Scouts Visit the Tower!

Whilst the weekly routine of practices continues gently occasionally other ‘special’ events come along which add variety and excitement.

The first was a visit to the tower by Gamlingay and Gransden Pathfinder Scouts. We had invited them to see the clock and bells, and on Friday the 26th of April sixteen of them arrived with their leaders Chris Elwood and Paul O’Shea. On site to supervise the visit were Sheila and Phillip George and David Prest.

Before ascending the tower a safety prep talk was given and the first room visited was the ringing room. From there the troop was divided into two, eight going to the clock room and eight to the belfry. Whilst David was explaining the clock and chimes Phillip was showing them the bells, and Sheila demonstrated the No4 bell being rung.

The visit to each room lasted about 10 minutes after which the groups changed over. This was an interesting operation because the belfry team had to ascend the tower even further whilst the clock room team went into the belfry. Then, the other team could come down and go into the clock room.

There were many questions and the visits were accompanied by vociferous chatter! Eventually everyone made their way down to the ringing room again. After a few minutes break Sheila demonstrated ringing a bell and on being invited to have ago everyone volunteered.

The next half hour was spend helping them ring backstroke under the assistance and supervion of Sheila and Phillip. Before leaving the tower they were asked to sign the visitors book and were awarded with an “I visited Great Gransden Tower” sticker.

It was really good to welcome the troop, noisy, exciting, enthusiastic and rewarding!