Belfry Gossip

What a Welcome: On one of those balmy, glorious, sunny days of late May, the bells of St. Mary’s rang out to welcome our new Rector and his family to Rushden. Cooped up in the warm, somewhat humid atmosphere of the ringing chamber, the ringers successfully attempted a three-hour peal of Rutland Surprise Major and only one non-St. Mary’s ringer in the band! Why not Cumbria, Lake District or Cald-beck Surprise Major? Couldn’t ring it, too hard or not even composed. Thanks Steve for taking time in your busy Sunday afternoon schedule to visit the ringing chamber after the peal, very much appreciated.

A quarter peal of Lincolnshire Surprise Major was rung the following Sunday for the same purpose.

But How Many Years With Us? Stephen had already visited us for a lesson on chiming a bell ready for his service of Institution and Induction. During the service, did you count the number of “dongs”, traditionally relating to the number of years in tenure? If you were counting, the number varied a little as the last three dongs were rather faint – we’ll plumb for between 14 and 15 years!! As the bell stopped chiming, the Archdeacon, as an aside, was heard to say, “We shan’t be disturbed for some time!”

Annual Outing: At the end of May, about thirty ringers and friends ventured over the county border into Warwickshire for the half day outing. Once again, ably organised by Pam, who also managed to secure ideal clear blue skies, perfect for ringing, we spent a reasonably relaxing half-day. While we had initial strength, the heaviest ring of the afternoon at St. James Southam, was our first tower. Being a ground floor ring (meaning we didn’t have to climb a staircase to the ringing chamber), members kept popping outside to photograph the surrounding views or enjoy the spring sunshine. At All Saints Harbury, the attractive village with its mixture of old and modern houses, afforded us the opportunity to ring the delightful eight bells. Here we pulled off for the first ring just as Chelsea and Everton kicked off for the Cup Final and before we had finished Everton had scored the first goal. We lost Brenda, who later returned having enjoyed a cuppa with her brother living in the village. Others had ice creams.

At St. Margaret’s Whitnash, we were reliably informed this was a wealthy church. We didn’t enquire “how” or “why”, but it looked as if they badly needed a huge tree, which over arched the tower, to be felled. The interior of the church had been extended but conversely the ringing chamber was small and stuffy. Teatime called. Picnic teas were taken in various places with the prize for the most unusual place going to the car load who set up table and chairs behind the local crematorium. Just imagine sandwiches and cakes being eaten without disturbance.

Fortified again, the eight bells at St. Peter’s Wellesbourne were nearly not rung. The key holder had to be prompted by his wife to let us in. Here we experienced quite springy ropes which some found tricky to handle. The final tower of St. Peter Kineton rounded off a most successful outing. Unfortunately one of the party locked her keys in the car boot and had to wait for a local garage to retrieve them. Some needed further fortifying while others made their way home.

Other Ringing: We were delighted to ring for Lesley and Colin Rowland’s service when they renewed their wedding vows. We gather the ringers failed to turn up on their wedding day, as it happened to be Cup Final Day. The wedding wasn’t at Rushden!

We were saddened but honoured that two of our ringers were invited to ring at the Cathedral at the time Bishop Ian’s coffin was received into the Cathedral and laid to rest overnight prior to the funeral service the following day. May he rest in peace.

Our Thanks to Hannah, Linda, Tom and Peter for their kind words in last month’s Gossip. We continue to value their company, sociability and progress and may it continue.

Progress: Like all activities, progress is important and needs to be measured and monitored. In ringing circles there is an organisation called the Sherbourne Bell Awards. It is a scheme for recording the progress of individual learners (using a record card) and recognising and celebrating their progress through the award of a series of badges. Their names also appear in the weekly Ringing World (our newspaper). Without any structure, learners may fail to recognise their own progress and feel they are “stuck” or feel over-whelmed by the amount they still have to learn...Lack of structure also makes it difficult for the tower captain and the rest of the band to recognise how well their learners have come on and to plan for further progress in the future.

Each learner is given a personal progress record card to fill in. When the learner begins learning a new skill they colour in the border of the corresponding bell on the card and when they have mastered that skill they colour in the bell itself. When a certain number of bells have been coloured they receive a badge. So keep working Hannah, Linda, Tom and Peter. Anyone else for ringing?

What’s On This Month? We usually do well in the Branch Striking Competition and we do very well at our annual barbecue. More about these two events in September’s Gossip.

Tintinnabulum www.stmarysringers.org.uk