With no chance of ringing at Strensham on the horizon, I've been putting together some material for a presentation on Strensham's church and bells. The idea is that this could be presented via Zoom or eventually in real life to an audience once the restrictions are lifted.
In compiling the material, it turns out that there is far more information available than would fit into a 45 minute presentation.
One of the things I left out it this little story from 1998, shortly after I took on looking after the tower and bells for the Churches Conservation Trust.
I was contacted through the Churches Conservation Trust’s local representative Andrew Pike by a TV production designer called Michael Pickwoad. Michael was after some old bell ropes for use as props in an episode of Kavanagh QC. This was filmed at All Saints' Church, Shirburn, Oxfordshire.
At Strensham, I’d just removed the old and very tatty ropes and put some better ones on. These old ropes were hired to the production company and we received a donation of £20 for their use.
This clearly is where the phrase “money for old rope” comes from!
The episode is on YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxzX4JG0e84
Go to 32 minutes and 6 seconds and you will see actor JohnThaw touching the ropes.
Michael also borrowed the ropes for a version of Cider with Rosie which was being filmed at Avening church near Laurie Lee’s home in Slad. This time however, the footage ended up on the cutting room floor…
