December has been a busy time in the tower! We had two important anniversaries to celebrate as well as getting ready for Christmas and all the ringing over the period.
The first was the unveiling of a new quarter peal board expecially commissioned to mark Sheila George’s 50th anniversray as tower captain. This was actually in 2022 but as we were still recovering from the pandemic at the time, we missed the occasion. Phillip commissioned the board from a local artist, Nicky Adkins at East Hatley. Nicky has done an excellent job excactly o specification. The unveiling tok place during our pratcice on Thursday 4th December with most of our ringers being present together with guest ringers Catherina and David Griffiths from St Neots, who had rung in the quarter peal in 2022.
The second celebration was a quarter peal on Tuesday the 23rd December. This was the 25th anniversary day of the first quarter peal on the bells since their re-hanging in 2000. It was planned to be rung by an entirely local band but Josh had to stand down at the last minute due to having a cold. Many thanks to Catherina Griffiths for standing in.
It was the 213th quarter on the bells since that date and would have been only the 25th by a local band, but that milestone will wait for another day!
The bells were also rung to a quarter peal on the 20th, which was not significant in itself, except perhaps that it was a date touch of 2025 changes rung to indulge the interest of the conductor to make sure that he had rung date touches in every year since 1994! It included ringers from St Neots and Biggleswade, and was also in four methods, just to keep us on our toes.
Christmas ringing was exciting. We had three services to ring for. On Sunday the 21st we rang for the service of Nine Lessons and Carols, and on Christmas Eve for the afternoon Crib Service and Midnight Mass. We were delighted to have a full house of ringers on all occasions and were especially pleased to welcome Rebecca and Mark Banner from Ratby (Leics) visiting for Christmas. We enjoyed some excellent call changes. As usual the ringing room was decorated with fairy lights to give a festive feel to the church.
As people came into the church they looked up to the ringing room and we quicky invited some children to join us, which they thoroughly enjoyed (as did their parents)!
Finally, we have compiled a video which showcases our ringing events and activities for 2025. It is summarised in a little over two minutes. Please click on this link to see what we have been doing. As always it has been a busy year. We have enjoyed visiting other towers and welcoming guests to our tower to ring, or just see what ringing is all about. We have arranged social events, training sessions, quarter peals, and a lot of practices and we are looking forward to ringing in 2026.
We hope to see you next year too and wish you a Happy New Year!
Great Gransden Bell Ringers 