‘APeal for Pudsey’ is a joint initiative between the BBC and the Central Council of Church Bell Ringers. The aim is to ring bells across the country and raise money for ‘Children in Need’.

Pudsey Bear, the iconic teddy with a bandage round his head, became the mascot for Children in Need over 30 years ago, and he is named after Pudsey, the town between Leeds & Bradford where both his designer and our Rector grew up.

A lot of special ringing events are planned, some involving groups of young bellringers, there may be a mobile ring of bells at the BBC studios, and there will be ringing in lots and lots of church towers.

Some bands will be ringing a method called Pudsey Surprise Major. We rang to a peal of it here in April 1997 for the Rector’s induction, and a peal of it was rung at Pudsey on 7th October for Children in Need.

The appeal is running over many weeks and at All Saints we plan to ring a quarter peal on the most significant day, Friday 17th November, starting at 6.30, so we will be ringing during the TV broadcast.

If you would like to support this initiative you can do so by giving online. There is a special page on the BT MyDonate website at: mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/cinbellringing  If you want to remain anonymous but would like your donation to be associated with All Saints, you can enter your ‘displayed name’ as ‘All Saints Wokingham’. If you prefer to donate cash, just give it to one of the ringers and we will donate it on your behalf.

We will provide more information about our performance near to the date, on the tower website: allsaintswokinghambells.org.uk 

John Harrison (October 2017)