Kitty Willers - An Appreciation

It will be 40+ years since I met Kitty at the Trumpington Wednesday practices; there used to be Tuesday ones too for surprise and spliced, with a monthly peal attempt. I owe a lot to the Tuesday practice. Five of Kitty's peals are recorded on www.pealbase.co.uk, 4 as Kitty Willers, 1 as Catherine E Willers, all at Trumpington. I rang just one with her, Plain Bob Major at Trumpington in 1970, conducted by the late Barry Couzens; it was for Martin Kitson's 21st birthday. Her personal dedication to Trumpington was most remarkable. She lived quite close to the church and would walk there and raise the bells as far as I can remember.

She taught a great many people to ring, including well known ringers such as Frank Haynes and Peter Border, who I remember wearing short trousers in his youth! She was a great cyclist, riding long distances to ring at practices and meetings e.g in Hertfordshire and at Hilgay.

I started cycling from Ickleton to the Trumpington Wednesday practices in the mid 1960s, where there were several other ringers of my age, such as Ian Quinney, Ursula & Lucy Stubbings, Heather Tarrant and Alan Kennedy. There were also older ringers such as Mr Maling and Mrs Balmforth, but Miss Willers never used their christian names. Only those who had known her for decades called her Kitty, and I can remember some of us calling one brash young ringer to one side to explain she was Miss Willers to him!

Although she was short, Miss Willers insisted that the ropes should be a respectable length. She would stop anyone lengthening a rope, telling them to stand on a box.

Monica and I once went to her house 'Sweetbriars' to see her needlework, and tried to get her talking a bit. She mentioned ringing on the old six at Ickleton, and on the now long unringable fives in the district such as Stetchworth and Dullingham, as well as ringing handbell peals.

At the District 75th Anniversary dinner at Sawston Hall, Miss Willers was persuaded to talk a little about her ringing career. She said that she was asked if she had any more like Peter Border, she replied that she had Martin Kitson and Kit Brooks coming along.

Miss Willers taught endless ringers, and always had time for those who found it difficult. Everyone respected her, and as such it was convention that she had receipt no.1 in each year's subscription book.

I first met Kitty Willers in 1964, when my parents wanted to move into the house that had originally been the Smithy at Trumpington. This house had belonged to her uncle. Despite some better offers from other interested persons, Kitty had promised my father that we should have the house, and having made her decision, she stuck to it. This was Kitty all over. Once she had given you her word about something, that was that; her word was her bond.

In 1966, she visited us to ask me if I wanted to learn to ring. I had just completed my O-levels and so I decided I would. It was a decision I never had cause to regret. She taught me to ring on the 6th at Trumpington.

Kitty Willers had been a member of the Ely Diocesan Association of Church Bellringers for many years before she taught me. She had also been Tower Captain at Trumpington for many years. She had learnt to ring on the old 5 bells, and her first peal was 5040 Grandsire Doubles rung on the 3rd and conducted by Frank E. Kempton, on Thursday 11th November (Armistice Day) 1920. This was also the first peal on Trumpington bells.

On Tuesday 11th November 1924, Kitty called her first peal, of Doubles (Grandsire, Oxford Singles and Plain Bob) at Trumpington which was the first peal for the Association to be called by a lady. Once again a peal on Armistice Day. I believe that she called the first peal on the augmented six at Trumpington, which I think was Plain Bob Minor, each extent called differently; I think she rang the 2nd and called it. Kitty was in no doubt of her talents as a ringer; she was, as she once said to me, "a most conceited young ass" in those days. Certainly she was a gifted ringer, ringing peals all over the Cambridge area.

From 1930 to 1935, Kitty was District Secretary for the Archdeaconry of Ely, which comprised what is now the Ely and Cambridge Districts of the Ely Diocesan Association of Church Bellringers; and in 1935 became General Secretary and Treasurer for the Association, in which role she duly led the Association through the austere war years, when ringing was very severely curtailed; the authorities had decreed that the bells would only be rung as a warning, should there be a German invasion, although I gather the ban was lifted at Christmas times. I once saw one of Kitty's notices in an old Ringing World, advertising a Meeting, with a footnote "please bring your own sugar ration".

In 1956, Kitty fulfilled a life-time ambition to get Trumpington bells augmented to the full octave. Her parents had died and left her reasonably well off, and she paid for the augmentation. The new treble bell was dedicated to her parents. She kept the weights of the new bells secret. I asked Kitty about this once, and was very kindly, but firmly, told by Kitty that "the weights of those bells were given to me in very strict confidence and I will not divulge them to anyone". [The weights have since been released by the foundry.]

Although comfortably off, Kitty lived a very frugal life-style. She was, I believe, what one would now call a Christian-Scientist, and she enjoyed the flavour of fresh dandelion leaves, saying they were like eating somewhat stronger-flavoured lettuce. Her frugal meals were a necessity, as she would say "I have better things to do with my time than stand in the kitchen, cooking!".

On Saturday 1st February 1958, the first peal on the new 8 was rung by a local band. I asked Kitty once about her recollections of this peal. It was conducted by a local ringer called Peter Border who went on to do very great things in Ringing. "I don't know what Peter Border did", Kitty told me, "but we rang Grandsire Triples and he kept the 2nd and the 7th together. Somehow.". The peal was Parker's 12-part (7th observation) which Peter called from the new 2nd. Having myself called Parker's 12-part (6th observation) from the 2nd, 3rd and 4th, I can empathise with Peter on this; Grandsire is not easy to conduct, the Coursing Orders are difficult to transpose and calling from a non-observation bell requires great concentration. Certainly it was a great achievement for a rural band (Trumpington was a true village then and not a suburb of Cambridge as it is in these times) and reflects great credit on all the band. The late Frank Haynes was in the band, and my good friend Jill Martin as she was then (now Jill Pratt).

In these days, Kitty would cycle everywhere to ring. Jill Pratt recalls how Kitty cycled from Trumpington to Loughborough Bell Foundry to see the two trebles cast. Jill also remembers passing Kitty in Thaxted one day, cycling to Chelmsford to ring; she and her husband offered Kitty a lift, which was politely declined! Jill told me that Kitty cycled from John O'Groats to Land's End at around about this time

When I learnt to ring in the mid-60s, Trumpington also housed the "Tuesday practice" which was for aspiring Surprise Major ringers. Kitty always attended this, even if she didn't ring much. On Sundays she would attend the early Communion Service, then climb up the tower, clamber over the bells and put the flag up. Then she would raise each bell, even the tenor, a great feat really for a now elderly lady. She would ring for Sunday morning service, attend the service, and be back at 5:45 in the evening to be ready to lead the evening service ringing, and attend that service. She always sat in the same pew, close to the Lady Chapel. She never missed a single church service. She was, for many years, a member of the Parochial Church Council for Trumpington church, and very single-minded about what "church" was all about. Jill Pratt recalls how her father cycled to Harston after work one evening to ring a peal and, because he'd not had any tea, was eating a sandwich in the tower when Kitty arrived, also ringing in the peal. She told him off very severely for eating in church!

Wally Chandler rang with us then and he was thin on top ("I need a hair-transplant, Martin" was his favourite greeting to me - perhaps he thought I'd got more hair than I needed!). He moved to Tring in the late sixties before I went away to University and I lost track of him, but his daughter, Valerie, was a ringer at Chesterton for a while during the mid-1970s.

Kitty rang one of her last peals for my 21st birthday in December 1970, at Trumpington, called by the late Barry Couzens, and also in the band was the late Jean Sanderson. Kitty, as always, rang without a single mistake. During 1970, she rang a peal with the Tuesday Band, as the Surprise ringers were called, on the treble; 6-spliced Surprise Major, a complicated A.J. Pitman one-part composition called by Derek Sibson. A few months later, Alan Barber called a peal of 5021 Glasgow Surprise Major. "This was quite a surprise," Kitty said to me afterwards (no pun intended), "when it came round at the treble's handstroke snap.". Sadly, Kitty never quite managed 100 peals for the Association, although she did come very close to doing so.

Kitty was a very active person; whenever you went to see her, she would invariably be out in the garden digging, pruning or mowing. When I knew her, she walked everywhere, disdaining public transport unless in an emergency. Until the late 60s, she had a little moped which took her everywhere ringing-wise; there was a story of a time during a District Meeting at Bourn, about 10-15 miles away from her house, she pushed it all the way back to Trumpington when it died on her; this was because she wanted the Trumpington cycle-shop to fix it because she didn't trust anyone else!

Kitty was an excellent needlewoman, making all kinds of embroidery. She had an extension built on the side of her house with an upstairs room, which had windows all around, so she could see out while working. As you passed her house, you'd see her busy doing this needlework. She made my younger sister several soft toys; many local people had gloves made by her when they killed rabbits "for the pot" as country people did in those far-off days, and they gave her the skins for the gloves.

In 1975, Kitty's health began to seriously deteriorate; I suspect she had a mild heart attack in the autumn of '75. Whatever it was, she stopped ringing for several months and also stopped coming to church, an unprecedented situation! "Whoever would've thought I'd crock up like that?", she said to me, rather shame-faced, just after Christmas. In early '76 she rang again for the evening service, a situation that worried us all terribly because she was clearly very weak and not really able to handle her bell. I believe that this was Kitty's last ring. I don't recall her ringing again. She was, apparently, more seriously ill than we'd thought. But it was typical of Kitty that she did come up and ring for the last time; she was never one to give in to illness - even if she had a bad cold, she'd suck a few catarrh pastilles and simply "carry on".

Later on that month, I was travelling to work one morning and passed an old lady, bent double, carrying a small shopping basket, obviously returning from shopping, and remember thinking at the time, "poor old thing". It wasn't until later in the day I realised "my God, that was Miss Willers!". She was normally so upright and vigorous that I hadn't recognised her. The situation was, sadly, obvious. A few days later, the Vicar's wife telephoned me in floods of tears, sobbing "Martin... she's dead". She didn't need to say who it was. I knew. A sympathetic neighbour hadn't seen Kitty for a day or so, and popped round to her house to see if she was all right; on looking through the window saw her lying on the floor, clearly having passed away earlier that morning.

I was not able to attend Kitty's funeral, thanks to an unsympathetic boss, who ranted and raved at me for daring to ask for time off, threatening me with dismissal if I asked for time off again; it was during the worst recession we'd known (then) and this kind of thing was commonplace, sadly, in those days. But I understand the church was filled to capacity. Kitty was finally laid to rest beside her parents, within the sound of her beloved bells, and close to the church in which she had worshipped all her life. I myself moved away from Trumpington shortly afterwards for personal reasons, and have never returned. A new regime took over at Trumpington tower and Kitty is now just a memory, but I like to think she lives on in the voices of the two treble bells that she paid for, to augment the old ring of six into the full octave. In fact, I can still hear Kitty's voice when I'm ringing sometimes, saying, in her inimitable way, "listen to them striking!". Congratulations on the Kitty Willers memorial; I'm sure she'd be very pleased and proud to have seen it, although she would probably have frowned and said severely "Oh dear, you know, you really shouldn't have!" but being secretly delighted that we all thought so much of her.

My memories of Kitty Willers date from the time when I was learning to ring in the mid to late 1970s. I usually had one or both of my sons Andrew and Richard with me, who were, of course, making much more rapid progress than I was.

I remember Kitty as a small person with great energy and enthusiasm who ran the practices with impressive authority. If I arrived early she had often been giving a tied-bell lesson to a learner and was up amongst the bells releasing the clapper. On these occasions a red light would be on at the bottom of the ladder warning that the bell-ropes must not be touched. Then she would come down the ladder at great speed so that the practice could start.

I was sometimes allowed to ring the treble to a touch of Grandsire Triples and I think sometimes early in the practice, before numbers had built up, a touch of Plain Bob Minor. There were always several visitors so there was not much I could do later on when much of the ringing was Surprise Major.

At the end of the practice her call was usually for the local Trumpington band to ring down.

I remember Kitty Willers although I was just a learner in those days and was taken around to meetings by Jill & Brian Pratt. My recollections are that she was a 'character' and wore thick brown knitted stockings and always wore a hat and carried a large handbag!

In the early 1970's, as each of us reached the age of 11, Kitty Willers taught me, my sister and my brother to ring, about 50 years after teaching my Father to ring. As small children at Christmas we had all received as presents a soft toy expertly hand-made by Kitty. After teaching you to ring her gift of a soft-toy was faithfully replaced by a copy of the 'ringer's diary' each year.

When my father was up at Cambridge in the 1930s, Jim Quinney was in charge at Gt St Mary's, and Kitty Willers was in charge at Trumpington. When I came up in 1973, they were both still in charge! My father told me that it was at Trumpington, with Kitty, that he first saw ropesight.

I occasionally visited Trumpington as an undergraduate, and have a visual memory of Kitty swarming up the ladder, displaying her voluminous bloomers, to take muffles off the bells (I think she must have been teaching). The bells were up, and she wouldn't allow anyone else to do it.

I was living at Grafton St, after graduating, when Kitty died. I understood that she died of hypothermia, because she didn't have enough heating on in the house. Her funeral filled the church, and I remember an impressive list of famous ringers whom she had taught.

My first experience of bells was during a long summer visit to the USA in 1973, ringing Bob Major in hand with members of the band at Washington Cathedral. When I returned, aged 15, Kitty taught me during my school holidays, first to handle a full-sized bell then the beginnings of method ringing. Unfortunately, the Cambridge Rapist began terrorising the city in October 1974, and my parents justifiably decided that it would be unwise for me to be cycling out from the city centre to Trumpington in the dark at a regular time each week, and I switched my allegiance to St Peter's, Caversham, near my boarding school. I may not have been under Kitty's tuition for very long, but she definitely gave me a good start!

In the early 70s I rang at Trumpington, only very occasionally, as I felt quite intimidated by the ringers there at the time. I was struggling to ring Surprise Minor then. When I did go up, Kitty was very encouraging and welcoming. She rang rarely then, preferring to sit and listen or stand behind a learner. When she did ring, she was such a good striker and so competent.

After her death there was no funeral as she left her body to medical research. If my memory serves me well, the Sunday following her memorial service there were mutterings and complaints that the St George Cross flag was not attached to the flagpole (as it was close to St George's Day) on top of the Church, it was then that people realised it was Kitty who put the flag up year after year.

When she died, visitors to her house were astonished to find no central heating (or heating of any kind), all her clothes were home made and there were numerous embroidery designs she was working on. It is not surprising to see her work still on display on the floor of Trumpington's ringing room. She never owned a car and would walk (or cycle) huge distances. Even back in the 1930s she would cycle phenomenal distances to ring at other towers. Latterly, she would use the bus to get to meetings.

Her hair was always immaculate with a central parting, often plaited and tied up. When she walked it was with determination and had developed a slight stoop with her left arm tucked up and her right arm sweeping briskly. Her clothes were all hand made, fair isle type of jumper and a long pleated skirt.

It is hard to believe the number of famous ringers she taught, Frank and Eric Haynes, Peter Border, Brian Threlfall, Martin Kitson, etc. and then teaching the next generation, all the Haynes and Threlfall children, I remember her teaching David Threlfall when he was standing on two boxes to reach.

She also taught the Bellringing Club from Cambridgeshire County High School for Girls (now Long Road Sixth Form Centre) to ring each Thursday afternoon.

There was always a quiet dignity about her and massive resolve to live her life in the most exemplary fashion within her strong faith and dedication to Trumpington Church.

My main contact with Trumpington was in the early 70's, when I regularly attended the Tuesday Surprise Practice, at that time being run by Alan M Barber. Judging by the peal columns Alan is now on Tyneside but I have had no contact for many years. I was in the Tower with Miss Willers a few times but at that time she was no longer ringing, at least when I was there.

I was at school with Kit Brooks who learnt to ring at Trumpington in Miss Willers (for thus she was always described) era. Sadly, Kit died a number of years ago. He said that she insisted on pupils learning on the light bells, graduating to the heavier ones only when able to ring the light ones well.

[In the tower] She was always there quietly in charge and so steady, always seeming to be the same. When ringing, you would see her lips move as she counted. I do remember once when she was a little angry with me. I didn't break a stay when I was learning but later I was beginning to get a bit of trouble with my right wrist and got a bit nervous and to my alarm broke a stay then. She was annoyed that as an experienced ringer I had done such a thing. It meant she had to go up and repair it. I gave up ringing after that because of my wrist.

I remember visiting Kitty at her home when she showed me all the toys she'd made. A great big bag full of them. All sorts of animals and insects, spiders and the like. So imaginative and charming. She gave a Peter Rabbit she made to my sister's oldest child who now lives in Cambridge. I remember the gloves Miss Willers made. She often gave us some for Christmas.

I was introduced to ringing by Hilary Rose (nee Griffiths), and was taught to ring by Miss Willers in 1959 aged when I was about 13 years old. I rang two peals, several quarters, and even called a QP at Intwood (with fellow students from Keswick College). Kitty made dresses from furnishing materials, and liked bright colours - orange, red, brown - often with a matching hat. Her sewing room was above the car port of her house. She taught my sister Lucy to ring, and made her a soft toy - a poodle - that was named "Stedman". She also did leatherwork, for example, gloves. A regular attender at church, she always sat in the same pew in the South aisle. To get about, Kitty would either walk, cycle, or use her Lambretta, and only as a last resort use public transport. She undertook a cycling tour of Scotland win in her mid-60s! When the two new treble bells for Trumpington were being cast in 1957, she refused offers of a lift to Loughborough to see the bells being cast. Instead she left on her bike at four in the morning, and cycled all the way there. In the tower, I remember her intense concentration on the sound the bells were making when she was coaching you. She hated gaps between touches at practice or especially if we were ringing for a service. She would say "keep those bells ringing" or some such phrase. She was totally dedicated!

I always remember Kitty with affection. She was such a character. She was on the Central Council with my late father in law, C.W. Cook, and he related many tales of the CC meetings. As already mentioned by someone, she cycled to Leeds on one occasion. I also recall the incident when she walked back from Bourn when her moped broke down.

Kitty always stood on two old hassocks when she was ringing - with straw coming out! I asked the late Bill Newman, of Litlington, to make her a proper box with a carpet on top. Kitty was very pleased with it, and with a huge smile on her face, thanked me very much!

I think that it was probably during the late 1950s that I first met Kitty Willers when she came from time to time to attend meetings of the Essex Association Northern District. I can remember her arriving on her moped and it being quite a talking point for some of us youngsters that this lady of mature years should have come all the way from Trumpington on a moped! Although she was always known as "Kitty" she was never addressed as such even by the District Officers, she was always "Miss Willers".

I am tower captain at St Mary's, Great Bardfield, Essex and have been looking through the peal book of Joseph Jennings who was a former tower captain at St Mary's for many years. I came across a peal of Superlative rung at Great Dunmow on 9th August 1930, in which Kitty Willers took part.

Kitty Willers lived at Sweet Briars on the corner of Shelford Road, a short distance from my father's family home.

I would always call and see her on visits to my grandparents in the mid 50s and invariably she would get the handbells out from a mound of church sewing and embroidery and coax me through Bob Minimus. She would talk of the impending bell restoration which transformed the poor old six into an excellent eight. I was very pleased to be able to go to the dedication service for the augmented ring and never dreamt how many peals were going to be rung on them.

We would meet from time to time, quite by chance, at various towers, Kitty travelling on a motor scooter now, having been a cyclist all her life. I learnt, long after she had gone, that Peter Border was taught the rudiments of ringing by her. Kitty and I exchanged Christmas cards right up until her death. Yes! Trumpington would not be the same without her. God bless her soul.

I am reminded of a visit to a practice night at Trumpington in September 1960. My wife and I were early arrivals and cautiously entered the ringing room where sounds of activity were coming from the open trap door of the bell chamber above. Eventually a pair of legs clad in woollen socks and stout shoes started to come down the ladder and that was our first sight of the famous Miss Kitty Willers, who gave us a warm welcome. In conversation she mentioned that she enjoyed teaching ringers and that her star pupil was Peter Border.

I recall having the pleasure of ringing with three other formidable ladies who were contemporary with Kitty Willers and also highly respected ringing teachers - namely Marie Cross of Oxford, Beatrice Boyle of Devon and Marion Lidgey of Cornwall.
[RW 5270]

Kitty was one of the nicest people I have met and I have fond memories of her. Amazingly until today I did not know her given name was Catherine, to me she always will be Kitty.

I have taken up ringing again after a break of many years. Sadly mobility problems and old age mean that I am unable to climb stairs and will not be able to return to Trumpington ringing chamber, where I learned to ring under the excellent tuition of Kitty Willers, and where I rang a number of peals.

I lived in Trumpington from birth until my early twenties, so I knew Kitty from an early age, and indeed had a soft toy made by her. She did make wonderful gloves as well, and we supplied her with rabbit skins from our Chinchilla breed rabbits. She particularly liked the colour of the fur. She would pay me sixpence (a fortune for a young boy!) for every skin, unless it was to make the gloves for our family. I remember her drawing round my hand as a template for gloves for myself. She "cured" the skins herself using alum. This was in the mid-1940s.

I started ringing as a teenager, and there was a group of us including Jill Martin (as was). We were keen and rang every Sunday and practice night, attended meetings and rang peals. It was during a practice night that the 5th bell cracked, not being rung by me I am glad to say! This was the trigger, I think, for the bells to be augmented to eight due to the generosity of Kitty, when the new bell was to be cast and the others to be refurnished and rehung. I was honoured to ring the tenor for the first peal of Grandsire Triples to be rung on the augmented eight. I am glad that the old bell has been repaired, is in use, and no longer languishes in a dark corner.

Kitty had not resorted to hassocks in my time, indeed if she thought you were failing to dodge with her she would thrust a foot forward and stamp on the then uncarpeted floor. She was a good teacher, firm but fair and never unpleasant. We had great respect for her and did not think that her appearance was anything out of the ordinary. Sunday evenings we took the flag down for her on many occasions. I do not think that most local people appreciated that Kitty went to 8 o'clock Communion every Sunday, sometimes being the only communicant, and then raised the flag on the tower having climbed two long, near vertical ladders to do so. She then repeated the performance after Evensong except when we did it for her.

It was with great interest that I read the comments about her especially as several were from names in the past. As my name was mentioned in dispatches I would like to add my own.

I knew Miss Willers (as a teenager that was how I knew her) from my earliest days in ringing. I really got to know her from my attendances at the halcyon days at the Trumpington Tuesday night Surprise practices in the late 1960s and 1970s. It was there that I saw both sides of her character. On the one hand she encouraged us to push the boundaries in ringing Spliced and such things as Glasgow, etc. On the other hand she did her best to curb our youthful extravagances.

It says a lot for her that the legacy of her teaching is still evident today. Nowadays she would be described as an eccentric as she really was a 'one off'.

As regards the other comments may I correct Martin K as although Miss Willers did indeed ring the treble to a peal of Spliced conducted by Derek Sibson she did not ring the treble to any of the peals of Glasgow we rang. Also I can confirm to John Limbach that I am indeed living in the Borough of North Tyneside.

Kitty so reminded me of Miss Marple with her modest ways but the same wise twinkle in her eye.

What a pleasure to read all these memories of Kitty Willers. My own memory is of her patience and encouragement when I, as an undergraduate in 1960­1961 and a very inexpert ringer, used to ring at Trumpington for Sunday morning service.

Kitty taught my mum, Jean Mitchell, to ring when mum took some of the older Sunday school children ringing. At that time in the late 60's I too occupied the small chair in the corner and read the somewhat politically incorrect story books that had been placed there. In 1976 aged 13 I decided that the view up the tower was more interesting than that from the choir stalls and started ringing myself. Although Kitty, or I mean Miss Willers, wasn't ringing herself any more I believe that I was the last person she taught to handle a bell. My dad's over riding memory of her is the view from below as she came down the ladder, one I am sure many other ringers share! When I became tower captain in the early 80's I had the job of raising the flag and I have no idea how Kitty managed it because the door at the top was tiny and you had to pull yourself out of it backwards. It was bad enough in trousers rather than the skirts Kitty wore. As a child of the parish my lasting memory will be of the wonderful stuffed toys which she sold at the Church Missionary Sale each year in the church hall. Her stall was always placed in the middle and would be the first one people visited.