Belfry Gossip
Golden Jubilee:-
soon after the June 1st celebrations, Meg wrote an article for the Ringing World, (the ringers weekly national journal), entitled "We decided to have a Party and God was with us." Eventually it was published in the July 25th edition. The article outlined what a great day was enjoyed by so many during that weekend.Ringing Roadshow:-
Quite a number of our ringers joined the thousands of other ringers at this biennial event, held this year at the Lincolnshire Showground. This is the fourth time such an event has been held and each year gets bigger and attracts more ringers. One visitor described the day as "a cross between a ringing trade fair and a parish fete, lay it out in and around an exhibition hall, a large marquee and a beer tent, sprinkle on over 3,000 ringers, get the sun to come out and stir gently."There were stalls and displays, seminars and advertising events, mini rings of bells, hand bells and everything connected with ringing. Sounded like a good day out.
Trips up Tower:-
These proved very popular. Many children climbed the 66 steps as did an 86year old member of the congregation and thoroughly enjoyed it. Interesting questions were asked – "How did the bells get there and why do we have bells?" "Why do the steps go round and round?" "What happens when the bells wear out?" – many more coffee mornings!!Ringers’Holiday:
Brenda writes:-"On Saturday August 7th, seven of our ringers travelled to North Norfolk, either for a week or a long weekend, to join our bell ringing friends for the annual holiday. We had booked five holiday cottages in the grounds of Sharrington Hall, about three miles from Holt. The weather was hot and breakfast outside was a common feature of the holiday.We rang at a variety of Norfolk churches including Holt, Fakenham, Wells, Little Walsingham, East Dereham and Cromer. We also rang in several churches in small villages and wondered how they managed to maintain such large buildings. Many of the bells we rang were not wonderful and made us all appreciate our own bells. On our free day on the Wednesday, people went to various places including the seaside at Wells, to Blakeney to see the seals off shore, to Sandringham House, Great Walsingham and the railway at Bressingham. These visits mirrored the varied interests of the group on such a hot day.
Thursday evening saw us all in the shared garden of our cottages for a barbecue and nearly the end of another excellent week".
Hot and Sticky Ringers:
Our new ringing chamber is nor suited to the weather we experienced at the beginning of August. However, with two oscillating fans, we coped. On the hottest Sunday of the year, Barbara, who joined us about eighteen months ago, rang her first quarter peal of Yorkshire Surprise Major at the first attempt, well done to her.Congratulations:
to Pam who recently rang her 900th quarter peal.Guild 8 Bell Striking Competition:
is to be held at Wicken, situated right at one extremity of the Diocese. Several of our ringers will make up the representative band for the Wellingborough competing branch.Visiting Peal Band:
While the harvest arrangements are being put into place around the church on Saturday September 27th, a peal will be attempted by some visiting ringers. Ringers love to sample the bells of other churches and those who ring peals often travel locally or even nationwide to ring peals. A peal takes approximately 3 hours to ring and some extremely keen individuals will attempt three in one day.A payment of money, per rope, is given to the local tower for the use of the bells and the peal ringers also pay a set fee to the Guild for which the peal is rung. The peal is then published in the Ringing World. Ringers often keep very detailed information concerning the peals they have rung e.g. who were the other ringers in the band, how many peals they have rung with other ringers, which number bell they ring in each tower and how many peals they’ve rung on a certain bell etc. Computerised recording is invaluable.
www.stmarysringers.org.uk
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