As president of the Huntingdon District Ringers, Phillip had been chatting with Geoff Burn in his capacity of District Bell Advisor. They had met at Waresley to carry out a bell inspection, and the converstaion turned to ringing at Catworth, where Geoff is tower captain. Always on the look out for new ringing experiences Phillip asked if Gransden Ringers could visit Catworth on one of their practice nights. Geoff welcomed the idea and an arrangement was made.
Thursday 10th August 2023 was a lovely warm summer’s evening and eight of us were able to make the visit along the A14 west of Huntingdon. The church spire could be seen which helped direct us to the village and along Church Road to St Leonard’s.
Geoff greeted us, and other local ringers soon arrived, about nine in all. Brief introductions and friendly greetings were made. During the evening we rang call changes, Plain Bob and Grandsire Doubles. The bells are heavier than ours, (15cwt tenor) and rung from the ground floor, so the ringing experience is slightly different with moere rope to handle. But the bells go well and everyone rang very well as we joined in most touches as a mixed band.
At the end of the practice we rang down in peal and Geoff invited us to see the bells, which most of us accepted. The bells are squeezed into the belfry in two tiers. As they are quite big bells there is not much space to manoever but we managed to admire the installation and take a few photos.
We had an excellent evening and agreed that there whould be a return visit and hope that Catworth ringers can visit Great Gransden later in the year.
The Glorious Twelth
The Glorious Twelth! Well, not in the grouse shooting context, but it was a red-letter day for Gransden. On Saturday 12th August we rang the 300th quarter peal on the bells!
The first recorded quarter peal was on the 29th June 1961. It was 1260 changes of Plain Bob Doubles, a method to feature often through the year, there being a total of 84 being rung.
On this occasion we wanted to ring something which gave us a small challenge but was not too difficult. The emphasis was on quality of ringing. We wanted to include family and close longstanding friends which meant travelling over from Leicester for daughter Rebecca and husband Mark Banner, and there was a bit of pressure to succeed to make the day worthwhile. Catherina Griffiths, who would ring her 100th quarter peal on the bells, was an essential member of the team, and her late husband Tim would have been too, so to maintain the family connection we invited their son David to join us.
The methods chosen were spliced Single Oxford and St Clements, and spliced Plain and Little Bob. The calling was straight forward but there were 26 changes of method, which added a little challenge.
The ringing was very good, soon settling down to complete the quarter peal in 45 minutes. By co-incidence there were some landmark footnotes for the ringers. As mentioned, it was Catherina’s 100th on the bells. It was Rebecca’s 200th quarter peal and 30th on No 4 bell. It was Phillip’s 100th quarter on No 5 bell.
Sheila and Phillip have each rung 263 quarters on the bells and a total of 404461 changes have been rung in quarter peals.
Thanks to all the ringers for helping achieve this milestone. We look forward to ringing many more quarters. Here is a link to listen to the end of the quarter peal and the ring down in peal. https://youtu.be/-vOv8RdZHRY
300th Quarter Peal Ringers L-R: Sheila, Catherina, Phillip, Mark, Rebacca, David
Great Gransden Bell Ringers 