonica with us.
Sarah said that everyone who came along enjoyed our music and that the evening raised £546 towards the new heating system. Thank you Sarah and your fantastic team of helpers for the invite, we’ll look forward to coming back in due course.
Richard
For us, it is a privilege and pleasure to play at the St Mary’s Cropredy festival fringe event which takes place every year on the opening day of Fairport’s Cropredy Convention festival. The church team, led by Verna and Stephen Wass were fantastic as always: welcoming, well organised, keeping all the bands to time and with the best value beer at their bar in the entire village! Our thanks to Verna in particular for the annual invitation to play in Cropredy’s beautiful church. As fundraising is currently needed for repair work, we hope to return to play an evening concert in the Autumn. Meanwhile, our forthcoming bookings include:
Saturday 20 September: St Mary’s, Church Street, Shipton under Wychwood OX7 6BP, 7pm fundraising concert; Sunday 21 September: St Peter’s, Hanwell OX17 1HN, 3pm Pet service (yes, animals love Gospel music!); Friday 10 October: Holy Trinity, Shenington OX15 6NQ, 7pm fundraising concert with the Community Choir of Oxhill, Tysoe and Shennington, Saturday 15 November: St Mary’s, Duns Tew OX25 6JP, 7pm fundraising concert. Please join us and sing along with us at any of these events. Also, if we can help your church with fundraising, please contact us via the ‘Contact Us’ page on our website: GospelBell.com
We always enjoy our annual visits to St Leonard’s in the Grimsbury district, Banbury – not least because this is a dancing church! The St Leonard’s team always prepare a fantastic supper for the interval and we would like to thank the organisers and catering team for their warm welcome, hospitality and lovely food – as always. Sheila James writes: On behalf of St Leonard’s, thank you very much to Gospel Bell for facilitating our celebration event. As always, the people who were there really enjoyed themselves and £300 was raised for church funds.
We should also like to thank Jay for joining us on saxophone and the Vicar of St Leonard’s Kudzayi Harrison Bvekerwa who played percussion alongside Thabo. We are already looking forward to our next visit!
Greatworth Methodist Church (GMC) has a history rooted in the broader Methodist movement, which began with John Wesley in the 18th century. The Methodist chapel in Greatworth was built in 1860 although non-conformist worship on that site dates back to at least 1788. (Greatworth Parish Council – A Brief History).
We were delighted to play at GMC for the first time on Saturday evening 12 July at the invitation of Walter Stageman, who did an excellent job in encouraging church members and the wider village community to attend the event. We’d also like to thank the catering team who provided a wonderful range of food and beverages during the interval.
Walter writes: Thank you for the wonderful performance and the way the good news was transmitted. Ticket sales generated a contribution of £220 to church funds. We will look forward to a return visit!
