Easter tide is always a good time to have a spring clean in the ringing room. Although we run the vacuum cleaner around it every month or so, periodically it benefits from other changes too.
In the winter the tower west window is drafty and we put up our ‘winter curtain’. Its always nice to remove this in the spring and store it for the summer because it allows more light into the room making it bright and airy. And this year we have had a slight re-arrangement of photographs on the walls just to make some subtle changes.
We are all set for the new season and we have plans for further changes which I hope to be able to report on in due course!
On Easter Sunday we had six ringers in the tower. Tower Captain, Sheila George set us to ring call changes and as there were no spare ringers she called the West Country touch of 60 on Thirds. We set off at a good pace and soon settled into a good rythm. This piece of ringing is about 20 minutes long and everyone worked hard at keeping the rythm and pace. It was a very good piece of ringing, enough to bring a smile to my face!! Well done everyone, it was very suitable for Easter Sunday.
On Maundy Thursday, as is tradition, we held our annual general meeting. The tower officers were re-elected, namely, Tower Captain, Sheila George, Deputy Tower Captain, David Prest, Secretary/Treasurer and Steeple Keeper, PhillipGeorge.
Sheila had written a report summarising our activities during 2024 which included ringing for weddings, quarter peals and on Sundays, practices, a funeral and two tower outings. We always have a full diary of ringing throughout the year and this years plans are equally engaging. They include a spring outing, ringing for the 80th anniversary of VE Day, and in June we have some visitors from Arizona who contacted us to request a tour of the tower. Wow, that’s exciting, we always welcome visitors, ringers or not, from home and abroad.
We’ll now settle into our late spring/summer routines and there will be lots to report.
Great Gransden Bell Ringers 