- Peals
- Quarter Peals
- Tower Outings
- Tower Tours (to see other church bells)
- Social Events
- Video records
- Blog archive
Peals
A peal on six bells comprises at least 5040 changes. At Great Gransden this takes about 2hrs 55 minutes of continuous ringing. This is a list of all the peals which have been rung
An example of peal ringing on Gransden bells can be heard here. This is part of the peal rung on 9th November 2013. The bells were half muffled for Remembrance.
Quarter Peals
Quarter Peals comprise at least 1260 changes on six bells and this takes about 45 minutes to ring. They can be on four bells, but more usually are on all six bells rung to “minor”, when all six bells change with each other, or “doubles”, when five bells change and the tenor (heaviset bell) rings last in the sequence every time. Here is a list of all the known quarter peals to have been rung our our bells.
An example of the bells being rung to a quarter peal can be heard here. This is part of the quarter peal rung on 21st April 2014.
Tower Outings
Tower Outings are arranged, usually once or twice a year, when we visit churches in other areas of the country. These are sometimes half day outings, but more usually taking the whole day, and occasionally we’ll make a weekend of it. We often invite other ringing friends too. Here are some photo albums of recent outings.
Visits To See Other Church Towers to see their clocks and bells
Social Events
Ringers & Singers
There is a lot of overlap between the bell ringers and chuch choir members. Each summer, usually around the longest day, we invite everyone (including partners) to join us in a safari supper. Families are asked to provide starter and mains courses for a planned number of participants. One family provides the sweet course where everyone gathers at the end of the evening. 2020 was orgainised slightly differently because, due to the pandemic, we were only allowed six people to gather outside.
Christmas Parties & other Social Gatherings
We hold a Christmas party after Christmas (or nearby), which is hosted by the family with a house large enough to accomodate a sit-down meal for about 14 people. It makes for a good end to the year and is a time when we can enjoy one anothers’ company and relax away from the tower.
During the pandemic we have take advantage of socialising at the Chequers PH in Lt Gransden, when easing of lockdown has allowed. Our first soiree was to a Pizza and Beer eveining in September 2020.
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Video / Sound Clips
1996, pre-restoration: The bells recorded in 1996 during a quarter peal. This is believed to be the only recording of the bells before they were re-tuned in 2000
2019, half muffled peal: Part of our Sunday service ringing on 13th November 2019, ringing call changes.
Firing the bells: Firing the bells means ringing them all together in a cacophony of sound. It is a tradition in Great Gransden to fire the bells on bonfire night and we do this if our practice co-incides with that date. We also fire bells during our ringing for weddings.
Striking Competition Ringing: We enter the Huntingdon District striking competition when it is held, and in 2018 we were placed first. We rang call changes. Although only six people rang in the competition we were supported by everyone in the team and we all share in the success.
Blog Archive
In normal times the blog is updated avery week or so, but there was much less to report in 2020 and 2021 because of the pandemic. During this period we met online and when ringing was allowed it was very limited. Our normal activities of quarter peals and tower outings were cancelled and practices limited to five ringers due to social distancing requirements.
At the time of writing (20th July2021) we are allowed back into the tower and to ring all the bells but we, along with many other towers, are cautious about returning to normal because infection rates of the disease are still rising. There will not be very much to report for the time being, but events will be recorded on our News and Ringing Events page.
Great Gransden Bell Ringers 