Belfry Gossip

Belfry Gossip

Meg Boatright:

We were all greatly saddened to hear of Meg’s illness and her stay in hospital, firstly at Kettering, followed by some rehabilitation therapy at Wellingborough. However it was good to welcome her to our AGM., and to spend two hours with us away from hospital.

The weekend prior to being taken ill, Meg was enjoying a few days with the Royal Air Force Association of Ringers, of which she was a faithful member. She greatly enjoyed the holidays, weekends and meetings, together with mixing with fellow ringers she has known for many years.

The good news is she is continuing to make steady progress and we all trust it will not be too long before we see her back again at St. Mary’s.

Festival Ringing:

We are probably one of the few towers, if not the only tower in the Diocese which rings on Christmas Eve, again early on Christmas morning and again at 10am. Between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, we successfully attempted four quarter peals, as well as morning service ringing. But that is what dedicated ringing is all about.

2003 Quarter Peals:

During 2003 we rang 40 quarters and considering we were still out of action until the end of March, that is an excellent success rate. We are now awaiting the publication, later in the year, of the Peterborough Diocesan quarter peal leading towers list, to see whether we have regained pole position, which we have held for many years but lost in 2002 to St. Mary’s Peterborough.

Brian and Val Hodgkin:

How good it was to see Brian and Val in church on the Sunday before Christmas and before they returned to Papua New Guinea. They were of course, hoping to have joined us for the Jubilee Service last June, but Brian’s promotion, and thereby his extra responsibilities, prevented them from being with us. True to form, once a ringer always a ringer, Val had a ring with us. This was the first time she had pulled a bell rope for nearly 20 years and she did exceptionally well. Brian just slotted in.

50^th Anniversary Peal:

This was successfully attempted on the Saturday before Christmas. The peal commemorated the first peal rung on the newly rehung and augmented eight bells 50years ago on Saturday December 19^th 1953. The striking was very good, the method rung was the same as 50 years ago and Simon, one of our own ringers, conducted the peal. It took 2 hours 55 minutes to complete.

And so, while the choir was singing carols at their annual coffee morning, the ringers were making music outside for the residents and Christmas shoppers of Rushden. A report of the peal was recently published in the Ringing World, our weekly national newspaper.

Congratulations

to our belfry quiz team who entered and won the annual Wellingborough Branch quiz held at Great Doddington Hall in December.

Northants Mid Week Ringers:

The first Wednesday in each month is when a group of mostly retired ringers, gather at a different tower each month, to ring for about two hours in the afternoon, with a cup of tea at the half way stage. On Wednesday February 4^th, it’s Rushden’s turn to play host.

Sunday Evening Quarter Peals:

Gossip readers will recall that before we were prevented from ringing owing to the restoration work, way back in 2002, we dedicated some of our Sunday evening quarters to members of the congregation who had birthdays, anniversaries, baptisms etc. The event was commemorated by the ringing on an appropriate Sunday evening and also by receiving a certificate from the ringers.

If anyone would like to have a Sunday evening quarter peal rung for any special anniversary and receive a commemorative certificate, please let us know and we will gladly try to oblige.

Next month:

A report on our AGM.

www.stmarysringers.org.uk

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