Tied bell practices have continued during August for our new learners Gill, Linda and more recently, 11 year old Sam. Sam came to us as a result of him visiting with year 6 pupils from Barnabas Oley School on the 13th July. All three new ringers are making steady progress towards their level 1 Learning the Ropes (LtR) certificates and are ringing Rounds with the rest of the on a Practice night.
Some of us visited two towers, Biggleswade (Wed 19th August) and St Neots (Frid 28th) and enjoyed ringing on ten bells during their practice nights. Some firsts were achieved too, notably Em rang Plain Hunt on 9 for the first time.
Phillip had been invited to give a talk to St Ives Community of Old People Enterprise (COPE) about bell ringing and included details about the history of St Ives church bells, and we received a very generous donation to our bell fund..
at St Neots
During the summer the annual tower clean-up has taken place and Josh and Em helped with some tightening up of wheel nuts. The tower is now ship shape and Bristol fashion ready for the new term!
Later, some unexpected minor but important maintenance was required in the ringing room when the rope boss for the tenor bell became loose, identified by a strange noise coming from the rope as the sally went through the boss. Although in no danger of becoming detached it required urgent attention. A ladder was juggled into the ringing room via the spiral staircase and repairs quickly made, and all others checked at the same time.
At our last practice during the holidays we had eight ringers in attendance and were pleased to present Sheila Prest with her level 5 LtR certificate. This was a retrospective presentation because Sheila had achieved this a few years earlier, and it was lovely to award this albeit somewhat late!
Training is taking a holiday for the next couple of weeks. Tied bell practices resume on the 16th September and we look forward to our outing in October.
Great Gransden Bell Ringers 