“Global Cooling” As Tintinnabulum pens these lines, snow and ice abounds everywhere. But in December, the ringers of St. Mary’s, in keeping with ringers throughout the country, were asked to ring a bell or two, 350 times to co-incide with the international conference on Global Warming being held in Copenhagen. The edict went out for gongs, bells, drums, conch shells or anything which calls people to prayer, to sound out loud and clear. Always obedient, Alan and Tom proceeded to ring two bells, well perhaps not exactly 350 times, but for roughly a quarter of an hour. Why 350 dongs? It refers to the 350 parts per million, the safe upper limit for CO2 in the atmosphere, according to those in the know! So although, again according to the scientists, climate change is the biggest threat we face, we did our bit.
Chocs and more Chocs: Just prior to Christmas we had a large tin of Roses Chocolates donated to us, followed over and after the Festive Season by more chocs and Liquorish Allsorts. Like most families, the soft centred ones were devoured first and the toffee ones seemed to linger on. After each ring we pounced on the table to select our favourites and now they’ve virtually all gone. It pays to get to ringing early! Many thanks to the donors.
Christmas and the New Year: Always busy seasons for ringers. Overall we rang three quarter peals, which brought our annual 2009 total to 43. Illness again limited the type of method we rang but outside listeners would not of differentiated between easy or difficult methods or indeed, whether 6 or 8 bells were ringing. The important message of Christmas was rung out. With the Christmas tree, lights, decorations and cards all put away for Christmas 2010, we look forward to our AGM and the rest of the New Year.
Recruits: We are always pleased to welcome anyone who would like to know a little more about this ancient art. Churchgoers or non-churchgoers are most welcome. We meet on Friday evenings between 7pm and 9pm and ring for Sunday services at 10 45am and for the more advanced ringers at 5pm. There is an informative coloured advert on the north porch notice board giving further details. We have ringers varying in ages between 9 years and 70 something, or why not have a word with any of the ringers, particularly the ones in the early stages of ringing and find out what they think about the activity.
2009 Quarter Peals: As mentioned earlier, we successfully completed 43 quarters during the last year. We actually attempted a few more but for various reasons some came to grief. We now await the publication later in the year, of the Peterborough Diocesan quarter peal leading tower list to see whether we have maintained the number one slot, which we have held for many years. This time the result may be very interesting, as we know that many handbell quarter peals have been rung by some enthusiasts at a location in Long Buckby. How many did they achieve and will they be listed separately from the tower bell list? We’ll let you know.
Brian and Val Hodgkin: As Brian mentioned in his talk at the 9 30am service on January 10th, he learned to ring at St. Mary’s and became a regular member of our band, ringing the odd peal and quarter peal. Val, on the other hand, learned at St. Mary’s Higham Ferrers and love blossomed between the bell ropes! Because they had to spend the time between the two morning services, mingling and talking, they were unable to join us for the morning ringing – maybe on their next visit. However it was good to see them both.
Canon Michael Wilson: We were all sorry to hear of Michael’s illness before and over Christmas and we send Vivienne and Michael our warmest greetings for a speedy recovery.
AGM 2010: For details of this exciting meeting, read the March edition of Gossip.
Tintinnabulum www.stmarysringers.org.uk