Holybourne church has for over a year been working with the Alton town parishes of All Saints Alton and St Lawrence Alton with St Peter's Beech to explore the possibility of forming a single united parish in covenant with Alton Methodist church. This is for the purposes of shared ministry and mission and the greater opportunities that such sharing would provide new and the existing worshipping congregations. By the end of 2008 these churches after a period of consultation unanimously decided to become one Anglican parish. The implementation process will be in two stages whereby the Parish of Holybourne will join the united parish of All Saints and St Lawrence Alton with St Peter's Beech when the Benefice of Froyle and Holybourne next becomes vacant.

Churchwarden: Gill Newman - Manor Farm Cottage, 37 Howards Lane Holybourne GU34 4HH
Tel 01420 85700 gillnewman@manorfarmcottage.freeserve.co.uk

Two of the new bells (the two largest - the 7th and Tenor) were cast on Friday 24th April at Whitechapel Bell Foundry. A small group of people travelled up from Holybourne to view their manufacture. The six remaining bells are scheduled to be cast on 15th May. James Croft is, I believe, going to travel up again with another small group. This time a more professional DVD recording will be made of the event.

At the church, David Andrews and his grandson, Perry, wound the clock for the last time on Friday 1st May. This event was recorded by a professional cameraman. This marks 28 years of continuous service for David for which he should be heartily congratulated. This week (Tuesday) the clock technician will be arriving at the church to start decommissioning the current gravity weight mechanism in preparation for its replacement by an automatic electrically-driven system which will obviate the need for manual winding. He will also remove the clock hands and the clock will thereafter not be functional again until the new bells are installed.

The current plans are for the existing three bells to be lowered on the 4th June after which they will be taken away to a company called White's for cleaning-up and remounting onto a new frame that will then be installed higher up in the steeple. These three original bells will be connected back to the clock to continue their chiming role.

The eight new bells will be installed in the tower probably some time in July after which time we should be able to hear them ringing on a regular basis. I would like to take this opportunity to ask people to spread the news about the new bells adding that we are actively looking for people who might like to try their hand at ringing. Full tuition by very skilled and experienced ringers is available both at Holybourne and other local churches.