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Spring Newsletter From the Bell Ringers of Hurstpierpoint |
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Dear Friends and Neighbours Covid restrictions in 2020 and 2021 had a significant effect on our ringing activities, and on recruitment opportunities, and as it is nearly three years since our last newsletter it is now time for an update. Changes in service times mean that on Sundays we now chime (tunes) for the 8.00 a.m. said Communion service on the first Sunday in the month, ring weekly for the 9.30 a.m. Sung Eucharist and chime for the new and now weekly vibrant all-age service at 11.00 a.m. We also ring for weddings, funeral and memorial services as required and we enjoy ringing for special village events such as the St. Lawrence Fair, the Hurst Festival and Santa’s Super Sunday. Our weekly practice continues on Thursday, from 7.30 to 9.00p.m. Special ringing in 2022 included ringing in June in thanksgiving for the Platinum Jubilee of HM Queen Elizabeth II and sadly, barely two months later, ringing fully muffled in mourning. We now look forward to marking the coronation of King Charles III in May.
Learning to ring We plan an attempt to ring the 100th peal at Holy Trinity on Saturday 1st April, starting at 10 a.m. and taking just under three hours. Covid restrictions prevented peal attempts in 2020 and 2021 but we now wish to resume. As you know from former newsletters, we limit the number of full peal attempts to one every year or so, as we recognise that three hours of ringing may not be enjoyed by all our nearest neighbours and friends. Holy Trinity Hurstpierpoint was a popular tower for peal attempts from the 1880s to the 1920s but a very lean period then followed until the 1970s. In total 99 peals have been rung at Holy Trinity. A special band has been selected comprising ringers who learnt at Hurstpierpoint – some of them are still ringers at Hurst and others who have moved away and are now members of other bands. We hope the ringing will be good and enjoyable to listen to.
Tower website
Best Wishes,
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Captain's Previous Newsletters, 2007 onwards (reverse date order) July 2020August 2019 October 2018 July 2018 October 2017 September 2016 December 2015 May 2015 July 2014 June 2013 April 2013 December 2012 July 2012 October 2011 February 2011 October 2010 late June 2010 June 2010 January 2010 November 2009 March 2009 April 2007 Summer Newsletter
Hello all, I'm William. I took over from John Norris as tower captain at the AGM in November. Little did I know I would end up as captain during the first major pause in change ringing since World War 2. Looking to life before lockdown a band including 3 locals (myself, Rachel and Sue) successfully rang a full peal in September to mark the 150th anniversary of the establishment of St Lawrence School (this was the 99th full peal on the bells, so whenever the next one is, it will be a big moment for the tower). We kept to our normal timetable of Chiming for the 8.00am service and Ringing for the 9.45am service on a Sunday, and practising on Thursday evenings. Many of our ringers have made good progress during this time with a special mention for our newest recruit Ian, who rang his first quarter peal on the 31st of October.
Ringing for Sunday service on 15th of March was a rather sombre moment looking back. The following day the country started to go into lockdown. This has meant we have not been able to ring for local events, like the St Lawrence Fair, which we have rung for throughout its history. Nor have we been able to celebrate major events like the anniversary of VE Day, or mark the sad death of Dame Vera Lynn. Ringing events which we were looking forward to have also been cancelled. Our annual tower outing was to have been to Oxford, but has now been postponed to next year. Meanwhile, both the South East Youth Competition and the National Youth Contest, in which several of our young ringers were due to compete, have been cancelled.
On the bright side, we had a smaller outing to the Seaford area just before lockdown started. Good progress was made with band members getting to experience other towers while enjoying the social atmosphere it provided. As a band, we have also been able to stay in contact during these times. In place of practice night, we have had Zoom calls and have utilised ringingroom.co.uk. This website was created during lockdown as a way for bands to ring together, online, where each ringer presses a button on their computer keyboard to make a bell sound. We have used it to keep ringing during lockdown, it keeps us on point while having a bit of fun. We have no planned extra ringing at present. We hope it won’t be too long before we can ring for weddings once more, and welcome visiting ringers.
Looking to the future I am pleased to say bellringing will be coming back in a limited fashion. The government has allowed us to ring for services for 15 minutes on socially distanced bells. This means we will be ringing on fewer bells than usual and also ringing on unusual combinations of bells, so ringing will sound different to what you are used to. The first ringing will be on Sunday the 12th of July at 8.45 a.m., coinciding with the first service to resume since March. Ringing will be performed under strict conditions to reduce the risk of transmission of COVID 19. We very much hope you will look forward to the bells ringing out once again, as much as we are.
If you have any enquiries do feel free to contact me (will@jamiestaffordbathrooms.co.uk) or our secretary Sue Elrick (01273 832019, sue.elrick09@gmail.com). You can also get information from our website (www.hurstpierpointbells.org.uk). Whether you are interested in becoming a ringer, want more information about ringing or something else, we will help you as best as we can! With that, I shall sign off. Thank you for reading and we hope you enjoy our ringing as it comes back. All the best! William Stafford, Tower Captain late Summer Newsletter Dear Friends and Neighbours, It’s nearly a year since our last Newsletter in October 2018. In that newsletter I mentioned amongst other matters our planned ringing on November 11th as part of the national celebrations to mark the centenary of the end of hostilities in World War. I also mentioned the death of our ringing colleague Peter Hurcombe at the beginning of October and the full peal we hoped to ring in his memory. This we duly achieved, conducted by Peter’s 16 year old granddaughter Rachel. As you know from former newsletters we do like to attempt one full peal every year or so, if we have a suitable occasion to mark, and this year we have more cheerful events to celebrate – the 200th anniversary of the decision to establish a National School in Hurst and the 150th anniversary of the school’s move to new buildings on the present site in Trinity Road (which we commemorated with a centenary peal in 1969). The peal attempt will be on the morning of Saturday 7th September, starting at 10 a.m. and taking just under three hours. Former St. Lawrence pupil and outstanding young ringer William Stafford will be conducting the peal. He is selecting a band of ringers young and old and we hope the ringing will be good and worth lending an ear to. All our young ringers continue to make good progress and three from Hurst were in the band of eight Sussex ringers that came first in the South East England Ringing Contest at Horton Kirby in Kent in April and sixth out of twenty four teams in the closely fought National Youth Contest in Liverpool in July. (The teams are judged for the accuracy of their ‘striking’, the aim being to achieve an exactly equal interval between the striking of successive bells, just as we strive with varying degrees of success to achieve at Hurst. Ringing on practice nights and Sundays (chiming for the 8.00 a.m. service and ringing for the 9.45 a.m.) continues as usual, plus ringing for weddings and occasionally for funeral and memorial services. We also enjoy ringing for village events such as the St. Lawrence Fair and the Hurst Festival. To mark the latter we have been asked to ring at 12.30 on September 15th for half an hour. We also plan to have an Belfry Open Afternoon that day from 2.30 until 4.00. Do take the opportunity to come and visit us if you would like to learn something about the bells and the ancient science and art of change ringing. There will be demonstrations, information, explanation and even an opportunity to have a go on one of our two dumbbells. If you are interested but aren’t able to come along on 15th, you will find us in the belfry every Thursday evening from 7.00 p.m. Tower website Best Wishes, P.S. You may well have noticed that the timekeeping of the church clock has been rather wayward in recent months. The clock is professionally serviced every year but there is at present an unresolved minor fault and when the clock is restarted after a power failure or a stoppage to allow adjustment, the pendulum sometimes seems to ignore the law that should control its motion! Autumn Newsletter Dear Friends and Neighbours, I little thought when I wrote in July that I would be writing again so soon but there are a couple of relevant items to report. Writing of the peal attempt by the Lilliput Guild of young ringers on 6th August, I observed that “We like to have a full peal attempt at Hurst every year or so. Very rarely we have two. We limit peal attempts because we recognise that three hours of ringing may not be enjoyed to the full by all our nearest neighbours and friends.” In the event the Lilliputters didn’t ring a full peal. Due to the very hot weather that day and doctor’s advice to one member of the band who was feeling slightly unwell they rang two quarter peals instead. And now a situation has arisen that we very much wish to commemorate with a full peal and that is the recent death of one of our members – Peter Hurcombe. Peter, who came originally from Gloucestershire, joined the band when he moved to Hurst almost fifty years ago. He was already an outstanding ringer with a national reputation and his skills led to a great improvement in our ringing at Hurst, reaching a standard in the 1980s that exceeded anything achieved here before or since. Amongst his many roles, he served as captain of the Hurst band for some years and on the wider front he served two periods as Master of the Sussex County Association of Change Ringers, leading us with distinction in 1985, our centenary year. Ill health dogged his latter years but he maintained his interest in ringing to the last, listening from his bed to practice night on 4th October very shortly before he died. His grand-daughter Rachel carries on the family ringing tradition. We are very keen to honour his memory with a full peal and with the kind agreement and support of our Rector, the Revd. Jane Willis, a mixed band of Hurst ringers and contemporaries and friends of Peter from other towers will be attempting a peal on the morning on Thursday 25th October, starting 10 a.m. This is the day before the funeral, which is on Friday 26th October at 1.30, when there will be half-muffled ringing for approx. half an hour before the service and approx. half an hour after it. We will of course be taking part in the national celebrations on November 11th to mark the centenary of the end of hostilities in World War I. As always on Remembrance Sunday we shall be ringing half-muffled for the 9.45 Family Service and before the Act of Remembrance at 11.00. Then, having removed the muffles, this year we shall be ringing at 12.30 in accordance with the official arrangements supported by HM Government to celebrate the coming of peace one hundred years ago. Finally, at 7.05 p.m. we will be ringing briefly in company with other local churches – Keymer, Ditchling and Twineham among them – to coincide with local beacon lighting on the Downs and elsewhere. This will be part of “Battle’s Over”, the evening celebrations organised by Bruno Peake MBE, the Queen’s Pageant Master, and supported by Mid Sussex District Council. Then we shall get back to normal and quieter times, with Christmas ringing to be looked forward to in due course. Tower website Best Wishes, Summer Newsletter Dear Friends and Neighbours, It's been another busy year since our last Newsletter in October 2017. As well as regular ringing on practice nights and Sundays we have rung for three weddings, for Hurst Festival Super Sunday in September, for the Traders Christmas Shopping Afternoon in December and for the St Lawrence Fair in June. Other service ringing has included the funeral of Noelle Gwynne and thanksgiving services for Rosemary Brown and Fergus Anckorn. Our team of chimers have chimed for the 8.00 service throughout the year and in July played hymns for the funeral of Janice Chumley. We have rung four quarter peals at Holy Trinity, including Plain Bob Doubles (12 year old Jonathan Martin's first quarter) and Cambridge Surprise Minor for the 80th birthday of Sylvia Thornhill, conducted by her grandson William. Sadly a quarter peal attempt in November for the Platinum Wedding of HM The Queen and HRH Prince Philip was one of several unsuccessful quarter peal attempts. Our annual outing this year, organised by William Stafford and supported by ringing friends from other towers, took us by train to central London, where we rang at five churches including St James, Garlickhythe - on the Royal Jubilee bells that you may remember having seen in the river procession to mark HM The Queen's Diamond Jubilee - and the 12 bells of St Magnus the Martyr. Further afield, two of our ringers on a WWI battlefield visit rang at St. George's Memorial Church Ypres, a new ring of bells in one of only two churches with bells hung for English ringing in mainland Europe. Our young ringers continue to make good progress both at Hurst and on the wider ringing stage, despite the constraints of GSCE year for several of them. Two of the band, Rachel Mahoney and William Stafford, represented Sussex in the South East England Youth Ringing Contest in April and in the National Youth Contest in London in July. Captained by Rachel, the Sussex team won both events, a great result. Peal Attempt, Monday 6th August Other forthcoming events Best Wishes, Autumn Newsletter Dear Friends and Neighbours It's been a busy year since our last Newsletter in September 2016. As well as regular ringing on practice nights and Sundays we have rung for six weddings, for the Traders Christmas Shopping Afternoon in December, for the licensing of the Revd. Jane Willis as Rector in February, for the St Lawrence Fair in July, and for Hurst Festival Super Sunday in September. We have also rung seven quarter peals, including quarters for the Carol Service, for the 90th birthday of Rosemary Brown, for the Golden Wedding of Peter & Kate Hurcombe in March, conducted by their granddaughter Rachel, and on BBC Music Day in June to mark the ordination to the priesthood of my daughter Jules. Our young ringers continue to make good progress both at Hurst and on the wider ringing stage. Alex Martin, Rachel Mahoney and William Stafford represented Sussex in the South East England Youth Ringing Contest in April, where Sussex entered two teams and came first and second, and William and Rachel represented Sussex in the National Youth Contest at Birmingham in July. One of nineteen teams from all parts of the country, the Sussex team, captained by Rachel, made it through the heats to the final, where they were placed third; an excellent effort. Forthcoming Events As ever, we try to keep up to date all the information on our website www.hurstpierpointbells.org.uk, so do please keep an eye on it, not least for details of future ringing events. For more information, to arrange to learn to ring, or just to come and look, please contact me (01273 843718) or just turn up on a Thursday evening. Best Wishes, Autumn Newsletter Dear Friends and Neighbours As you may have read in the Parish Magazine, this year for the first time, ’Heritage Open Days” have joined forces with the Central Council of Church Bell Ringers to open up the heritage hidden inside England’s bell towers and bring to life the 400-year old tradition of English-style bell ringing. It will be a unique opportunity for thousands of ringers across England to share their passion with millions of visitors who every year venture out to discover the treasures on their doorstep. The challenge has been set to open up 500 bell towers for the public to explore and encourage ringing bands up and down the country to offer special bell ringing experiences. Here at Hurst we will be taking part in a national | ||||||
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on Saturday 10th September we will be holding a:- Tower Open Afternoon from 2 to 5 p.m. | ||||||
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We value you as neighbours and appreciate both your suppport if you like what we do and your forbearance if you are not quite so keen! Why not take this opportunity to come and see us and what we do? Please note that access to the belfry is by a stone spiral staircase. A handrail is provided but unfortunately the staircase is not really suitable for people with limited mobility. If you would like more information do visit our website (www.hurstpierpoint bells.org.uk) or contact me direct on 01273 843718. And remember, if you can’t manage the Open Afternoon, visitors are always welcome, particularly on a Thursday evening. Best Wishes, Winter Newsletter Dear Friends and Neighbours Christmas is fast approaching so it seems a good time to acquaint you with our doings and to advise you of our ringing times over the Christmas period:- Sunday 20 December: We also have visiting ringers, the East Grinstead Guild, ringing here this Saturday afternoon 12th December from 2.30 to 4 p.m. (We have declined one other request for ringing in view of the extra ringing over the Christmas period). It’s been a busy time since our last newsletter in May. As well as regular ringing on practice nights and Sundays we have rung for five weddings, for the St Lawrence Fair and for the Hurst Festival. We have also rung quarter peals to mark the 70th anniversary of VE Day; HM the Queen becoming the UK’s longest reigning monarch; the funeral of local ringer Tony Humphrey, and the Advent Carol Service. We were successful in ringing the full peal of Plain Bob Triples on 16 May, of which we gave advance notice in the last newsletter, and of course we had our annual outing, this time by car rather than coach, ringing at five towers in Surrey. All this ringing has provided good opportunity for our aspiring younger ringers. Two more have recently started learning and we now have seven aged 14 and under. They have transformed the ageing appearance of the belfry (well, its human contents anyway!). All the youngsters are making good progress at their various skill and experience levels and one, Rachel Mahoney, rang in the peal on 16 May. She was also selected for the Sussex team in the National Young Ringers Competition at Oxford in July, Sussex being placed joint 2nd out of 19 teams. Trying to manage things in the belfry – to make sure that everyone, young or old, gets a fair chance to ring methods they like and develop their ringing skills while at the same time maintaining a good standard of ringing for our captive audience – is no easy task for the Captain. At times our ringing has reflected our increasing skills but at others it has fallen short of what we would all like. In ringing, as in many challenging activities, one can’t make omelettes without breaking eggs. Sometimes too it can be helpful for a ringer to learn to keep their head when “all around are losing theirs ...” but there are no doubt times when I have let unsatisfactory ringing – bells clashing instead of ringing with equal spacing – go on for longer than I should. I will try and do better! Meanwhile I hope you enjoy the ringing when it’s good and I appreciate your forbearance when it isn’t. The situation should in any case improve as our young ringers become more proficient. Why not visit the belfry on a Thursday evening and see them at work? As ever, we try to keep all our information on our website www.hurstpierpointbells.org.uk, so please do have a look. For more information, to arrange to learn to ring, or just to come and look, please contact me (01273 843718) or just turn up on a Thursday evening. Best wishes from all the ringers for a Happy Christmas and a bright New Year John Norris Spring Newsletter from the Bell Ringers of Hurstpierpoint | ||||||
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There‘s been a change at the top! Sue has stood down after 10 years as captain and vice captain and I‘ve taken over for another stint as captain. I fear I‘m not as diligent a Newsletter writer as Sue but I hope I‘ve allowed just enough time to keep you abreast of current events! As you may have noticed we rang at 11.00 last Saturday for fifteen minutes as part of the nationwide events to commemorate the 70th anniversary of VE Day. Four of our young ringers, aged fourteen and under, took part in the ringing. Many churches up and down the land, include those around Hurst, were ringing at the same time so we were unable to gather ringers for a quarter peal or even a full peal. In fact, although we like to have a full peal attempt at Hurst every year or so if there is a suitable event to mark, we haven‘t rung one for almost two years. However, as you may have read at length in the Parish Magazine, or on the tower web site www.hurstpierpointbells.org.uk, we are hoping to ring a full peal this Saturday 16th May, starting at 9.30 a.m. We will do out best to ring well. If you like the bells we hope you enjoy the ringing and if you are not so keen we hope you will kindly bear with us. We‘ve deliberately chosen a Saturday morning when people are generally out and about and busy rather than later in the day when they might be relaxing in their garden. Most ringers aspire to ring at least one peal in their ringing career — to some extent it is a rite of passage for keen ringers. Saturday‘s peal attempt will be a first for thirteen year old Rachel Mahoney so it will be a big day for her, especially if we are successful. All our young ringers continue to make good progress, marked by a number of quarter peals rung in recent months at Hurst and elsewhere. See our website for more information. Other forthcoming ringing events currently in the diary are:- Weddings Visiting Ringers Ringers Outing Church Clock Anti-bird Netting to the Belfry Louvres. This has become displaced in places. It will shortly be attended to. As ever, we try to keep all our information on our website, so please do have a look. Summer Newsletter from the Bell Ringers of Hurstpierpoint Well, I can't believe that it really is a whole year since I wrote the last Newsletter. Sadly, that's an indication that we have had so little "extra curricular" activity! In other words, few visiting ringers or special events and nothing much in the way of quarter peals being rung. The reason for us not ringing quarter peals is, I'm afraid, that we have a very small band at the moment and are concentrating on teaching our youngsters. I am delighted to report that our young ringers are making good progress and at least 2 of them are almost capable of ringing a quarter peal of a method. So watch this space for more news. Thursday evening practice nights sometimes end ahead of time because of our small numbers, so I am looking at ways of recruiting more learners. This will add strength to our band. Do of course, contact me if you or anyone in your family, or that you know, would like to come along to see what's going on with a view to becoming a Bellringer. Sunday morning ringing continues as usual, with chiming hymn tunes for the 8 o'clock service and then the full band from 8.45 until the 9.45 service. There have been 4 weddings since March, for which we have rung. You may have heard us ringing for the opening of the St Lawrence Fair again this year. Wasn't that a lovely day? My family certainly enjoyed it. A visiting band from Basingstoke came to ring on Saturday 12th July. We have a few more weddings to ring for over the next few months: At 7.45 on Monday, 18th August, a visiting band from the northern part of our County will be coming to attempt to ring a quarter peal. A quarter peal is usually a good standard of ringing, as the ringers have to change the order of their bells to a set pattern for about 45 minutes - and get it right, in order to be successful! So it should make nice listening. There is a meeting of the Sussex County Association of Bellringers being held on Saturday 27th September in the Scout Headquarters. They will also be ringing our bells for an hour after the meeting, from 4pm until 5pm. We too will be attempting to ring a quarter peal to mark the opening of the Hurst Festival on Saturday 13th September at 10am. Finally, on 31st October and 1st November, the Annual County Training course is being held and Hurst is one of the many towers being used. However, you won't hear a sound! We use our simulator for such events, so if the windows are open, you may just spot ringers pulling ropes, but the sound inside the belfry is electronic. Enjoy the rest of your summer and all this lovely weather. It's so much better than that awful endless rainy winter we had, even if the gardens loved it. As ever, we try to keep all our information on our website, so please do have a look. For more info, to arrange to learn to ring, or just to come and look, please do contact me. Sue Elrick 832019 www.hurstpierpointbells.org.uk Summer from the Bell Ringers of Hurstpierpoint Last time I wrote, Spring was in the air. Today I get a feeling that summer was in the air, but has somehow managed to get a little confused. But at least the heating has gone off for a few months. The church is looking fantastic. If you haven't yet seen the beautiful glass doors in the entrance foyer, do take a few minutes to look. They are beautiful. I'm glad to say that our Plain Bob Minor quarter peal attempt, for the service of blessing of the new work ,was successful. The annual coach Outing took place on 15th June, when we visited 6 towers in Oxfordshire. For the non-ringing members of the party, there was a "Midsomer murders" interest, as a number of the episodes were filmed at these locations. It was a shame that our retiring Rector was unable to join us this year, as he learned to ring in this part of Oxfordshire and his God-father was Rector at one of the towers we visited. As the route to the belfry is now free from obstructions, we are able to host our normal trickle of visiting ringers and training events using our simulator. In addition, we have a special event to mark on Saturday 20th July. A peal attempt will be made by the "The Society of Royal Cumberland Youths" here at Holy Trinity. It will start at 10.30am, and if successful, will end at approximately 1.30pm. We ring very few peals in Hurst, as we recognise that 3 hours of ringing could be a little much for some of our nearest neighbours and friends. They are only rung for very special occasions and this one is no exception. Jonathan Franklin, who is a ringer from Ringmer, will be celebrating the 40th anniversary of his election to the "Cumberlands" this year and we felt it fitting that he should celebrate with a peal. And where more appropriate to ring it than the tower where he was taught to ring, Holy Trinity! It is claimed that a prominent London ringing Society, known as the London Scholars, rang the bells at Shoreditch church as William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland and second son of George II, passed by on his return from the Battle of Culloden in April 1746. Victory was hailed everywhere and it became popular to adopt the name "Cumberland" at every opportunity and thus the London Scholars changed their name. Whether or not the Society of Royal Cumberland Youths (The word "Royal" was added in the 1870's) descends from the London Scholars, there is no doubt about the foundation of the Society in its present form, which, according to the original Name Book, now housed in the London Metropolitan Archives, was on September 6, 1747. For more information on the Society of Royal Cumberland Youths, please visit www.srcy.org.uk Our regular wedding ringing continues this Saturday, 22nd June at about 3.40pm and on 29th June at about 3.10pm The St Lawrence Fair celebrates 700 years on 6th July and we will welcome the procession by ringing 700 changes as it approaches the High Street. And don't forget The Festival! We will be kicking off proceedings on Saturday 14th September by attempting to ring a quarter peal at 10.30am. As ever, please do contact me if you wish to discuss any of the items in this Newsletter, or on any other matter, or you would like to visit us in the belfry. I wish you all a good summer. Sue Elrick 832019 www.hurstpierpointbells.org.uk Spring from the Bell Ringers of Hurstpierpoint Hello friends and neighbours At last there is a sign of Spring. Fingers crossed! You will have seen the progress of the work to improve the church facilities. Finally it is just about complete and the first services were held in the church last Sunday. I believe that the changes are really very good and the excellent design enhances the old building, accentuating its features. Do take a look when you can. This also means that the access to the belfry is once more from the main gate and along the path to the west door – much more pleasant than the treck through the churchyard in the dark! There is a special service taking place tonight, 22nd April, at which the Bishop will bless the new work. We cannot let this occasion pass without ringing a quarter peal. We will attempt to ring Plain Bob Minor at 6.00pm . This will last for approximately 45 minutes if we are successful. You may remember that I told you last December that we needed to have some work done in the belfry. This will improve the access to the higher floors, where the clock and bells live and enable us to more easily do the maintenance work on the bells and clock. We did have to fit our new bell ropes, as one of the old ones broke whilst we were ringing and others were gradually unravelling! Chris, our Steeple Keeper did a great job of fitting them and the replacements are a great improvement. Our young ringers are continuing to make progress and we are pleased they remain keen and enthusiastic. I am now well into planning this year's Outing. We will be heading for Oxfordshire by coach on 15th June, visiting 6 village churches. I am off to try out the route this week to make sure all is well and check out the lunch and supper venues.We have a number of regular village folk joining us as usual, so if you would be interested too, do give me a call. There are a few remaining seats on the coach. And lastly, but by no means least, our Rector, Rev. John Joyce is retiring. He will remain in the parish for the next month, but we felt that this would be a fitting occasion to make another attempt to ring a peal of the new method "Hurstpierpoint Delight Major". This will take place on Saturday 27th April at 10.00am and will last, if we are successful, for 3 hours. Father John has served as our President whilst he has been our Rector in Hurst and has regularly come to the belfry on Sunday mornings to say a prayer with us and sometimes ring a bell! We will miss his presence, both in chairing our meetings and in the belfry. As ever, please do contact me if you wish to discuss any of the items in this Newsletter, or on any other matter, or you would like to visit us in the belfry. I wish you all a pleasant and warm, dry Spring and Summer! Sue Elrick 832019 www.hurstpierpointbells.org.uk Winter from the Bell Ringers of Hurstpierpoint Hello friends and neighbours You will have noticed that for some time the church has been undergoing a face-lift. This has meant temporary disruption to normal services in the church, different access arrangements, including those for us bell-ringers. Our Thursday night practices have seen a stream of torchlights heading south around the back of the church, so that we can access the belfry without going through the builders working area. Some of you may know that the maintenance of our bells is a job which requires climbing to the highest part of the tower – the bell chamber. Access to the bell chamber has been highlighted as a health and safety issue and so we have had access limited to minimum, until new access can be installed. This will form part of the works to the church and will then mean that we can fit our much needed new bell ropes. You will recall that we had fun back in July, when we recruited some youngsters from the local school to join us to celebrate the start of the Olympic Games. They did really well to be able to ring, pretty much unaided, for the 5 minutes that had been suggested by the Martin Creed project. Well, I‘m delighted that some of them have decided to stay with us and now come along to practice on Thursdays and also now ring on Sundays. We adjusted our practice night times a little – making use of the Chimers practice slot from 7.00 to 7.30 - and finish 15 minutes early at 8.45pm. With Christmas just around the corner, I guess you are all very busy with preparations. I never seem to have made quite enough mince pies - and how was I talked into making three Christmas cakes?! In the belfry, we are preparing for our Christmas ringing for services. These will be as follows: Sunday 23rd December – normal ringing 08.45 - 09.45 As I said in my last Newsletter, we will be planning our Annual Outing very soon. I still haven‘t fixed an itinerary and will let you know plans in the New Year. But please put the date in your diary if you would like to join us. It will be on Saturday, 15th June. There is a Bank Holiday at the beginning of June and the South of England show takes place on 6th-8th June. We know many of you like to be at that event, as indeed some of us will be. Watch out for us on the Sussex County Association of Change Ringers stand. We try to avoid important local dates where possible, so 15th seemed like the right date. I haven‘t thought about where we might go yet, but if you would like more information, do please give me a call. And finally, I would like to wish you all a very Happy Christmas and a peaceful New Year
Sue Elrick 832019 Summer (or is it still winter/spring/autumn?) from the Bell Ringers of Hurstpierpoint Hello friends and neighbours Well, at last I guess you might be feeling warm and summery. But if your garden is like mine, there‘ll be lots of weeds that seem to be thriving in the wet weather. But they do come out quite easily at the moment! So make hay ... ! The lack of recent newsletters is partly because there hasn‘t been much to
report, but I confess to having had a heavy schedule and not being able to
make space to give you the latest news. Following the sad death of our
Captain, Dennis, last Novemeber, I have taken on the Captain‘s mantle, with
John Norris acting as my very able Vice Captain.
One of the most important tasks that fell to me was to organise the Annual
Outing. Several of you joined us this year on our trip to the Test Valley
area of Hampshire. I am pleased to say that everything went pretty much to
plan and we all returned home in one piece – and on time! I recall recommending a trip to Whitechapel Bell Foundry to you some time ago. I see that they are opening up the Foundry to visitors in working hours during the Olympic Games. It really is worth a visit if you happen to be there or fancy a trip. They aren‘t allowed to cast a bell whilst there are visitors in the Foundry, for Health and Safety reasons, but all other daily work will continue. At £10 a head, it‘s very good value. Talking of Health and Safety, you will be aware that the re-ordering of the church has begun. This has meant that we have to access the belfry from the church garden. One of the things that has been highlighted recently is that our existing ladders within the belfry need to be updated to conform with current legislation. We are hoping that the work to remedy the problems will be completed whilst the re-ordering is being done. We need to have access to the upper floors so that we can deal with any repairs to the bells and to carry out regular maintenance to ensure we are all safe when ringing. It seems ages ago that we celebrated the Queen‘s Diamond Jubilee. In the belfry, we rang a quarter peal of Grandsire Triples, in which Father John rang his first quarter peal on the tenor, conducted by Peter Hurcombe. Ann Langley also had a first – ringing the treble for an 8 bell method. Well done to both of them – it‘s always nice to record achievements. The next event to celebrate is of course, the Olympic Games. The organising
committee asked artist and musician Martin Creed, to devise a fitting
fanfare to start off this fantastic, once in a lifetime event. “All the
Bells — Work 1197” is the result, in which every kind of bell is invited to
be part of the Olympics and to ring for approximately 3 minutes , as fast
and loudly as possible, at 08.12am on 27th July. This means all kinds of
bells – bicycle bells, door bells, prayer bells, school bells, church
bells or handbells – or any other that you might have. There are 2 weddings taking place in the church this Saturday 28th July. One of the St Lawrence School teachers is getting married. We are hoping that some of the school boys who have just learned to ring will be able to join us to mark the occasion. As ever, please do contact me if you would like to know more about our activities and events. I will do my best to help. Autumn from the Bell Ringers of Hurstpierpoint Hello neighbours, What is it that makes time go by faster as you get older? I don't really know, but I have my suspicions that it's more to do with the speed with which I do things. I only say that, as I can hardly believe it was February when I last wrote to you. The summer has been both good and bad in weather terms. But most of the crops have been pretty amazing and I know that like many of you, I'm getting fed up with picking up the windfalls, making jams and chutneys and freezing the produce. Not that I'm not complaining, only wondering about time! So, on to bell ringing matters . . . In comparison with other years, 2011 has not been particularly busy. We have continued with our normal practices on Thursday evenings and Sunday services are announced by chiming for the 8.00am service and ringing for the 9.45 service. Chiming is a different technique to ringing. Our Ellacombe Chiming Apparatus has ropes attached to hammers which are placed beside each bell. Pulling the rope enables the hammer to strike the bell. The ends of the ropes are placed close together in a frame and are operated by one person. This allows the 8 notes to be struck in any order so that tunes can be played. In full circle ringing, each bell can only strike either before the bell ringing in front of it or after the bell ringing behind it. This makes tune ringing impossible. Instead, we ring "methods" which are our equivalent of a tune. If you are interested in this and would like to know more, please come up to the belfry on a Thursday evening between 7.30 and 9.00pm and we will gladly show you more. Our band now comprises sufficient numbers to enable us to ring all 8 bells on most occasions. Skills are improving slowly for our newer ringers. Two of the band will be attending the Annual Ringing Course run by the County Association on 28th and 29th October, so we are looking forward to further improvements! This year Hurstpierpoint will be hosting one of the training groups, but as in previous years, you are unlikely to know anything about it, as we will be using our simulator. All the groups from across the County will come together for tea and "de-brief" on Saturday afternoon at the Village Centre. By this Saturday, we will have rung for 12 weddings during the year and we have been able to put a Hurst band together for most of them. There is a good network of local ringers in most areas, so we tend to share out the wedding ringing when necessary. There have been 2 visiting bands during the year - both giving us some impressive ringing. We have also hosted the tied bell simulator practices for beginners on several occasions. These are now held County wide and are very well attended and popular. We rang a quarter peal of Grandsire in June, to commmemorate the life of Muriel Lambert who was our treasurer for many years. Two members of her family, great grand-daughter and son-in-law, were part of the band. There were other quarter peal attempts which were unfortunately unsuccessful, although an Association band rang a quarter peal of Cambridge Minor (6 bells) in February in place of the advertised peal (8 bells). This was due to family illness. The planned peal will be attempted again on Monday 17th October at 2.00pm. You may recall that we rang a quarter peal of a new method in June last year, Hurstpierpoint Delight Major. This will be the method rung on Monday in order that it be formally recognised by the Central Council of Church Bell Ringers. As you know, if we are successful it will last for about three hours. Two members of the current Hurst band will be ringing along with David, the composer and other Association ringers. Did you join us for our Outing on 4th June? Yet again, we had a fantastic day out, thanks to the careful organisation of our Captain, Dennis. We visited 6 delightful villages with excellent bells in Kent. Plans will be underway for next year's Outing soon after Christmas, so put the date in your diary now - 21st April 2012 - a little earlier than in previous years so as not to clash with the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations. Finally, As many of you will know, our Captain, Dennis is currently unwell and staying with family. We would like to send him our prayers and good wishes and hope to see him in the belfry again soon. As ever, if you have any comments on this newsletter or any other matter, please contact me Sue Elrick on 832019 or via our website www.hurstpierpointbells.org.uk Winter (or is it spring?) From the Bell Ringers of Hurstpierpoint Hello once more to all our neighbours. Well, what a chilly winter we've had. But seeing glimpses of the brave winter flowers, surely Spring can't be far away - and I do believe there's some growth on the lawn! Up in the belfry, our newest ringers have been beavering away at practice, trying to get their skills up to scratch in the methods (tunes) Plain Bob Doubles and Grandsire Doubles. It's lovely to see so much enthusiasm. Three of them were able to attend the two day courses run by the Sussex County Association of Change Ringers in October. Some of us "old hands" were drafted in to help out at towers around the County and some progress was made by all. At the end of the course all the students and helpers and instructors meet for tea and an opportunity to share their ringing experiences. For the last few years, this has taken place here in Hurstpeirpoint, at our lovely Village Centre very convenient for the Hurst ringers! New this year, was a follow up day to see whether the novices had been able to make further progress. I'm pleased to say that the reports coming back were good. Last September, our tenor bell (the heaviest) was making rather more noise than it should and we discovered that the clapper was loose, leaving it free to roll on the inside of the bell. A temporary repair kept us going until we could remove it and take it to the Whitechapel Bell Foundry for repair. The result was a big improvement. By the way, if you've ever wondered how a bell is made, Whitechapel do a fantastic tour of the foundry for about £12. It is so popular, it is booked up almost 12 months in advance! Our "tied bell" simulator practices for the beginners continues, both here in Hurst and in Henfield, where they too have a simulator. Last Saturday, the belfry was full to bursting with novice ringers all making use of the opportunity to learn. Last September, we rang a quarter peal of Grandsire Triples to mark the start of the Hurst and Sayers Common Festival and in October, a peal of Yass Surprise Major. We have since attempted to ring a quarter peal of Grandsire triples for the Ruby Wedding of the parents of one of our ringers. Unfortunately, we were unsuccessful, so will try again soon. You may recall that we rang a quarter peal of a new method last year, Hurstpierpoint Delight Major. It had been written by David Smith, specifically for the 125th Anniversary of the Association. In order for it to be recognised as a method, a Peal has to be rung and verified by the Central Council of Church Bell Ringers. We are going to attempt this on Saturday, 12th February, starting at 10.00am. If successful it will last for about three hours. Two members of the current Hurst band will be ringing along with David and other ex Hurst ringers. On 4th June, we will be setting off on our annual coach Outing, once more organised by Dennis. If you would like to join us for a lovely day out in the English countryside, please call us for more information or to book a place. More events and activities will be in my next newsletter, or you can check out all the latest news on our website www.hurstpierpointbells.org.uk As ever, if you have any comments on this newsletter or any other matter, please contact either me or Dennis: Sue Elrick 832019 Dennis Elliott 833466 Autumn From the Bell Ringers of Hurstpierpoint Hello Is it really Autumn already? The mist hanging over the valley between Hurst and the Downs tell me that it is, as I store away my blackberry and apple jam. So I guess we start looking forward to Christmas! Before we do that, did you enjoy the Festival? I do hope so. Here in the belfry, we celebrated the start of the Festival by ringing a successful quarter peal of Grandsire Triples. This was followed by an Open Day, where people could come and have a go on our dumbbell, or the handbells. We had about 80 visitors through our door who had never seen inside a belfry. We have inspired a few more potential new recruits, so we will be using our simulator to start giving lessons in the near future. We have a new acquisition! For the Open Day, we decided it would be nice to enable visitors to see the bells actually working, so we bought a video camera, which gave us very clear pictures on a screen in the ringing room, of 2 of the bells moving when we rang. Even I found it fascinating to watch! The 125th Anniversary of the Sussex County Association of Change Ringers has been marked by a number of events. You may recall that back in February, an attempt to ring a peal at Holy Trinity, which is one of the founding towers of the Association, was unsuccessful. Our 2nd attempt is to be held on Tuesday 5th October, starting at 9.45 and will end at about 12.45. Fingers crossed for success this time. All towers in the Association have been asked to ring a quarter peal, especially for the Anniversary. We will be attempting to ring ours during "Quarter Peal week", which starts on November 15th. I do hope you have been able to have a look at our website and keep up-to-date with our activities. You will find a report there of our Annual Outing back in June, for which we must once more thank Dennis. It was a very successful day and our new non-ringing guests seemed to thoroughly enjoy themselves. We will be making plans for next year's Outing very soon, so watch this space. Our wedding ringing has now ended for the year, so we can concentrate on practice to improve our skills. Three of our ringers have been successful in gaining places on the Association's annual 2 day ringing course, which is to be held on 29th and 30th October. Here at Hurst, we shall be hosting 2 groups, the first from 1.30 on Friday afternoon and the second all day on Saturday. As usual, we shall be using our simulator, so you won't be disturbed! Finally, do come up to see us any Thursday evening (not 28th October). We welcome visitors to learn a little about our art. Read more at www.hurstpierpointbells.org.uk or please contact either Dennis, Tower Captain, or myself. Sue Elrick 832019 Dennis Elliott 833466 Summer From the Bell Ringers of Hurstpierpoint Following my recent newsletter, we have two additions to our calendar. The new method, Hurstpierpoint Delight Major, was successfully rung for the first time here at Hurstpierpoint on Monday 14th June. It comprised 1312 changes and was rung in 47 minutes. David D Smith composed the method and conducted this first quarter peal. The Band was as follows:-
A new method cannot be officially named until it has been rung as a full peal. We are planning to do this on 5th October. This will mean that "Hurstpierpoint " has been composed and officially rung at Hurstpierpoint during the year of the 125th Anniversary of the SCACR Saturday 26th June 10.00 - 11.30am approx. "Oddstruckness" You might ask yourself whether there is such a word! You may well be right to question this, but there is no other adequate word to describe a problem that occurs with church bells over a period of time. This problem means that the bell doesn't strike evenly - i.e. with the same time interval, for the two swings of the bell. The result is that it is difficult to keep an even rhythm when ringing. To resolve this problem, a piece of electronic equipment "the Griffometer" has been invented by Alan Griffin, " to test the 'oddstruckness' of church bells". Here in Hurstpierpoint, we believe that there are possibly two bells which are oddstruck, so we have arranged to make use of this equipment on Saturday 26th June from 10.00am. What does this involve? Each bell will need to be rung up and down in turn, and then a few more whole pulls when up. If any of the bells show that they need to be adjusted, there would be a little more ringing of each of the bells affected. The whole process would take not more than an hour and a half. Warwick University Bellringing Society (WURBS) We are hosting a visiting band on 26th June from 1.15- 2.00pm. Joanna Murphy learned to ring at Henfield and spent many practice sessions ringing here at Hurstpierpoint. She is now President of WURBS and has asked whether, in her last year at Uni, she could bring her ringers to see where she learned her skill. Jo and her family, who were all ringers, moved to the Cotswolds 5 years ago and have continued to ring ever since, occasionally visiting Sussex towers. Sue Elrick 832019 Dennis Elliott 833466 Summer From the Bell Ringers of Hurstpierpoint Hello to all our neighbours. Well, I began to think summer had arrived, but now I'm not so sure, as I contemplate putting the heating back on! Here in the belfry we have had a busy few months, with a number of "tied bell" simulator practices for the beginners. Thanks to our "Come and Have a Go day" in January 2009, we have 5 "learners", all of whom are making good progress. Having mastered control of the bells, they are beginning to learn how to ring a method. It is such a pleasure to find so many people in the belfry on practice nights and Sundays now, having been so short of ringers for a couple of years. The 125th Anniversary of the Sussex County Association of Change Ringers, is well underway. A number of events have already taken place. One such event is the attempt to ring a peal at each of the towers that formed the original Association back in 1885. The attempt at Hurstpierpoint in February sadly failed but a second attempt is scheduled for 5th October 2010. Fingers crossed that we can make it into the history books. We are also very fortunate that a new method, to be named "Hurstpierpoint Delight Major" will be rung on Monday 14th June at 7.30. We hope to be able to achieve a quarter peal to mark the Anniversary on this first occasion that it will have been rung. On 19th June, our tower will be open for ringers from the Association, from 4.30-5.15pm as one of the Open Towers in the Southern Division of the County. The summer family social event at Dial Post was held last Saturday and attracted ringers and guests from all over Sussex. We were very fortunate to have such good weather and the sight of green blue and yellow balloons racing heavenward was spectacular. If you find mine, please send the label back, I might win a prize! The hog-roast and specially brewed celebration ale were well worth sampling, especially for those of us who played stool ball during the afternoon. Here in Hurst, our wedding season is now well under way, with 5 more happy events scheduled. The dates are:- July 31st, August 1st, 23rd and 28th and September 3rd. On 19th June,we will be off to Berkshire for our annual coach Outing, where we will ring at Chieveley, Kintbury, Hungerford, Lambourn, Speen and Newbury. The day ends with an evening meal at Sulhamstead. A number of non- ringing village people are joining us again this year as the Outing proves to be as popular as ever. In September, the Hurstpierpoint and Sayers Common Festival gets underway once more and we will be holding an event in the belfry. Watch out for more details in the Festival Programme. Finally, for those of you who have not yet discovered our website, www.hurstpierpointbells.org.uk you will find all this news and much more. As ever, if you have any comments on this newsletter or any other matter, please contact either Dennis, Tower Captain, or myself. Sue Elrick 832019 Dennis Elliott 833466 Winter From the Bell Ringers of Hurstpierpoint Hello. We hope you all had a super Christmas and that it's not too late to wish you a very Happy New Year. Our snowy weather has been very seasonal and although looking pretty, has had an impact on all of us. Up in the belfry, we decided to cancel our simulator practice on 9th January, as we decided it was too cold to go up to tie the clappers on the bells. Instead we went to ring on John Norris's "The Wickham Ring", a set of 8 mini dumb-bells linked to a computerised ringing programme, housed in his garage. It was much warmer! There will of course be further simulator practices in the belfry throughout the year, in order to give the learners some extra tuition. Back in November I mentioned that this year is the 125th Anniversary of the Sussex County Association of Change Ringers. A number of events are being held throughout the year, starting last Saturday with a Birthday Service at Chichester Cathedral, lunch in the Vicars Hall and ringing at a number of nearby towers as well as the Cathedral. There will be a series of Peals rung at each of the Association's Founding Towers, one of which is Hurstpierpoint. This will take place on Friday 5th February at 2.00pm. Peals last approximately 3 hours and over 5000 "changes". The number of changes is the number of times each bell changes position in relation to each of the other bells in a pre-defined order, called a method. All towers are invited to ring a special quarter peal (1260 changes) to mark the occasion. A certificate will be given to each tower, with copies being collated into a book. We haven't yet arranged ours in Hurst, but will do so later in the year. Other events will be the summer family social event at Dial Post on 5th June; a "ringing challenge" in which ringers attempt to ring at as many of the Sussex towers as possible during the year and a Christmas party. There is a also specially bottled celebration ale, brewed by Beer Essentials in Horsham. Here in Hurstpierpoint we will be ringing on 13th February and 10th April at 1.30pm for the first two of about a dozen weddings this year. We will also be hosting the Southern Division (of the SCACR) ADM on 20th February. There will be ringing from 2.00 - 3.30pm, followed by a service, then tea and the ADM in the Village Centre. We hope to be able to ring a number of quarter peals this year, as each of our learners become more competent and we will be holding an Open Day as part of the Hurst Festival in September. And lastly, we are proud to announce that our own website - www.hurstpierpointbells.org.uk in which you will find information about ringing, chiming and handbells, as well as our activities, will be live very soon. So please do have a look and let us know what you think. Sue Elrick 832019 Dennis Elliott 833466 Autumn From the Bell Ringers of Hurstpierpoint My last newsletter to you all was written just as we put our clocks forward in the Spring of this year. Now that we have put them back once more, it is time for me to update you on our events. I hope you have enjoyed the lovely warm, dry summer. In the belfry we prefer the weather to be dry, as moisture in the bell ropes can make them stiff and more difficult to handle. In addition, our ringing simulator (which we use for training) can react to damp in the bell chamber, sometimes causing the sensors to fail. The simulator is fitted to a computer which produces an electronic chime, so that the bells, which have their clappers tied up, can be "rung" without making any sound outside. If a sensor fails, then there is no electronic sound either. We have made good use of the simulator this year. You will recall that after our "Come and Have a Go" day in January, I was able to tell you that we had 6 new learners. Five of them are still having tuition with us and are making good progress. We also rang a quarter peal in March and hosted one of the courses for the County Association training course again on 30th and 31st October - all using the simulator. There has been only one successful quarter peal since I last wrote, rung as part of our usual practice night. We rang as usual for the St Lawrence Fair in July and to mark the opening of the Festival in September. Our Annual Outing in June was to Essex. Although a number of our "regulars" were unable to join us this year, we eventually managed a near full coach and had an excellent day. Thank you to all the village folk who came along. Next year's Outing will take place on 19th June, as there is to be a celebration for the 125th Anniversary of the Sussex County Association of Bellringers on the first Saturday in June. I will tell you more about that next time. If you would like to join us on 19th, please let us know and we will add your name to the list. We have not yet planned our route, but Dennis Elliott has once more agreed to organise it. Having said back in March that we had a long list of weddings this year, we have only rung for 6. There are 2 more coming up in December - 1.00pm on Friday 4th and 4pm on Saturday 5th. Sue Elrick 832019 Dennis Elliott 833466 Spring From the Bell Ringers of Hurstpierpoint The sunshine of the last few days has been so welcome after what seemed to me like a long cold winter and last year's disappointing summer. This weekend sees the church clock (and yours too) springing forward to mark the start of the summer season. There has been considerable activity in the belfry since Christmas, most of which you will not have heard, thanks to our dumbell and simulator. Early in January, we invited the Girl Guides to come along to learn about the bells and have a go on the dumbbell. Many of them showed real promise and we hope that one day some of them may choose to join us. On 24th January, we held our first "Come and Have a Go" day. We had an enjoyable day demonstrating tower bell and handbell ringing and giving lessons to those who came along. We are now regularly having lessons in the belfry for 6 beginners who are all making excellent progress and will join us for Thursday and Sunday ringing as soon as they can confidently handle the bells. Our wedding list this year is considerably longer than last year's. Currently we are booked for ringing at 12 weddings, from the beginning of May. Already we have another one for February 2010! We have rung very few quarter peals recently, but one notable one was to celebrate the life of Harry Brown. Harry and his brother Stan were remarkable in the world of bellringing having taught innumerable new ringers across Sussex and beyond and led the Hurst band through many generations of ringing achievement. Harry was also a shining light in the Boy Scout movement having been jointly responsible for setting up our Charity Shop and raising the funds to build the Scout Headquarters situated in Brown Twins Road. The road was named in recognition of the great achievements in this village of both Harry and Stan. It is therefore fitting that we should ring a peal in Harry's honour, as we did for Stan in 1997. Ringers who have known Harry for many years and some who have been taught by him, will be attempting to ring a peal of Plain Bob Major on Tuesday 31st March at 2.00pm. If successful, this will last for approximately 3 hours. Once more we are planning our Annual Outing on the first Saturday in June (6th). This year we are off in our coach to 6 towers in villages in Essex between Colchester and Chelmsford. As usual, we will be taking some non-ringing relatives and friends from the village. If you would like to join us, or if you would like to discuss anything else, please contact me. Sue Elrick 832019 Tower Captain Happy Easter From the Bell Ringers of Hurstpierpoint As promised in my January newsletter, here is some information about our planned activities for the next few months. We currently have 6 weddings booked for which we have been asked to ring. This usually lasts for about 20 minutes. We also have 3 visiting bands coming to Hurstpierpoint. Bookings for visitors are normally limited to 45 minutes. You may have heard that the Queen and Prince Phillip are due to celebrate their Diamond Wedding on 20th November. Bellringers across the U.K. are being encouraged to ring to mark the occasion. I am planning to ring a full peal as near to the 20th November as possible. During March, we attempted to ring 2 quarter peals, both at our Thursday night practice time. Unfortunately, both have failed and we will be making a further attempt on 21st April at 7.15pm, this to celebrate a Ruby Wedding. Other quarter peals will be attempted during the year at a rate of about 1 per month, mostly on Thursday evenings or Sunday mornings. This provides a good opportunity for ringers to perfect a method. Plans for our Outing to north Kent on 2nd June are progressing well. Please contact me if you would like to join us Sue Elrick 832019 Tower Captain | ||||||
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