Among the commemorations in Ruthin to mark the cessation of First World War hostilities was "The Last Bell Toll", on October 12th. A single chiming bell from St Peter's spire accompanying the projected names on the nave wall of the known First World War fallen was a most powerful, fitting and inspirational tribute to the memory of Ruthinians whose lives were wasted in conflict.
So many were so very young, innocent and unknowing. Their average age was 20½. Others, older, had longer lives to lose, perhaps with families of their own, inaccessible, unreachable, separated by distance, fear, and a focus directed on survival under a coating of filth. Why were they ripped apart like this? Would they ever be reunited? Why were their lives so fractured and wrecked?
With St Peter's doors open, the only sound apart from the bell was of the wind of the storm, as if swirling across Belgium heedless of nation and invading those terrifying trenches on both sides, indiscriminately picking its way through the half-starved and exhausted men, wrapping itself around them and stirring up their demoralisation, their loneliness, their desperation, and their apprehension, giving them little rest and no comfort.
The accompanying presentation graphics were subtle yet stark, the descending red poppy petals as the backdrop, falling as blood dripping from shattered corpses after artillery, pounding on pounding, had crushed, extinguished and exhausted countless young men's futures, splintering their plans so suddenly and destructively, as a tumbling bottle on tiles.
This was so we had a future. 101 known deaths and 100 years later, have we done justice to their sacrifice? We have anti-social behaviour, public swearing, blasphemy, drugs, boy racers, Hallowe'en, single parent families, global warming, a disrespect for authority, sleaze in politics, consumerism, multi-national control and online privacy issues. Are we but selfish, greedy, immoral, uncaring, hedonists who have grabbed and squandered? Was this the future they believed they were safeguarding?
The ceremony tonight also marked the end of the peel of bells at St Pater's, before a £96,000 lottery grant to refurbish them and their frame housing, replacing oak with metal. The same bells would have sounded at the end of the First World War
The accompanying presentation graphics were subtle yet stark, the descending red poppy petals as the backdrop, falling as blood dripping from shattered corpses after artillery, pounding on pounding, had crushed, extinguished and exhausted countless young men's futures, splintering their plans so suddenly and destructively, as a tumbling bottle on tiles.
It is understood that Rhuthun was among the first places to conduct circle bell-ringing and is believed to have been at the forefront of developing the technique. In Rhuthun, concerns about the bell chamber's structure resulted in regular bell ringing ceasing in the 1970s. The lottery grant will change that
This was so we had a future. 101 known deaths and 100 years later, have we done justice to their sacrifice? We have anti-social behaviour, public swearing, blasphemy, drugs, boy racers, Hallowe'en, single parent families, global warming, a disrespect for authority, sleaze in politics, consumerism, multi-national control and online privacy issues. Are we but selfish, greedy, immoral, uncaring, hedonists who have grabbed and squandered? Was this the future they believed they were safeguarding?
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