Cathedral and Bells

This is Part 2 of the Saturday activities remembering and celebrating mum and dad's life.

 After the service at Toowong Cemetery was complete, Chris & I high tailed it to Paddington Hardware where finally we managed to procure a couple of brass round head screws. Even then they had to rummage around in old draws for them.

 At the Cathedral, we were taken on a fascinating tour up spiral stair cases and along a walkway above the main body of the Cathedral.

The Bellringers have a web site:
http://www.northerntowers.org/
Have a look.  They would love new people to come and try.

Lewis & Rodney.

We wound or way up narrow spiral stairs. Had a look out of a verandah. Observed a couple of people down across the road had set up tripods to take the perfect picture of St John's. We waved. They indicated they would like us to go away. Once at the top we walked along a walkway that runs above the ceiling to the base of the bell tower.

Frank & Dan.
The door takes us to the spiral stair case in the South West entry tower.

This is the view from the walkway above the cathedral looking down on the vaulted ceiling of the cathedral.  To the left we see the actual roof that keeps out the rain.

the guide, presumably in fear of the workplace health and safety god, gave us strict instructions not to touch the ropes. The bells live face up. This is a very unstable position and a small tug on the rope could over balance them. Because there were too many of us we had to go up in two groups. While up looking at he bells we were warned to stay away from them to ensure we did not bump them or be near them should a recalcitrant pull on a rope.

Mum's be is the bell in the centre of the picture.
Henry Frank James Lewis

After everyone had had a look we went back to the bell ringer room. The hatch was closed and we were given the nod to pull on selected ropes.

When this musical trip was over the guides carefully returned several bells to the down position. This meant we could go back into the bell room and install the plaque.

Inside the bell tower. 

Frank installed a plaque.

The David Bell is named for the
very Reverand David Thomas.
Dean of Brisbane
1999-2003

This bell was given as a memorial to
the Revereand Eileen Thomson
by her family
Eileen was among the first women
ordained Deacon (1989) and priest
(1992) in this cathedral in the
Diocese of Brisbane.