Welcome to the website for the Chiltern Branch of the Oxford Diocesan Guild of Church Bellringers.

The Chiltern Branch covers parts of central Buckinghamshire by the border with Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire, and is home to many of the famous red kites.

Whilst one of the smaller branches within the guild, we have a wide range of interesting and historic bells details of which can be found by following the "Towers" tab. We are keen to develop ringing within the branch and to help towers with recruitment and training to ensure that the traditional sound of Church bells rings out for many years to come.

2022 was the 60th Anniversary of the formation of the Branch. During those 60 years many of the branch towers have seen significant improvements and augmentations most notably Aston Clinton from 6 to 8 and then 10, Bledlow 5 to 8, Great Missenden 6 to 8 and Wendover 6 to 8. Many of our Churches have also seen changes with toilets, kitchens and raised ringing floors introduced.
In January 2024 the bell restoration at Slapton was completed with the bells augmented from 5 to 6. Previously the bells had been un-ringable since 1998.

During its early years the branch was very active with several towers seeing considerable peal and quarter peal activity. More recently a number of towers have, however, struggled with recruitment with Covid causing particular difficulty for those towers which were already short of ringers. We have recently restarted branch practices focussing on trying to develop our method ringing whilst also encouraging new recruits to try Plain Hunt and Plain Bob. Hopefully some of these new recruits will progress to return the branch to previous levels of activity.

The Oxford Diocesan Guild of Church Bell Ringers is committed to the safeguarding, care and nurture of the children and people of all ages. The current Safeguarding Policy can be seen here.