Fees and Charges for 2007

The following Fees and Charges were approved by the Parochial Church Council in January 2007. Table 1 (with the exception of Travelling Expenses for ministers at a funeral) are set by the Archbishops' Council.

The Choir

The Choir of St.Paul's Church Bedford is affiliated to the Royal School of Church Music, has twenty plus members and sings for the services of the Eucharist each Sunday at 10-15am, the first of the month is fully choral, and for two Cathedral style Choral Evensongs, at 6-30pm on the second and fourth sundays each month.

The choir consists of Boys, Girls, ladies and Gentlemen and sings a variety of music from plainsong, music from the Tudor period through to music by present day composers to a very high standard. Several pieces have been composed for and commissioned by the Choir. Choir rehearsals are on Friday evenings from 7.30-9pm in the church.

The Bells

St. Paul’s possesses a fine ring of twelve bells. The Tenor weighs 28cwt 3qrs 6lbs and the peal is in the key of D. The total weight is 6 tons 13 cwt 3 qrs 16 lbs.

All the bells have been cast by John Taylor & Co. of Loughborough and were one of the earliest rings to be ‘Simpson tuned’.
Bells number 3, 4, 5, and the Tenor were cast in 1896 and 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 (the Sacring Bell) a year later in 1897. The 11th (the Victory Bell) was recast in 1945. The Trebles (1 and 2) were added in 1977 to celebrate the Queen’s Silver Jubilee and the Diocesan Centenary respectively.

Ringing times are: Sundays 09.30 and 17.45. Practice night is on Mondays (including Bank Holidays) at 19.30. Visitors and new ringers (experienced or not) are most welcome.

For further information contact: John Long on 01234 353860.

The Clock

St. Paul’s clock dates from 1811, predating the present tower (1867 by Palgrave) by fifty six years. It is the largest clock in North Bedfordshire with four eight foot dials. The makers are Handley and Moore of Clerkenwell, London.

It originally played the ‘ding dong’ quarters on two bells, striking the hour on the Tenor or heaviest bell.

In 1908 John Bull & Co. of Bedford, made it possible for the clock to play the Cambridge quarters (or the ‘Westminster Chimes’ as they later became known when used for Big Ben) on four bells. The quarters strike on the 6th 7th 8th and 11th bells with the hour striking on the 12th or Tenor bell.

The clock was converted to electric winding in 1959; smaller clock hammers were then fitted, as the new weights are lighter than the ones used when it was wound by hand.

In 2002, thanks to a legacy by Winifred Hall, the quarter chimes and the hour striking mechanisms were restored after nearly thirty years of silence. Thus making St. Paul’s an aural as well as a visual presence in the centre of Bedford.

The Wesley Pulpit

This stone pulpit – a beautiful specimen of 14th century work was displaced and restored to it’s original site in this ancient Church in 1929. It has witnessed for five centuries the ministries of the Church of Christ on this spot.

Here in March 1685 the Rev. Thomas Pomfret, Vicar of Luton preached the Assize Sermon before the notorious Chief Justice Jefferies and Judge Wythens before they both travelled the Western Circuit – the infamous ‘Bloody Assize’.

From this pulpit on March 10th 1758, John Wesley preached his famous Assize Sermon before Sir Edward Clive from the text, ‘We shall all stand before the Judgement Seat of Christ’. To the Assize Sermon of 1772 came, as High Sheriff attendant on the Judge, John Howard the Philanthropist who, inspired by visits to Bedford Gaol during his year of office, devoted his life to prison reform. (His statue can be seen on the Market Square at the East end of St. Paul’s.)