Belfry Gossip
Viv’s Success: How frustrating when you are attempting to ring a quarter peal of a method you’ve been practising for some time and something happens to the bell rope. This was the scene at the end of March when Viv was attempting a quarter peal of Lincolnshire Surprise Major. Having nearly reached the end, after about 35 minutes of ringing, suddenly the rope jammed and wouldn’t come down, no matter how hard she pulled. For some reason, the rope had "jumped its wheel". The attempt came to grief. How disappointed we all were. Not to be out done, a fortnight later, Viv was soon having another attempt and on Passion Sunday she successfully rang her first quarter of Lincolnshire. Well done, Viv. Now she’s working at another method called Stedman Triples and she’s doing very well.
Peal – on, off: According to the Evening Telegraph, on the first Sunday in April, St. Mary’s Rushden was to welcome ringers from all over the Diocese. This was certainly not the case and had to be immediately scotched. Some junior reporter had read April’s edition of Belfry Gossip and misinterpreted the information about a peal. A peal should have been attempted by a visiting band of ringers – some from the Diocese and the rest from Yorkshire. When anyone traps their fingers in a car door, pulling a rope or driving a car becomes very difficult. Apparently this was the reason why a carload of the band were unable to travel from the north. With half the peal band still in Yorkshire, the peal attempt was cancelled. Hence Viv was able to ring her new method.
Queen’s 80th Birthday: Friday April 21st was the Queen’s 80th birthday. Although it fell on a Friday, which is our practice night, we attempted a quarter peal of Grandsire Triples. As it was rung after Gossip was submitted for publication, Tintinnabulum is unable to report on its success or otherwise. Bells across the country and overseas were scheduled to ring out to celebrate this national event. Many peals and quarters were attempted in cities, towns and village churches, on 5, 6, 8, 10, 12 and possibly 14 and 16 bells. Even the 12 bells of St. Paul’s in London would undoubtedly have been pealed. All the successful attempts will be published in our national weekly paper, the Ringing World. Some of our own ringers were involved in a peal attempt earlier in the day, hence our quarter was scheduled for 7pm just prior to our practice.
Branch Quarter Peal Day: This annual event was again held in March. Unfortunately the planned quarter at Rushden was changed at the last minute. A ringer from another tower forgot to turn up and instead of 8 ringers taking part, seven successfully attempted a quarter of Cambridge Surprise Minor. Most of the attempts in other towers within the Branch were successful. The busy day ended with well over a dozen of the ringers enjoying a meal at the Carpenters Arms in Irchester – oh, and a pint or two!
Isambard Kingdom Brunel: Although he had nothing to do with ringing and bell construction, which is most surprising given his engineering background, Brunel is part of British history. He was responsible for many constructions – bridges, ships, tunnels, railways to name a few. We rang a quarter to commemorate the 200th anniversary of his birth in 1806.
Good Friday and Easter: Despite holidays for some, we rang a half muffled quarter of Grandsire Triples on the morning of Good Friday, while the March of Witness was in progress. The one big difference this year was no early ringing on Easter morning. However we rang for the 10 30pm. service and the usual quarter for the Easter Service of Carols.
Tintinnabulum
www.stmarysringers.org.uk
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