Belfry Gossip
Winning Again: On a glorious sunny, warm evening in July, six bands of ringers from churches in the Wellingborough area met at St. Laurence Stanwick for the annual Branch Striking Competition. The judge, who came from another part of the Diocese, prowled around the churchyard to find a suitable place from where he could clearly hear the bells, without too much interference. Eventually he was seen no more until after the final competitive band had completed their piece of ringing. The start was delayed. Six volunteers from the early arrivals pulled the bells up, set them, knotted the ropes and walked out of the ringing chamber. However, Jim, one of our members, was just wandering out of the church when one of the bells started to ring. With no-one on the end of the rope, the wooden stay, which holds the bell in position, had given way and allowed the bell to ring. After some fetching of suitable tools, the stay was replaced. The assembled ringers were surprised and somewhat alarmed to see the broken stay – more like an old piece of wood from the hedgerow. St. Mary’s team was placed in 1st position and thereby retained the winner’s shield.
Annual Outing: Do you remember where we were going? Just before the real scorching weather at the end of July, car loads of ringers set off on the annual outing to the neighbouring county of Leicestershire. Most of the ringers met at St. Wilfrd’s, Kibworth Beauchamp, our first ring of the day. The toilets in the adjoining church hall proved most welcome. The first and only hitch of the day occurred at this tower. Brenda’s strength caused a rope to break, but fortunately the bell fell back onto the stay and set itself – she maintained that was down to good bell control! The rope was obviously wearing rather thinly before we arrived and we were the unlucky ones to finish it off.
Having rung for nearly an hour, we left the rather stuffy ringing chamber for St. Cuthbert’s , Gt. Glen. Other ringers joined us and although parking was not easy, we received a very warm welcome. The well - kept church differed from the ground floor ringing chamber which required some t.l.c.
Lunch was taken at a neighbouring hostelry and after a longish break we eventually arrived at South Wigston. Although a "road closed" sign caused some to take a longer route, others ploughed through and made it. A peal board in the ringing chamber indicated a peal of over 10,000 changes (normal peal length between 5000 and 5500 changes) was rung on Boxing Day 1901 with one of the ringers from Finedon. How many wives were consulted?
We back-tracked to All Saints Wigston Magna and our guide notes stated "We must be on our best behaviour". A wedding had just finished so the happy couple had free bells for their wedding. The vicar informed us he had passed through Rushden the previous week on his motorbike together with his lady worker on hers. They were looking for a suitable place for a pub meal. They finished up in Higham Ferrers.
The tower before our tea break was St. Peters Whetstone where the lovely going 8 bells were enjoyed and where some of our party bought various items from the Trade Craft stall in the church. Picnic teas were taken at various locations including the next churchyard. Countesthorpe was our last tower and after saying our "thank you’s", we bid our farewells. Some came home directly, others indirectly! A good day with not too much travelling.
Annual Barbecue: Brenda and John had laid the garden out for sun and rain. After a few early spots, the rest of the afternoon was fine in all ways. The usual drinks, the usual barbecued dishes of this and that and with Alan overseeing the cooking, a good meal was enjoyed by everyone. With one of our Wardens present, it was suggested the Church Wardens could organise a parish barbecue! The puddings were equally soon destroyed and we sat back and reminisced. A successful quarter peal was attempted later in the afternoon.
Tintinnabulum
www.stmarysringers.org.uk
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