St Marychurch ringers were very sorry to hear that Ernie Pryce died on 1st October. He last rang with us in late April and had been looking forward to ringing for the Coronation but did not feel up to climbing our stairs. Soon after that he suffered a stroke and moved into Didsbury Court Residential home where he died peacefully.
Ernie learned to ring at his home church of Cornwood following his father into the tower. He first started work as an agricultural engineer repairing machinery round the farms on the edge of Dartmoor. National Service was in the Military Police and on returning home he soon decided to join the Devon Police force. His early postings took him to the South Hams where he soon fitted in well to his role as a rural "Bobby". He rang at several churches in the area and always retained a great affection for his time there. Eventually he moved to Torquay and promotion to Sergeant.
This is where he joined the St Marychurch band of ringers. In the 1970s St Marychurch bells were far from easy to ring having been derelict since the Second World War when the church was bombed. They were re-started in 1975 but Taylors had inspected them just prior to hostilities so they were obviously not in a good state even then. Eventually a plan evolved to re hang them and augment to 10. Most of the early work was done by the ringers and Ernie was a key member of the team.
Once the bells and frame were removed quite deep holes were required to be dug into the walls to take the new foundation beams. This was a tough job and Ernie managed to persuade a hire firm to lend us a Kango Hammer at no cost. Quite a few hours were spent on rather rickety scaffolding working our way deeper into the very hard stonework.(See photo) Ernie was often to be seen helping out with this back breaking work. He even managed to cadge another hammer when we burned out the first one! Outside ringing he was a very keen golfer and member of several masonic lodges. His participation in these activities was very much valued by his colleagues.
Although a call change ringer at heart he was always willing to ring the tenor behind to methods. If we were ringing call changes he often liked to leave the tenor and venture nearer to the "Shallow End". He was a regular presence each Sunday morning and always willing to help out for special occasions or weddings. He is very much missed by all the band. At his funeral the bells were half muffled and we rang a touch of Grandsire Caters. We also rang "Whole pull and Stand" at his request – something he often rang the tenor to over the years. We send our very sincere condolences to his family. RIP
