Belfry Gossip

When 11 o’clock became 13:To signal the beginning of the two-minute silence on Remembrance Sunday, the church clock strikes 11 o’clock. This sounds easy, as the church clock chimes the hour every day. But, on Saturdays and Sundays, the clock chimes have to be silenced while the bells are in the ringable position. To allow a strike of eleven on Remembrance Sunday, the tenor bell (the big one) has to be swung 11 times by one of the ringers. Sounds easy? Well it is really, but this year, because the ringer couldn’t stop the bell, there were an extra two chimes making 13. Did anyone notice? And who was the ringer? Ask the ringers!

However the rest of the Remembrance Sunday ringing was good, musical and a pleasure to listen to. In the evening we rang a good half-muffled quarter peal of Grandsire Triples, despite one of the band being delayed on the M1 and a stand-in made up the eighth ringer.

New Recruit: For several weeks we have welcomed our latest recruit to the Friday evening practices. She has progressed well and we trust she will continue to improve. Learning to ring is similar to learning in other activities. Learning is a progression and at times it can progress speedily but equally improvement can be slow or even put into reverse. The skill of handling a bell is followed by ringing in sequence with others; this has to be mastered before the fascinating introduction of change ringing.

Visiting Ringers: Towards the end of November we welcomed a band of ringers who spend some of their spare time ringing at different churches during the week days. They are mostly retired people and enjoy ringing in the morning followed by a pub lunch before ringing again in the afternoon. The ringing consists mainly of quarter peal attempts. Originally, at St. Mary’s, they were intending to ring a method called Superlative Surprise Major, but after a very "iffy" start they decided to try an easier method of Cambridge Surprise Major – for which they were successful. Such groups of ringers always leave a contribution towards the cost of maintaining the bells.

Advent Peal: Readers of these columns will recall the ringers usually attempt a peal for the beginning of Advent. Time wise, this often corresponds with the switching on of the town’s Christmas lights – but not this year. The successful attempt was on Advent Sunday and the ringers kindly added a footnote for the captain’s 70^th birthday. After three hours, the peal of Lincolnshire Surprise Major was successfully brought into rounds. The temperature in the ringing chamber was the same when they finished as before they started, 12oC.

Pudsey: - a town in North Yorkshire, the BBC Children in Need Bear and the name of a method in ringing. Although the ringers only attempt this method once a year to coincide with the annual BBC appeal, it was again successfully attempted in November. This year, an invited outside ringer, who had never rung a quarter peal of Pudsey Surprise Major before, was part of the band and she was thrilled with her efforts.

Christmas in the Ringing Chamber: As well as the usual Christmas tree visible from the church with its sparkling lights, we have added a nativity scene. This was placed on the central table with the ropes hanging round and as we ring it acted as a reminder to us all of the true meaning of Christmas.

From us all in the ringing chamber, a very Peaceful and Joyful New Year.

Tintinnabulum
www.stmarysringers.org.uk

Back