Belfry Gossip
Unfortunately at the time of compiling "Gossip" there is no news to report on the proposed upper ringing room. Architects appear not to be the fastest of workers!! But on the other hand they do have much church work on their hands. However, restoration work is continuing on the tower and with plenty of replacement stone blocks around, work should not be held up.
Because of this work, ringing was brought to an abrupt end at the beginning of July. As well as affecting our weekly practice evenings and Sunday Service ringing, many wedding couples had requested the ringing of bells. There will be many saddened brides over the next few months.
With our bells out of action, it has been good to join the Irchester ringers for their Friday evening practices. With not so many advanced ringers at Irchester, we have been able to help out. However we haven’t neglected our local at Yelden!
Those who have read the weekly church notice sheet, know that we regained the Branch Striking Competition Trophy which we unexpectedly failed to retain last year. This means we now hold three trophies – something we have never previously achieved.
This year’s competition was held at Mears Ashby, which are not the easiest bells to strike. With 8 teams in the draw, it was most encouraging to see ringers taking part who only learned to ring three years ago for the Millennium.
Rushden’s
test piece was not without its problems. Because of a broken rope during the first competitor’s test piece, and the time it took to repair the rope, the judges decided to scrap each team’s usual practice piece and also ignore marking the first part of the test piece. Our captain made a right pig’s ear of the first part of our ringing but we quickly settled and were placed first. The judges commented "This was obviously an experienced band!"Congratulations to our captain who did manage to complete his 1000th quarter peal on St. Mary’s bells. Starting in 1953, when the bells had just been re-hung, there were many lean years when hardly any quarters were attempted. He wishes to thank everyone who has helped over the years in accomplishing this feat.
Our outing in June was most successful and Viv has compiled this report.
"For our ringing outing this year we visited the Fens – very green, flat and with enormous skies. Rain had been forecast but the day stayed dry although it certainly didn’t feel like mid summer. Until the evening there was not much blue sky but some very interesting cloud formations.
Our first church at Holbeach was a large and airy building. The bells were on a platform over coffee down below, but neither interfered with the other. The bells went well but were not easy to follow by listening. The tower was very open and light with large windows on two opposite sides. Long Sutton, just a few miles down the road, had a lovely ring of 8 bells, and everyone had the opportunity to ring rounds and call changes, Cambridge Major or Stedman. A well-struck touch of Bristol was rung too. The bells were very noisy outside the tower, and one infant in his pushchair went past with his hands firmly clasped over his ears!
After lunch we visited the church in Wisbech which was very big with lots of beautiful stained glass windows. They had an easy ring of 10 bells enabling us all to enjoy them. Stow Bardolph had a nice light and easy ring of 8 bells. The church had a lovely barrel-shaped roof. There was a side chapel where the Hare Family had their memorials, the last being Thomas, 5th Baronet who died in 1993. He had an unusual headstone in the graveyard picturing a full-grown tree with just his name and dates.
Onto Hilgay, which were definitely not the favourite bells that day. There was an extremely long walk between lime trees to the church, at the end of which was a small memorial garden and field of remembrance – beautiful red poppies spread over acres and certainly made visiting the church worthwhile.
After our picnic tea we went to the church of St. Mary’s next to Ely Cathedral. The bells sounded lovely and went at a very majestical pace. After a very exhausting but pleasurable day, we headed home. We were very grateful to many friends who had joined us for all or part of the day, as without them we would not have been able to ring such a variety of methods on so many bells. Our thanks to Tony for choosing the towers and to Pam for making all the arrangements".
Outside it is pouring with rain and our annual barbecue is in four days time – more of that in next month’s Gossip. If you are "on the net" do visit our web site, we have had well over 2000 hits.