Martin Major 18 August1944 – 11 January 2026
April 16, 2026 4:07 pm | by Terry Brown | Posted in Tributes
Martin was born and grew up in Henlow, a village he always thought of as home, it was here that he learnt to ring under the tutelage of Lewis Bywaters who he, like many others, revered as a ringer and mentor. His first peal came in February 1958 and by the end of that year he had rung 9 peals, including one on Christmas Day. Interestingly of his total of 931 peals he never rang one on either Christmas Eve or Boxing Day.
At the time he was learning, Henlow had a good band who rang many of the standard 6 bell methods to a high standard. Martin therefore received a thorough grounding in the priorities of ringing which he tried to live up to for the rest of his life. In later years he was well known locally, for having inherited Lewis’ “Tut” when he thought ringing was not good enough.
After leaving school he took an apprenticeship with a local printing company subsequently joining a cruise line as the ships printer, producing menus, newsletters etc. This took him around the world at least twice. Later when his daughter went globetrotting she was surprised to find that her Dad was able to offer advice on activities in the various places she visited.
My first peal with Martin was in 1961 and over the next 20 years we rang many more, a lot of which Martin organised. To start Martin would do the conducting, but after he became friends with Alan Barber, he took a back seat just calling the occasional peal.
Early in 1972 he married Julia Fellows, who was a member of John Mayne’s groundbreaking handbell band, after which they moved to Leicester where they both joined in with local ringing, both on tower and handbells, in a variety of methods including 165 Spliced Surprise Major. It was whilst they were here that Martin organised the towers for Stephen Ivin’s 1973 week and rang in 9 of the 10 peals of London we scored. I have no recollection of why he wasn’t in all 10.
Towards the end of the decade, they moved back to Bedford, where he joined the band at St Paul’s, just as the augmentation was about to take place. The augmentation, of course, was a period of excitement in Bedford as Stephen Ivin’s fine ten-bell band got to grips with ringing on twelve. Martin was very much a part of this. There is a recording of a touch of Stedman by the local band just after the trebles went in and the rhythm and striking is remarkably good. The first peal on the new 12 was in March 1978 and by Christmas a peal of Bristol Maximus was scored, both being rung by the local band, of which Martin was a member.
Not long after that Steve and Avril decided to move away from Bedford. When they left in February 1980 Martin Major and Martyn Marriott were elected to share the running of the tower. The arrangement worked well. Martin played a key part in keeping Steve’s legacy going and in maintaining a high standard of ringing at Bedford in the early 1980s.
He was in the early morning peal at Bedford for the Bedfordshire Association Centenary in March 1982, which commenced at 6.05 a.m. in order to be finished before the start of the first concert of the Bedford Music Festival in the nearby Corn Exchange at 9.30. In May he called a peal of Stedman Cinques at Bedford, his 500th peal, but that was more or less the start of a ten-year absence from the peal columns. It was his domestic responsibilities that caused Martin’s ringing to be very much reduced and limited to the very occasional visit to family in Henlow. During this time Martin became a youth leader at the family’s local Church, arranging outings, football matches etc, for which he drove the minibus. The three children John, James and Sarah remember these as being fun times.
In the late 90’s he and Julia went their separate ways and Martin gradually adjusted and resumed his ringing career getting fully back into his stride in the year 2000 both ringing and organising peals. At this time he rekindled a childhood friendship with Margaret who he married in 2005. In addition to his ringing Martin and Margaret were keen supporters of The Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal and he served as Treasurer of the Henlow Branch for several years. In 2018 Martin & Margaret were both very honoured to be invited to Westminster Abbey in the presence of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and the Royal Family to a service to mark the centenary of the Armistice, a day never to be forgotten!
When we realised that he had rung 900 peals we persuaded him that 1000 was in his grasp, unfortunately Covid then got in the way after which he never really got going again. I suspect we were keener on numbers than he was.
Despite having rung many different methods he always retained the traditionalist approach he learnt from Lewis Bywaters and instilled those priorities in others when he was Tower Captain at Henlow for several years.
In summary Martin was very understated and modest about his own considerable abilities, characteristically expressing appreciation for the talents and achievements of others, always considering them ahead of his own.
For the last year or so he would come on Tuesday and Sunday but it became increasingly difficult to persuade him to ring, although he was happy to join us in the Five Bells after practice.
For his colleagues in the tower, it was a saddening experience to witness his decline as the Alzheimer’s took its inevitable toll, he is greatly missed.
Anthony Smith.
With assistance from: Martin’s family, Chris Pickford and Steve Stanford.