Ref. 25521-11THE pealing of bells from a parish church will soon remind villagers of the time when many of them danced to the music of one of Swindon's best-known dance bands.

Roger Summerfield, 84-year-old former saxophonist, is paying for a new bell to be hung at St Andrew's Church, Shrivenham, in honour of the Johnny Stiles Band.

Mr Summerfield of Marten's Close, Shrivenham, played lead tenor sax with the 20-strong Stiles line-up which twice during the 1940s won the All England dance band championship sponsored by Melody Maker newspaper.

Bell ringers at the church recently launched a £37,000 appeal to cover the cost of a new steel bell frame, the addition of two new bells and refurbishment of the existing peal of eight.

Mr Summerfield's gift is costing him £4,000.

"I thought it would be an appropriate thing to do," he said. "Church bells are music, and I am sure Johnny would have been pleased."

The inscription will read: Johnny Stiles Dance Band, Swindon. All British Champions 1948-49.

The Stiles band played regularly at the old Majestic and Locarno ballrooms in Swindon and attracted hundreds of dancers every Saturday. It also broadcast frequently on BBC radio in the 1940s and 50s.

"There was no one like Johnny Stiles, and hasn't been since," said Mr Summerfield, who learned to play the sax when he was 14 and gave up less than two years ago.

Like the rest of the Stiles line-up he was a part-time musician.

During daytime he worked as an inspector in the tool room at the Garrard engineering factory in Newcastle Street, which made some of the world's best record playing equipment. The firm also had a worldwide reputation as a clock manufacturer.

Johnny Stiles played trumpet. His band folded in 1958 with the advent of rock 'n' roll and skiffle and was taken over by Gordon Talbot. Johnny and his wife Liz became licensees of the White Hart Inn at Stratton St Margaret. He died in 1986 at the age of 72.

Tony Crabtree, captain of the St Andrew's tower, said he had rung at more than 2,900 churches in Britain and this was the first time he had heard of a church bell being dedicated in memory of a dance band.

"We have to have the inscription approved by the diocesan trustees in Oxford, but I am optimistic they will do so.

"Our own parochial church council is enthusiastic about it and several members said they remember Johnnie Stiles and had danced to the band."

Roger Summerfield is one of four surviving members of the original Stiles band and Mr Crabtree and Shrivenham's vicar, Rev Richard Hancock, hope they will be at the dedication ceremony when the new bells and the re-cast peal are hung.

"We might even be able to get them to play sweet music in the church porch," said Mr Crabtree.

The work will be done at the Whitechapel Bell Foundry in London and they hope to have the bells ready for ringing before the end of September.