Belfry Gossip

Congratulations: On a warm Sunday evening in June, Adam, our youngest recruit, successfully rang his first quarter peal at the first attempt. This is a tremendous achievement for someone so young – aged 11 years. He was asked to ring non-stop for 45 minutes and towards the end he became hotter and sweatier. When asked, "Any blisters? – yes. Any thoughts? – yes, why am I doing this and shall I get to the finish?" However a sense of relief, satisfaction and achievement shone through at the end and it was for a Sunday service too.

60th Anniversary: In keeping with ringers throughout the land, we rang at 5pm. on June 10th to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the ending of hostilities in 1945. We started our quarter peal at about 4 15pm. and despite a false start, we rang a very good quarter of Stedman Triples, not the easiest of methods, finishing soon after 5pm., in time for the start of the Service in the Park. In August we hope to have rung a quarter to commemorate the 60th anniversary of VJ Day.

Leslie Sanders: The ringers were particularly saddened to hear of the passing of Leslie Sanders at the grand age of 104 years. He had been a faithful member of St. Mary’ for most of his life and up to about 18 months ago, was a regular member of the congregation, usually at one of the communion services. He loved his regular seat near a radiator and it was ill health that eventually prevented him from taking his usual place. He continued to take great interest in the life of the church and was a generous benefactor over the years, particularly with the construction of the upstairs ringing chamber. Despite several of our ringers away on holiday, we managed to ring for his funeral on the first day of August. May he rest in peace.

Holidays: Several of our ringers joined other ringers on a ringing holiday in the North Yorkshire/Darlington area, a very scenic part of the country, where they spent most of the week visiting and ringing at different churches. Two other ringers had earlier ventured to Norfolk, where despite a lousy week, weatherwise, they rang for an evening service in a little village and who should be taking the evensong? – Canon Michael Wilson, our former Rector. It proved quite nostalgic, as 26 years previously, he had married them at St. Mary’s.

Buckingham Palace Visit: Two of our ringers attended one of the July Garden Parties in the Palace grounds. Despite being caught up in the transport chaos caused by the bombs in the capital, they made it and to read more about it, a separate report appears on an earlier page.

Guild 8 Bell Striking Competition: This is scheduled to be held at Byfield in mid September. As usual, the Wellingborough Branch will be entering the competition, with the band comprising mostly of St. Mary’s ringers. Result in the November edition.

Open Door: At the time of going to press, all our plans have been put into practice with some good publicity and suitable literature ready to be handed to the visitors. Refreshments have been organised and the video camera ready to relay pictures from the bell chamber to a screen in the church. How did the morning go? – read next month’s Gossip.

Tintinnabulum
www.stmarysringers.org.uk

Back