The local history society, The Gransdens Society, invited us to give a talk about the bells on Tuesday 21st February 2023. It was a pleasure to be there and an excellent opportunity to describe the history of the installation and explain why we ring.
It was entitled “The Church Bells and Ringers of Great Gransden – a brief history of chime” and broadly covered the period from the 17th century to the present day but focussing mainly from the late 19th century.
We were able to show unique footage of the bells being rung in the 1990s as well as photographs of former ringers. A history of the bells was described, from their installation in 1658 and several recastings over the years to the rehanging in 2000. We talked about past ringers and how they served the church and ringing in their time. The photographs and videos brought the presentation to life and was rounded off by some change ringing on handbells, which most people had not seen practised before. We were pleased to answer many questions from the audience.
Sheila George expertly changed slides and showed the videos according to the script and Catherina Griffiths (St.Neots) joined us at the end to ring the handbells.
Many thanks to the Society for inviting us, we are always pleased to get into the public eye rather than be hidden away in the tower!
Links to two videos can be found here:
Great Gransden Bell Ringers 