Quarter Peal by local ringers to celebrate 25 years since the bells were rehung.
Christmas Eve
Ringing from 2.45pm for the Crib Service at 3.30pm
Christmas Eve
Ringing from 10.30pm to 11.15pm for the Midnight Service
More news will follow in the next week or so reporting on events in the tower in the last month and we will look back on 2025 in the annual video summarising our adventures
On Saturday the 8th of November we will be holding a social event for our former ringers. We hope to contact as many as possible by email, social media or word of mouth and invite them to visit the church tower for a cup of tea and a chat. They will be able to visit the ringing room and the clock room and maybe try ringing or chiming a bell.
A lot has changed in the tower, expecially since the restoration project of 2000 and we are looking forward to welcoming them back. Refreshments will be served and there will be a small display of photos and other memorabilia. We’ll dust off the handbells to should anyone want to try those.
This event is also open to anyone in the parishes who migth be interested in seeing what goes on in the tower and we hope some will come along and introduce themselves.
Everyone is assured of a warm welcome. Please contact us using the contact page if you would like further information.
We were able to leave the bells up after our practice on Thursday the 4th September ready for a visiting team of ringers on Friday. The ringers were from Pickering and their repertoire included Cambridge and London). We were please to receive compliments about the bells and a request to come and ring a quarter peal on them!
Pickering ringers
We left the bells up afterwards ready for wedding ringing on the Saturday and again for service ringing on Sunday (when we rang some cracking call changes).
Leaving them up again for Monday the 8th, we welcomed visitors from Loddon in Norfolk. Their ringing included call changes, Plain Bob, Cambridge and Stedman, and the bells were finally rung down in peal at the end of their visit.
Loddon ringers
It was lovely to greet all our visitors, and thanks to our local ringers as well for their contribution to the local soundscape over the last few days.
A few people have been away on holidays recently and we have only had seven on the last two practice nights. Keen to make the best of our resource we rang a 480 of Plain Bob Doubles on each occasion. This gave us an opportunity to ring longer lengths which helps consolidate our method learning. We also jointly conducted the pieces, where possible, asking everyone to call themselves in turn unaffected. This was very successful.
Practice night on 31st July Sheila G, Phillip, Josh, David, Sheila P, Sue, Tricia.
We had some nice ringing on both occasions. Other footnotes: Longest length on the tenor for Tricia, and longest touch for Sue; and on the 31st – Josh ringing up the tenor in peal, calling call changes and ringing his first unaffected touch. Well done everyone!
We should be back to normal numbers for the time being and we are looking forward to visiting St Neots on their practice night on the 8th August as part of our summer touring.
As the last week of term approaches, Barnabas Oley CofE School in Great Gransden is preparing for Founders Day.
The school was founded by the Rev Barnabas Oley, fellow of Clare Hall, Cambridge (now Clare College), and vicar at Great Gransden from 1633 until his death in 1685. He also built the vicarage house and village alms houses.
This year, between the many rehearsals for this special day, headteacher Mrs Downes scheduled a 90 minute slot for 20 Year-6 students to visit the bell tower.
It was a walk into history for the children when we showed them the clock which was installed in 1683 to mark Oley’s golden jubilee year, and then the bells, one of which (No5 dated 1658), he would certainly have heard ring.
Whilst in the belfry No 4 bell was rung (silenced) and this was also demonstrated in the ringing room using the simulator for sound. Handbells were rung to Rounds by the children when they had finished their tower tour.
We had divided the class into groups of four, plus teachers, and the guides, Sheila George, Tricia Williams and I fielded their many interesting questions. By some logistical genious of ferrying people up and down the tower we all ended up in the ringing room where everyone had chance to chime the bells in a multifarious cacphony of sound.
On leaving the tower everyone signed our visitors book before stickers and sweets were handed out.
Thank you, Mrs Downes and Teacher Mrs Hussey for enabling this to happen, and to the children for their energy and enthusiasm. It was a great afternoon!
Sunday the 15th June was designated as Music Sunday and ringers and singers were busy during the day. Our first ringing was for the morning service, and as usual, three ringers left the ringing room early for their next duty – singing in the choir.
After the service we were delighted to welcome Dane and Lorena Seeley, on holiday from Arizona. Dane’s ancestors lived in Great Gransden during the 14th century and he was very interested in seeing the church. Having previously viewed our videos on YouTube he and Lorena were keen to visit the tower and we enjoyed showing them the clock and bells. Dane explained that they had signed up for a bell ringing lesson at St Clements church in Cambridge before they continue their holiday on a tour of the UK.
In the evening we held a Come and Sing service of evensong to celebrate Music Sunday. This is the third such event organised by tower captain and choir director, Sheila George. Choristers from churches in the area, and from the congregations are invited to take part. Several came from St Neots with organist Lloyd Barnet, and we all met at 4.00pm for a rehearsal.
Sheila practised us in all the music, some of which required some swift sight reading, but we all supported each other and the four-part ensemble created a wonderful sound. This was followed by tea and cake. In the meantime, the ringers returned to ring for the service which started at six o’clock.
The singing went without a hitch and during the prayers our rector, Rev Rachel Blanchflower included thanks for all musicians, and also included bell ringers for their contribution to the life of the church and community.
After the service we all enjoyed further refreshments and reflected on a very enjoyable afternoon and evening.
Many thanks to our ringers who made sure we were able to ring all six bells on each occasion, and to Sheila George for organising the ringing and especially the singing. Thanks also to Lloyd, our organist.
Some comments received:
That was such fun. Thanks to everyone for sharing their amazing musicality. NS
Lovely afternoon singing with you all. Thanks to everyone…and especially to Sheila for directing and coordinating and to Lloyd for playing (the organ). TH
…It was lovely to take part and the music sounded quite inspiring. JD
Bell ringers all over the country were asked to ring from 6.30pm to 7.30pm on Thursday the 8th May to commemorate the 80th anniversary of VE Day. Our own ringers were able to do this which conveniently fitted in with a Fish and Chip supper in Little Gransden Village Hall at 8.00pm!
The bells were rung up during the day to save time and although we were a couple of minutes late starting we rang more or less continuously until 7.30pm. We decided on three set pieces of call changes. The first was Sixty on Tittums, next came a specially composed piece of 80 changes which we called VE80 (composed by Phillip George), and then our old favourite, Sixty on Thirds.
Sixty on Thirds is a sequence of Devon call changes based on the row 135246 (Queens). The bells are called into this row before following a structured sequence of calls. Sixty on Tittums uses the same structure but starting from the row 142536 (Tittums).
At five and twenty past the hour we completed our ringing by firing the bells. This is when all the bells are struck together in one cacophony of sound. We do this three times interspersing the firing with the ringing of Rounds (123456). The conductore decided that the last sequence should last for several minutes!
Sheila George conducted the Sixty on Tittums and Sixty on Thirds, and Phillip George conducted the VE80 and Firing.
We had some vey nice ringing, thank you to the following ringers: Josh Crutch, Phillip George, Sheila George, Hazel Pettit, David Prest, Sheila Prest and Tricia Williams.
Quarter Peal Band – Sheila P, Sheila G, Catherina, David G, Phillip, David P
About half an hour in and a group from the Cambridge Ramblers came into church and many of them stood and watched us ringing. I waved from the ringing room.
They were still there when the QP came round and I immediately went down and asked if any of them would like to come up into the ringing room. (We always do this). Word quickly got around to some who had gone outside and in the end all of them accepted the invitation. With instructions to leave bags downstairs and not to touch the ropes, about 15 or so climbed the 12 stairs.
The ringers immediately went into ‘host mode’ and the room was full of chatter about how we ring and how bells work etc.
After a while we rang some call changes to Queens and back to give them some ringing room experience. They were, to a person, impressed, several saying that it had made their day.
The most important things coming out of this were that a former ringer said he wanted to return, and another person said they would like to take it up.
That’s what I call a Result!!!
Now, the excercise may never see them again, but you never know when chance meetings will generate interest, even if its just giving people a new experience.
My thanks to the ringers for helping, and for a jolly nice quarter peal.
We had a super day on Saturday 26th April on our springtime mini-outing to Northants for fifteen ringers and friends. Three towers visited, ringing mostly call changes.
Warkton (6. 8cwt) where the east end of the church was rebuilt in 1754 to commemorate the Montagu family. Greeted by noisy sheep adjacent to the churchyard. Bells were tricky for some due to very long ropes and longish draught. Local team has some new learners with a training scheme. Grandsire Doubles and Stedman Doubles were our exhibition pieces.
Brigstock (8. 13 3/4cwt) ground floor ring. Church of Saxon origin with nice original architectural features. Lovely to meet up with Linda Ellison, former ringer at Gt Gransden. Very long ropes and low sallies required many knots but Grandsire Doubles featured on the back six.
Lunch was taken at the Duke Arms in Woodford. Good pub grub (ordered in advance) and a warm welcome; and they allowed us to ring handbells in the bar where we rattled off a couple of 120s of Plain Bob Minor.
Final tower was Woodford, a pleasant short walk from the pub where we enjoyed panoramic views over the Nene valley. One of our ringers reported hearing a cookoo, alas, now seemingly absent from South Cambs!
Bells, (8. 14cwt), an augmentation by Taylors in 2000 and we immediately noticed how odd the trebles are in tone and tuning! Grandsire 5 and St Clements on the back six were our change-ringing pieces here. No local band but a monthly Tuesday night S Major practice is held.
Lovely weather, pleasant countryside, good pub and good company. Special thanks to Tricia for organising the towers and pub lunch for us – much appreciated.
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.
Our youngest ringer, Josh, is currently learning how to ring Plain Bob Doubles on No2 bell. He is already proficient ringing the treble bell and to help keep his skill level up we organise an occasional quarter peal for him.
The Easter school holidays were a suitable time to arrange one because we could fit it in during a weekday. And so it was, on Monday the 7th April four of us, myself, Sheila G, Hazel and Josh trecked over to Hilton for a 10.00am meet up with ringing friends Elinor Cole and Tom Ridgman.
As well as being arranged for Josh we took the opportunity to invite Hazel to ring the tenor, which was the first time for her. The ringing took 42 minutes and was very satisfactory. A local resident, also a ringer, said how pleasing it was to hear the bells and congratulated Josh and Hazel on their achievement.
Great Gransden ringers had the pleasure and privilege of hosting the Huntingdon District meeting today 15th March 2025.
Ringing was from 3.00pm when the bells were beautifully raised in peal. The ringing room soon filled up and ringing master, Andrew Smith, made sure of a varied menu of ringing. Methods included Rounds, call changes, Plain Hunt, Plain Bob Doubles, a lovely touch of Grandsire doubles, a course of Cambridge Minor and three courses of St Clements. Unfortunately an attempt at London was unsuccessful.
Several ringers were visiting for the first time, with supervised novices ringing very well indeed. The total attendance was 24.
Tea, prepared by the local ringers, was served at 4.30pm in the lovely Great Gransden Reading Room, and this was followd by a short business meeting, during which six new members of the Association were elected. Congratulations to all.
The District Committee has planned a full ringing schedule for the year to cater for all abilities, and we were encouraged to attend when we can.
Thank you all for coming, it was a very enjoyable afternoon.
The usual routines of practices and service ringing have been followed during the last few weeks .
Tied bell practices have included dodgy call changes, which we have yet to perfect, Plain Hunt of 5 and call changes. There is always some theory too, making use of the white boards.
Tied bell practice on 19th February 25
We have recently welcomed visitors. On Sunday the 16th February, Martin Ellis (Chapel en le Frith) rang with us for service. Martin was staying locally for the weekend and took the opportuity of grabbing the tower. He had pre-arraned this by contacting us through this website and we are pleased that the syste of communication works. Martin joined us for call changes and we rang two sets. Firstly Sheila G called 60 on Thirds, and then Phillip called a composition of 40 changes. Martin’s reaction was “Impressive”, and we were pleased to receieve this compliment.
On Thursday 20th Liz Harvey and her son, Oliver (Sapcote), joined us for practice and we had a very enjoyable 90 minutes ringing our usual repertoire of Plain Bob, Grandsire and St Martins. We finished with some call changes and had a very nice rng down in peal, when both Josh (11) and Oliver (11) joined in. It was great to have two young ringers in the tower!
We are constantly inspecting the bell installation and recently identified some minor wear on one of the rollers on the ground pully of the tenor bell. This has been caused by 25 years of ringing, but is not excessive. It is a twin roller block and the roller showing wear is the backstroke one. This gets more rope contact than the handstroke and so is more susceptible to ‘grooving’.
It was quite a quick job to swop over the rollers so that the unworn one is now on the backstroke side of the box. Inspection of those on bells No 4 and 5 are showing similar wear and we will change these over during the year.
Wear can be seen on the nearest roller
Checking the bearing
Pulley block in situ
Our next immediate project is to make some bell mufflers (using motor bike tyres), to use instead of wooden clapper stays when he hold tied bell practices. Glyn Williams and I are investigating this – report later!
With Christmas behind us we are back in the tower for our normal weekly practices and will soon be looking forward to the spring and new ringing challenges. The year has already started well with Tricia ringing her first quarter peal. This was on Monday the 6th January when we decided to hop over the border to Potton in Bedfordshire, and nice little 8cwt ring. Tricia rang the tenor to Plain Bob Doubles. Josh rang the treble and it was only his third quarter peal, so it was useful all round experience for both of them. Help from Elinor and Tom made up the band.
Tricia needs to ring one more quarter peal, this time on the treble, to gain her level 3 trainibng certificate in the Learning the Ropes scheme.
Quarter peal band at Potton, Beds
Our first Wednesday tied bell practice on the 8th was the traditional theory session held in the warm at Nutbells. The subject was “Why do we call bobs?” A rather detailed explanation was given which confused everyone, but there were some good points coming out of it and at least we enjoyed coffee and biscuits. The trainer has learned his lesson!
The second tied bell practice was the more conventional one in the tower when we focussed successfully on plain courses of Plain Bob Doubles. We will continue on this line which not only helps ‘inside’ ringers, but those learning the treble too. I think we will make good progress this year.
Our first Thursday practice last week was very successful. We rang Plain Bob, Grandsire and St Martins. We will continue to work on these methods, but we usually make a very good job of call changes too, as demonstrated this Sunday the 19th for service ringing, with thanks to Elinor for coming from ‘out of town’ so that we could ring all six whilst others are away.
We have a couple of important events this year. The first is on the 18th March when we are hosting the Huntingdon District for their meeting in the afternoon. We are also preparing tea for the ringers which will be taken in the Reading Room.
2025 sees the 80th anniversary of VE Day and VJ Day and ringers throughout the country have been asked to mark those occasions with ringing and I’m sure that we will join in. The dates are Thursday the 8th May and Friday the 15th August. Perhaps we can recruit new ringers to come and chime the bells, or maybe we could ring some quarter peals?
The Huntingdon District is arranging another ringing festival, this time on Saturday the 21st June. Details are yet to be announced but I hope we can take part and be successful again ringing call changes, as we were last year.
We always look forward to our tower outings and we will soon be looking at the calendar for our spring tour. With Easter being late this year we must be careful to avoid certian dates, but the 12th or 26th April might be suitable options.
Whilst thinking about Easter, Holy Week is the 13th to the 19th of April . We usually hold our tower AGM on Maundy Thursday, so the 17th April might be the date, but we have to agree this between us.
An important job we must do this year is to install an upgrade to our CCTV and monitoring system, having agreed to do this after receiving a legacy in 2024 for tower improvements. We will wait until the warmer weather but we have started to spec out what we require. I think it will be beneficial as our current system takes a long time to ‘warm up’, especially in the cold weather!
We usually have an end of year social event which takes the form of an evening dinner in either the Prests of George’s house. This year Sue and Ant kindly invited us to their new house and we all agreed that a lunch time buffet would fit the bill perfectly.
We decided on 4th January 2025 at 12.30pm and we all brought a variety of delicious foods including salads, meats, quiches, pavlovas and chocolate moousse. Soft drinks, wine and beer was also available. We enjoyed the spacious comfort of Sue and Ant’s home, especially the log burner adding warm atmosphere to a most convivial occasion.
A part-completed jigsaw in another room invited our attention and one of David’s quizes entertained us amidst groans and laughter when we realised how easy some of the anagrams were (all with a Christmas theme).
David presented Sheila and Phillip G with gifts of their favourite QualityStreet chocolates with thanks to them for leading the team during 2024. Phillip thanked Sue and Ant for hosting the event, which was warmly applauded. I seems that a lunch time social received favour amongst all!
We have had a good ‘ringing year’ and some plans have already been made for 2025. In the meantime, here is a video featuring some of our ringing during 2024, and we wish you all a Happy Christmas and New Year.
The Sunday School for over 8 year olds is held in the Ringing Room during the morning church service. I have worked closely with the leaders making sure that everything in the room is safe for the children. One of the leaders asked if it would be possible for the children to visit the rest of the tower one Sunday after the service, and as we always welcome visitors to the tower I was very pleased to arrange this. We set a date for Sunday the 15th December 2024.
I escorted eight children and three supervising adults into the ringing room for a briefing, explaining that they should never touch any of the ropes, or anything in the other rooms either. This was greeted by a reply from one of the boys “..don’t touch anything that you don’t need to touch!” I thought this was a very wise comment and agreed with him!
The first stop was the clock room, which is also a museum displaying obsolete bell fittings. I handed round a small bell clapper from the No 2 bell (pre re-hang in 2000) and asked adults to help in case the children found it to be too heavy. “What is it made of?” one child asked. “Iron”, I said, a special type called wrought iron.” She replied, “I found a pieces of iron once.” The clapper finally found its way back to me and we then headed up to the belfry. This involves a small, supervised, scramble up a runged climb on to the viewing gantry. They all managed this easily. I demonstrated a gentle strike of the tenor and explained which bell was which.
The same boy asked if church bells are ever hung in different churches. I was able to say that usually the answer is ‘no’, but in our case the tenor bell was originally hung in Bletsoe church, and I briefly explained the story. After this exchange we carefully snaked our way down the spiral staircase to the ringing room. The dexterity of the children negotiating access and egress was impressive.
I asked Em to demonstrate raising and lowering a bell so that they could watch this on our CCTV and then, when all was ‘safe’, I invited everyone to chime the bells. They produced a riotous cacophony of sound as they clanged away, trying different bells, with the 5th and tenor occasionally sounding when the older children got the hang of chiming them.
It was delightful to have all these youngsters in the tower, with a lot of excited chatter, chiming our bells as we look forward to Christmas.
Photos taken and published with parental permission
We occasionally hatch new plans in our continual engagement with the local community. As we all look forward to Christmas we decided to open up our practice night on the 12th December to anyone from the benefice who might lke to visit us in the ringing room.
The church Christmas tree lights were on to welcome people in and we started our ringing as usual in the glow of our own festive lights. Then, to our delight, two visitors came into the church and we eagerly beckoned them towards the sprial staircase. They were warmly welcomed and were soon chatting with our ringers who during the evening explained all about ringing.
Neither visitor had been inside a ringing room before and this experience was completeley new to them. We had advertised that people could chime our bells, so we rang down the front three and taught them how to chime Rounds on 3. We then rang up the bells again and encouraged them to try backstrokes and handstokes, under supervision of course. They both did very well .
During our ringing of call changes and Plain Bob Doubles brief explanations were given to help them understand what we were doing. One of the visitors, Neil, took some video and later some photographs and posted them on the Gransdens Facebook page, where we then became the subject of the cover photo. Thank you Neil, that’s excellent publicity.
After the practice, both were given a tour of the tower, first into the clock room and then to see the bells where there was a lot of interesting conversation about the history of the place. I think they were amazed at what they saw.
The ‘compulsory’ team photo was taken before we all went our seperate ways having enjoyed a lovely evening with new friends. . Thank you, everyone for coming, and for bringing mince pies!
Nationally, there are only 30,000 bell ringers. There are many reasons why numbers are in decline. Most ringers are aware of the chellenges that we face in manitaining local ringers and developing and improving our skill levels. To help consolidate some ideas for progress in sustaining ringing Gransden Ringers arranged a seminar inviting all ringers in the Ely Association.
This was held on Saturday the 7th December in the Reading Room, Great Gransden. Twenty-two ringers attended with apologies from a further thirteen. Phillip George presented slides and invited discussion on topics including: Where is ringing now? What are we doing well? What are the challenges? Who are our major stakeholders? How can we respond to changes in our ringing culture?
There was a lot of good input from attendees and we identified key words including: Teams, Communication, Training, Support, Resilience, Leaders, Engagement. A action plan was suggested for all towers to consider.
The Gransden Team welcomed everyone with coffee and biscuits and at half time refreshed the company with home made cake. After the seminar eleven ringers were able to enjoy ringing our glorious bells.
The feedback received suggests that it was a worthwhile seminar and several people said that they would take away some of the ideas as suggestions in their own towers..
The autumn has been a busy time for us. Having hosted Norton ringers on the 12th October, we welcomed ringers from Hexham Abbey on the 26th. Their visit was arranged by Ruth Kemsley, one of our occasional visitors on a Thursday practice night. There were about a dozen in the group and they rang the usual mixture of Plain Bob and Grandsire, and invited Sheila and me to ring in some Stedman.
Hexham Abbey ringers
One of the ringers seemed familiar and it turned out to be Karen McCleave (ne Reeves). Karen and Sheila rang their first peals together at Meldreth in 1978, and it was probably nearly as long ago that we had seen one another. She was keen to learn about my method of teaching learners to ring in ten lessons, which I was happy to share.
A half-term family get together (with Mark and Rebecca Banner) gave us the opportunity to ring a quarter peal at Gransden. Seeing the opportunity for some good ringing I invited Tom Ridgman (Haslingfield) and James Gamble (St Neots). I decided on ringing Cambridge and conducted it from the 5th, choosing a more interesting composition than the traditional WHW. We raised the bells in peal and the quarter peal took 43 minutes. A super ring down in peal followed and we all felt that we had done a good job. It was Mark’s 250th quarter peal on tower bells.
L-R: Tom, Rebecca, Mark, Sheila, James, Phillip
The next seasonal highlight was a trip to Taylor’s Bell Foundry in Lougborough, which was part of our autumn outing. We usually have two outings every year (one in the spring too), but on this occasion as the guided tour was 90 minutes we only rang at one tower in the morning. This was at St Andrew’s Church Prestwold (8. 10 1/2cwt), just a few minutes away from the foundry. We rang for 45 minutes, Rounds and Call Changes, and a bit of Cambridge S. Minor.
The weather was cool and cloudy and we decided that a planned for visit to Queen’s Park in Loughborough for a picnic lunch was not partciluarly attractive, so we stayed in the church. The church was very comfortable and we appreciated the hospitality shown by our host, Melanie Davis.
After lunch, handbells were rung by myself, Sheila George, Rebecca Banner, Mark Banner, Catherina Griffiths and Josh Crutch, to a variety of methods including Plain Bob, Single Oxford and St Clements.
Our tour of the bell foundry was set for 1.30pm and we were greeted at the new reception area and provided with hi-viz jackets and given a safety briefing. It is a working foundry and care must be taken to adhere to the safety requirements.
The tour began outside the buildings when the history of bell founding in Loughborough was explained. The Taylor foundry originated in St Neots in the 1780s by the then founder Joseph Earye. Subsequent foremen and apprentices moved the foundry to Oxford and then Devon before a commission to cast ten bells for Loughborough Parish Church brought John W Taylor to the town in 1839.
Although a grant from Historic England provided new reception buildings, the upgrading of the museum and other important improvements, the workshops remain busy industrial areas typical of a heavy engineering business and retain their former character and atmosphere.
The tour included all areas, from the casting hall, the wheel shop, the handbell department and tuning area. Each part of the factory was described in detail and all our many questions were answered.
The final part of the tour was to the museum wher we could strike diferent bells and buy souvenirs before ringing on the 12 change-ringing bells (tenor 6 cwt).
Ringing the 12 change-ringing bells at Taylor’s Bell Foundry
We had an excellent day. Our thanks go to all the staff and volunteers at the bell foundry, and to St Andrew’s Church, Prestwold.
We were pleased to welcome ringers this afternoon, from St Nicholas church, Norton, Herts, and Sandon. Previous towers of the day for them included Little Eversden, Toft and Bourn.
They rang Plain Bob, Grandsire, Call Changes and Stedman, and Sheila and I were invited to ring too, which we very much enjoyed. At the end of the session they rang the bells down in peal in time for them to make the short trip to their last engagement of the day, which was Eynesbury.
It was lovely to chat with the ringers in between touches, and share anecdotes. The live band setting up for the 5pm contemporary harvest service appreciated the ringing too. Thank you, Norton ringers, for chosing Gt Gransden.
A local band were privileged to ring for the memorial service of Barry Girling on Tuesday 8th October. Barry was a very popular and active member of the Gransden community, with interests spanning music, rugby, horse racing, badminton, golf, social activities and churchyard grass cutting. The church was full of family and friends, with eulogies recounting Barry’s rich life.
Ringing followed the service, while the congregation moved to the local pub, The Chequers, for refreshments and to share memories of Barry. (DG)
Saturday 28th September, a cool but bright sunny day. It was the second time that we had hosted the Ely DA Young Ringers and although only half a dozen attended they had a very enjoyable and productive 90 minutes. Ringing included Rounds, Call Changes, Grandsire and Slapton doubles.
Leader, Lesley Boyle, always gives the group opportunities to conduct, or ring heavier bells. This time there were several conductors of call changes and Grandsire, and a chance to ring backstrokes on the tenor to Rounds.
The last touch of the day was a course of Stedman, which included mentors and parents in the band and this was folowed by a very good ring down in peal, and refreshments were enjoyed before going home.
Many thanks to the Young Ringers for chosing Great Gransden, you are always very welcome.
As we arrive at the end of the summer holidays we reached our final target for this period. As previously reported, Josh and Haydn have made great strides during the summer and received certificates in doing so.
On the 29th of August we presented Em Santus with her Level 1 certificate having reached that standard within 8 weeks of 1:1 lessons. Em also attended the normal Thursday night practices, which all our learners do from the outset, as this helps understand the jargon and protocol of ringing as well as giving more rope time.
Em is off to university now but we’ll see her between terms, and she already has ringing lined up. As well as ringing at Gransden Em has taken herself off to the training centre at St Clements in Cambridge, and a chance conversation with one of the ringers there introduced her to St Benet’s, which she visited on Friday evening, and there is an opportunity to ring on the 12 at GSM before she leaves.
Em is very keen, enthusiastic and skilled, and I am sure will do very well in her ringing career. Well done Em, and good luck at uni!
Em receives her certificate surrounded by the local ringers
As we approach the end of the school holidays we can reflect on the success of the last few weeks. Josh has already rung his first quarter peal and to complete his Level 3 certificate in the Learning the Ropes scheme another was arranged for him, this time ringing the treble to quarter peal of Plain Bob Doubles. This was achieved at Little Eversden on Tuesday the 20th of August.
We have already reported that Em started to learn to ring, and after seven lessons has achieved her Level 1 in the same scheme. We will present her certificate on the 29th of August.
Meanwhile, the weekly tied bell practices using simulated sound (Sim Sound Sessions), held on a Wednesday have been very beneficial as we are now working on Grandsire Doubles. The young ringers have been able to attend too making it a real all-age mix.
Back to school soon, and Em is off to university but has made arrangementd to ring there. Josh (11), moves up to a new school, and Haydn (9), will continue to come to Thursday practices and we are looking forward to bringing them on to greater things as we start a new term in the ringing room.
School holidays – might be a good time to arrange a quarter peal – and so it was! Josh often rings tenor behind to Doubles during practices on a Thursdays. He is working towards achieving his Level 3 certificate in the Learning the Ropes scheme which requires him to ring two, one on the tenor to Doubles and one on the treble. We had a chat and he agreed that he would like to ring a quarter and I suggested that one on the tenor would be a good start point.
Gransden tenor would be too heavy for a quarter, at 13 1/2cwt, so we sleected Holywell as the tower for his first attempt. Sheila, me, Elinor and Becca arrived at 10.00am on Tuesday the 6th of August, and local ringer and tower captain, Roger, met us at the tower. Josh and his mum had arrived before us and were waiting in the porch.
The usual pre-ring pleasantaries were exchanged and once we had ‘settled’ we rang up the bells in peal. We tried the bells in Rounds before setting off into the quarter peal. Josh did a steady job on the tenor. The touch came round in 45 minutes and he admitted that he was quite tired at the end.
But, he did a great job and as conductor I didn’t have to say very much to him. I rang the fifth so that I could advise him if necessary. I told him when we were half way and asked if he was ok, and a nod confirmed that he was.
Well done, Josh, you did a good job. It was smiles and congratulations all round when the bells stood after 45 minutes.
After the success of the Fen Tigers success in June and Haydn’s Level 1 certificate we continue to focus on the younger generation. Em joined us four weeks ago to learn how to ring before she goes off to universtity in September. She has attended our normal practices to get to know everyone and become familiar with ringing jargon, and has rung handstrokes and backstrokes to Rounds. There have been weekly 1:1 lessons too and Em has made great progress. On week three she started to ring with minimal assistance, and by week four had consolidated this and rang Rounds, showing excellent awareness of what the bell was doing and being able to correct errors.
We have registered Em with the Learning the Ropes scheme and quite expect her to achieve Level 1 within the next few weeks.
At practice last Thursday Josh and Haydn rang up the trebles in peal and did a great job. During the evening Haydn started on his Call Change journey and Josh rang the tenor behind to Call Changes and the treble to Plain Bob Doubles. We have planned some quarter peals for Josh during August to help him achieve his LTR Level 3 certificate.
On Friday the 26th we rang a quarter peal of Plain Bob Doubles immediately following th funeral of Maurice Cain. Maurice was a supporter of the bells and his sons had requested that they be rung ‘open’ in celebration of his life. The family requested the tenor to be tolled for five minutes as the courtege left the church. We then rang the quarter peal and thank Becca Glazier (Thriplow) for making up the band.
An email from the rector thanked us for our ringing, “….and thank you for making the bells possible earlier too, as ever offering a hospitality and pastoral outreach to all those who come through our doors. Please do thank all who rang today – it was a great blessing to stand at the graveside and hear a peal of love, remembrance and sympathy…”
I have been thinking about the future of ringing in our own tower and nationally. Part of this involved writing a mind map to illustrate our (bell ringers) relationship with church and community. I followed this with a paper describing all the good things that we are doing and what challenges we face in the next few years. I am hoping it will generate some thought amongts ringers and I will report on outcomes in due course.
We had a very special practice this evening. There were ten ringers (including one raw recruit), two parents, and we welcomed three non-ringing visitors (2 from New Zealand).
We practised call changes for Josh in preparation for the Ringing World Young Ringers Striking Competition in London on Saturday, when he is part of the Fen Tigers squad for the Ely DA. Good luck Josh!
Em rang handstrokes and backstrokes to Rounds, as she embarks on her learning to ring.
The highlight of the evening was presenting 9 year old Haydn with his Learning the Ropes Level 1 certificate, which he has achieved after 9 weeks. He is ringing Rounds, and is just starting on call changes and leading.
We have our Ringers and Singers safari supper tommorow evening, and a wedding to ring for on Saturday, so it’s all very exciting!
The Huntingdon District organised a Ringing Festival which included a striking competition and treasure hunt. It was set at Gamlingay on Saturday the 15th of June and about thirty six ringers took part. The idea was to make it an informal and flexible event where ringers could ring for more than one team across three categories, Rounds, Call Changes and Method ringing.
The Gransden team was able to enter a team in each of the Call Change and Method groups. The draw for ringing was made on arrival and Gransden were first on ringing Grandsire Doubles. Two other teams entered this group, Ramsey and Gamlingay. Then followed the Rounds group which included Ramsey and Buckden, and finally the Call Changes group of Ramsey, Gransden and Gamlingay.
After the competition we adjourned to the church hall for a splendid tea prepared by local ringers and friends. The President of the District welcomed everyone and thanked all those involved in organising the day, especially Caroline Stevens, District Secretary and Sheila George for the devizing the treasure hunt.
The judges were Cass Boocock – Gamlingay and Peter Mackley -St Ives. Peter commented on each team’s ringing and Cass announced the placings in each category. All the winners received chocolate medals and all other ringers received smaller medalions. Dan Stevens photographed all the teams after ringing and again with their prizes.
After tea handbells were rung by Phillip George, David Paynter and Elspeth Novice. It was a splendid afternoon, and great to meet up with ringers from other towers, some for the first time.
It is very exciting to visit other towers. You meet new ringers, try new bells and generally have a great time.
Gransden ringers went to the practice at Ramsey back in May and we made a reciprocal arrangement for them to come to us on the 13th June. Five of them came over, and including two parents of junior members and one non-ringing visitor from Australia there were nineteen all told.
Tower captain, Sheila G, kept us all busy ringing call changes, Plain Hunt 6, Plain Bob 6, Grandsire 5 and a course of Stedman. Everyone had a good chance to ring and we also did a lot of chatting – renewing aquaintances.
The sweet tin was constantly open and handed round during the notices at half time, when we talked about the Hunts District Ringing Festivalat Gamlingay on Saturday. Ramsey and Gransden are entering teams, so we were careful not to dicuss details with each other!
A great time was had by all and Ramsey ringers thanked us for a lovely evening. It was our pleasure!
On Saturday the 8th of June we welcomed Hinckley District Ringers (Leics) to the tower. They requested a one hour slot of general ringing from 3.30pm to 4.30pm . On the same afternoon the church had arranged a family service starting at 4.45pm with pizza and live music.
Excellent collaboration between ringers and service organisers ensured that the band had finished practising before we wanted to start ringing. Although we ring upstairs behind the glazed tower arch the band was very loud and could very easily be heard. All was well and the ringers began to arrive as the band were ended their practice. Many thanks to the organisers for working with us on this.
There were about 20 ringers which included some ringing friends from that area. The ringing was good and included London, Cambridge, Dixons, Plain Bob, Grandsire, Stedman and St Simons. One ringer said “I could ring these all day”, which was a very nice comment to hear about our bells.
The weather was warm and sunny so occasionally some would listen outside. At the same time other people were arriving to prepare refreshments. The bells also served as a welcome to everyone coming to the service.
Sheila and I love going to Ramsey to ring. The bells are an old fashioned but easy goig 13cwt six and the welcome you receive is second to none. Cathy Moulton, whom we have known for 30 years or so, is the tower captain, and after a 25 mile drive in the rain her cheery smile and welcome made it all worthwhile, especially as the last mile or so was in a new 20 mph speed zone!
We had made an arrangement with Cathy for Great Gransden ringers to attend a practice night and meet their ringers on Tuesday the 21st of May. We all piled into the ringing room where twenty ringers in all had congregated. Some were from March where there is no ringing for the time being whilst the tower is being restored. Although they have to travel a similar distance, Ramsey is an opportunity for their learners too but they also bring experience which helps raise the tecnhical standard on practice nights. Good ringing is often received with applause and all efforts are openly encouraged. It is a very happy atmosphere.
Generally speaking our ringers are at the same level as both Ramsey and March, so we fitted in very well ringing Call Changes and Plain Hunt, and the more experienced ones taking part in Kent Treble Bob Minor and Stedman Doubles. As the bells are easy going and a similar weight to our own our ringers had no problems and it was nice to ring with like-minded people, helping each other out.
The sweet tin is constantly open and was nearly exhausted by the end of the evening and there were also some free-range eggs for people to take away. We have arranged a return visit for Ramsey to come to us on the 13th of June. There will certainly be sweets, but I can’t promise eggs!!
Thank you, Ramsey, for a great evening, we look forward to seeing you soon.
We’ll soon be visiting Ramsey on their practice night as part of a ‘practice exchange’. They will visit our tower in June as a reciprocal part of the arrangement. But, before I report on that I thought I would write a few words on our latest news.
For the last few weeks I have been teaching a new young ringer, 9 year old Haydn, who’s home tower is Conington but the bells there are a little more difficult than at Gransden and I have been asked to help. He is on a ten week course with the aim of getting him through Level 1 of the Learning the Ropes training scheme. He is doing very well and can ring on his own. He now needs to condolidate his skills and develop consistency but all being well he will reach that taregt within the time-scales.
Our other you ringer, 11 year old Josh will soon pass his Level 3. In fact it’s just a question of organising two quarter peals for him which we hope to do in the next two or three months. Josh has impressed the organisers of the Ely Association young ringers group, The Fen Tigers, with his ringing skills, and he has earned a place in the squad representing the Association in London at the National Youth Striking Competition in July. Based at St Paul’s Cathedral it will be a great day for everyone and we wish Josh and the team the best of luck.
Meanwhile, back in the tower, our weekly tied bell practices continue with sometimes 8 ringers attending. We silence the bells and use simulated sound. We ring a variety of things to help develop our ringing skills, mainly Rounds and Call Changes, to warm up, then Plain Hunt on 5 and we introduce excercises such as whole pull and stand and jump changes. Dodging practice is included, which is very important to develop good bell control.
Still on the subject of training, I offered some one to one training to a ringing friend who is at the begining of his teaching (ringing) career. Mark George (no relation) visited the tied bell practice I held for Haydn last week and I was able to go through some key teaching points with him. He stayed on to our open ringing afterwards and practised his Plain Bob Doubles, which he said, he found very helpful. We look forward to Mark returning for another session to consolidate his Plain Bob.
This Sunday, the 19th May, the church held its annual meeting. The ringers enjoy an excellent relationship with the rector, churchwardens and PCC, and as steeple keeper I report to the wardens about maintenance of the bells etc. It was thanks to Mark’s drone footage earlier in the year that we spotted some faulty lead on the tower which I reported immediately, and as a result it was repaired quickly. In the warden’s fabric report (Rob Chignell) it was mentioned …”Thanks to Phillip George for all he does ‘up in that tower'” Well, thanks Rob, it is a pleasure to be the eyes of the PCC in the tower, a place rarely visited by non-ringers, but it is important to keep a watch on things. Anyway, during the annual meeting I asked that if anyone was interested in knowing what was ‘up that tower’ to just let me know and I will arrange a tour.
I think that’s all for now. Watch out for news about our visit to Ramsey.
The second of our extra ectivities was our spring mini-outing which was organised by tricia Williams. Three towers were visited.
We started at Milton Ernest (6) 10cwt, where we raised in peal. Whilst not ringing we enjoyed a view of the church from the organ balcony. The ringing room west tower window depicts St George and the Dragon, appropriate, having celebrated St George’s Day this week. Performance touch – Cambridge 6.
On to Oakley (6) 10cwt and the one handed clock, where access to the ringing room is by ladder. Lovely perpendicular window in the ringing room. Performance touch – Stedman 5
Stedman being rung at Oakley. Video by David Prest
A relaxing lunch was taken at the Bedford Arms in Oakley where we had permission to ring handbells. There were seven handbell ringers in the group and all rang – Impressive! Performance touch – PB6.
Handbells – Plain Bob Minor
The final tower was Bromham, where the eight bells were enjoyed mostly to call changes. Performance touch – Grandsire 5 on the back six.
Many thanks to Tricia for organising the day, which all went to plan, and to the towers for allowing us to visit.
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!
Traditionally there is no ringing during Holy Week and although many towers continue to ring nowadays, the majority take the week off. We take the opportunity to hold our annual ringers’ meeting, which is an important event in the calendar when we approve our finances, receive reports and elect tower officers.
The meeting was held at Nutbells in Little Gransden on the 28th of March, courtesey of Phillip & Sheila George, with the comfort of a log fire whilst the wind and rain howled outside!
After the opening formalities the tower report was received. This year it was written by ringers involved with different aspects of the tower. David Prest wrote the main body of the report outlining all our activities. Sheila George commented on practice night ringing and Tricia Williams reported on behalf of the Wednesday tied bell group. Finally, Phillip gave a resume of work carried out in the tower and the condition of the bells.
The tower finances were discussed and accounts approved before we moved on to the election of officers. This year the officers were re-elected. Tower Captain: Sheila George, Deputy Tower Captain: David Prest, Secretary and Steeple Keeper: Phillip George. Once elected, the names of the new officers are given to the pariochial church council (PCC) to be ratified.
Although there was no ‘open’ practice this week we still held a tied bell practice, this time using the simulator for listening skills exercises. We silenced the treble and assigned it as the tenor for everyone to take turns and ring it to Rounds on six or Grandsire Triples. Scores ranged from 6.4 to 8.4 which was very good, especially as some had not rung the sim before.
Sim ringers at tied bell practice with the laptop in the background running the simulation app.
On Easter Sunday there were eight present to ring for the 10.00am service and we had some very good call changes. This is a special day and it was a joy to have a full house.
The weekend was also the time when the clocks were put forward to Britich Summer Time. Josh made the adjustment under the suopervision of the steeple-keeper, and his dad videoed the event. Follow this link to check it out!
This year is turning out to be busy as usual. We have an outing at the end of April and a few extra ringing sessions coming up including visitors and weddings. We want to organise an exchange practice with Ramsey, and we talked about an autumn outing, possibly to the bell foundry at Loughborough.
Keep following us for meore details of our activities as we go through the year.
The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) was found on the 4th of March 1824. To celebrate this anniversary we arranged for a quarter peal to be rung at Great Gransden. Some of the ringers are regular supporters or members of the RNLI and all were happy to take part.
Two of the ringers had not rung a quarter peal at Great Gransden before and this presented a good opportunity for them. We rang 1296 changes of Cambridge Surprise Minor, which took 44 minutes. Another important footnote was that it was Sheila George’s 950th quarter peal and her 266th on the bells. Well done Sheila!
The ringers were: 1. Charlotte Gamble (St Neots), Sheila George (Gt Gransden), Vanessa Webster (Cherry Hinton), Ann Abraham (St Ives), Roger Beaman (Holywell), Phillip George (Gt Gransden) (conductor).
Thank you everyone for taking part in this celebratory ringing.
L-R: Charlotte, Sheila, Vanessa, Ann, Roger, Phillip
The snowdrops are in full bloom and the garden beckons. I can’t wait to get out there but it has been so wet, everything is saturated. I can still do some useful jobs inside and one which needed doing was the high level cleaning in the ringing room at church.
I took the folding ladder and fitted Henry with his extra long pipe. David footed the ladder and held Henry while I ventured to the heights with vacuum nozzel in hand. There were quite a lot of cobwebs up there and fluff from the bell ropes had accumulated around the rope bosses. We also cleaned the light shades which thankfully just clipped off and on again.
This was last done in 2015 so it was probably a little overdue but were looking good bow!
We had a full house last Thursday and it was lovely to see everyone. The practice started at 7.00pm for Sheila and me to teach Josh handbells. We’re working through a plain course of Plain Bob Minor.
People began to arrive before 7.30 and through the evening Sheila G kept us busy with call changes, Plain Hunt, Grandsire and Plain Bob Minor. It was a good evening and afterwards David received two independant comments from prople saying how much they enjoyed hearing the bells. That’s really encouraging and we hope to continue to make a sound over the village.
On Sunday lots were away and we only rang the back five bells. Nevertheless, our ringing was very good and enjoyable. We had a young audience watching from the nave of the church as they waited to come up and use the room for Sunday School. Of course, we had to ring the bells down first!
The winter months are a little quiet. We still hold tied bell practises on Wednesday mornings and our normal practice on a Thursday evening. We are looking forward to our annual general meeting in March and our Spring outing in April.
In the meantime we decided to take advantage of the winter season to carry out some drone photography. There are some advantages in doing this at this time of year because there is no foliage to hide things. The disadvantage was that on the day the weather was cloudy although there was a milky sun and it was fairly bright.
The control processes are very interesting and in accordance with the CAA. The drone comes with its own helipad and instructions are given on take off and landing for safety reasons. We also notified nearby neighbours so that they were aware of the work.
We will use the photgraphs and videos in future stories about Great Gransden ringers. The drone operator was Mark George. Mark is a lisenced CAA drone pilot .
Here is a sample of his work. It shows Great Gransden church from Church Street. The drone gradually climbs higher to a position above the church.
The first tied bell session of the year was held at Nutbells on the 10th of January. This year we held a simple quiz on Call Changes and Plain Hunt on 5 taken from the Learning the Ropes training scheme. Most questions were answered correctly and there was some useful discussion around some of the topics.
It was a light-hearted gathering and we’re looking forward to recommencing in the tower on Wednesday the 17th.
On Thursday the 11th we held our second tower bell practice of the year. Unfortunately, there were only six in attendance due to holidays and work committments. We rang Plain Hunt and Call Changes before cutting the practice short at 8.30pm.
Before the practice three of us rang handbells. Josh had his first lesson. We practised Rounds on all pairs, then had some place making and dodging practice. The next step was to ring Plain Hunt on six with Josh ringing 5/6, which was very nicely rung. Next week – Plain Hunt on the other pairs!
Great Gransden ringers and friends held their Christmas party on Saturday 30th December at Nutbells. Everyone brought food and we enjoyed a starter, main and sweet course. Fifteen of us shared two rooms with instructions from tower captain, Sheila, to swop places after the main course.
The handbells came out with several having a go at ringing Rounds on ten. David’s quiz entertained us as usual – resulting in a draw between the two teams, the prize clinched by the kitchen team in the tie breaker!
David presented Sheila and Phillip with personalised coffee mugs bearing the Great Gransden ringers’ logo, as a token of appreciation on behalf of the ringers, for their tuition and help during the year.
Personal note – thank you all the ringers who attend every week and to family members who also support our ringing. PG
We are excited to organise visits as a team to other practices. During the summer we ventured along the A14 west of Huntingdon to ring at Great Catworth on their practice night. We arranged this with tower captain Geoff Burn and were warmly welcomed and had a lovely evening. We invited them to visit us and this was arranged for Thursday the 23rd of November.
Nine of their ringers were able to come along which meant that we had eighteen in the ringing room, but we managed to organise ourselves and take it in turns to sit down! Catworth ringers are at a similar stage to us, ringing Plain Hunt, Plain Bob, a little bit of Grandsire and call changes and we were able to help each other out.
During the evening we rang all these methods several times with mixed bands, and call changes were conducted by the two young ringers present.
At half time we handed out the sweets, and notices were given for each tower about forthcoming events. Sheila George kept us all busy throughout the evening and we finished the practice with a lovely ring down in peal.
Everyone enjoyed the practice and Geoff said afterwards, “I think it’s useful to visit other towers’ practice nights as I find it opens my eyes to other ways of approaching ringing!”. We all feel the benefits of these visits and will arrange some more in 2024.
Always looking for opportunities, a gap in the diary when key ringers were available allowed us to organise a Grandsire Doubles workshop on Saturday 11th November 2023. It had been on the cards for a while and we were pleased to be able to ‘tick this one off’.
We ring Grandsire on practice nights but our band alone is not quite strong enough to move forward with it. Friends from St Neots and Caxton came along for an hour or so to give David and Sheila Prest some concentrated ringing to consolidate bobs and singles. Each rang four extents and we managed to end the session by ringing Morrison’s 240. It was a really good afternoon with much progress being made.
With nine of us all told we were able to take turns in sitting out, or standing behind, conducting and ringing the tenor.
As it was Remembrance Day we didn’t want to practice with half muffed bells in case we fired out in any of the touches. On one or two occasions we did have to start again and this justified our choice of ringing on silenced bells using simulated sound.
After the practice Sheila and David invited us to their house to enjoy tea and cake by the fireside. The apres-ring is always very pleasant, a time to relax after the hard work!
A lovely afternoon was had by all and special thanks go to Catherina, Dave, Ruth and Elinor for supporting us.
After tea we took off the clapper stays and fitted the muffles ready for ringing half muffled on Sunday the 12th
Josh has been ringing for 10 months and making good progress, moving on to ringing Plain Hunt on the treble. He is ready to go on to ring the treble to Plain Bob Doubles and to ring the tenor behind but needs a very steady band to help with this, and a lighter tenor bell.
So, Sheila and I arranged to visit Little Eversden (7 1/4 cwt) on Friday the 27th of October (during half term) and we invited some ringing friends from the Cambridge District to help.
The ringing started with an excellent ring up in peal with Josh on the 2nd. The first piece of ringing was call changes, which he called, and impressed the others. He then rang the 2nd to Plain Hunt Minor, the treble to a 120 of Plain Bob Doubles and the tenor of two occasions to the same. Sheila was looking after him giving advice and helping him to see the bells. We finished with more call changes to Queens and back, again, called by Josh.
His ringing during the one-hour session was very good and the experience of the other ringers was highly beneficial.
Our very grateful thanks to Elinor Cole, Becca Glazier, Tom Ridgman, Tony Probert (T/C at Eversden) and Dave Hawkins. We enjoyed an excellent afternoon – and well done Josh!
We were lucky with the weather having avoided two days of heavy rain and wind. Saturday the 14th of October 2023 was cool but sunny as we set off on our forty minute drive to north Bedfordshire.
We arrived at Bletsoe in good time and were met by the tower captain. The bells wre re-hung in 2015 and the ringing room refurbished. The 11cwt six are lovely bells and the prime piece of ringing was a plain course of Cambridge Surprise Minor. We also rang Plain Hunt, Plain Bob Doubles and call changes.
Bletsoe bells were recast by Robert Taylor of St Neots in 1786. The church wanted a lighter set. The tenor at our church had cracked in the same year and was also in the bell foundry. Robert Taylor and his foreman Islip Edmunds noticed that the Bletsoe tenor bell was an exact match for the Gransden one and decided to swop them over, so saving on the cost of recasting. Taylor incised his name on the bell and Gransden accepted it as new!
So, Great Gransden have got Bletsoe’s old tenor. Whilst visiting Phillip invited Bletose ringers to visit Great Gransden to ring their old bell and it is hoped that this can be arranged soon.
Our next tower was Riseley, a 13 1/4 cwt six where is was locally declared that they were the best six in the area! We didn’t agree with this claim but had some decent ringing on them in the form of a 120 Stedman Doubles, amongst other tunes.
We then moved to the Fox & Hounds public house for lunch, which we had pre-ordered. We were made welcome and served nicely by the staff. A side order of chips was enough to feed about six others as Josh shared them out amongst the company of ringers.
Having sought permission from the staff, three of us rang a 120 Plain Bob Minor on handbells which was acknowledged with applause from everyone in earshot.
Our final tower was Sharnbrooke, a pleasant litte eight (9 3/4 cwt) where Grandsire Triples didn’t quite make it, but we had call changes and Plain Hunt 7. Our prime piece of ringing here was 100 Plain Bob Doubles with 768 behind, and very nicely struck too.
It was a really enjoyable day of fellowship and ringing. Our thanks to the towers for allowing us to visit and we look forward to our spring 2024 outing – wherever that may be!
We usually take for granted our safety in the tower. Although incidents are extremely rare it is important to know what we should do in case of an emergency. We periodically hold a refresher awarness session during one of our practices and this year it was scheduled for Thursday 21st September 2023.
The Steeple Keeper pointed out key elements to keep us safe. [These are specific to our tower but may be similar in other towers] 1. Understand that we have emergency lighting and a torch (working). 2. Know where the church door key is. 3. Know where the fire extinguishers and fire blanket are. 4. Know which possible exits to use. 5. Know the post code (on display in the tower). 6. Understand that personal safety is more important than tackling a fire.
Everyone listened intently and several contributed to the discussion with comments or questions. It was a worthwhile session after which we continue with our ringing practice.
Our ringing included Plain Bob Doubles and Minor, Plain Hunt 6 and Call Changes. Everyone rang things they were learning and it was a very successful session.
New sweets were brought by Josh and Tricia, thank you!
Every quarter peal is special. They require a lot of mental and physical effort. They are usually successful but never guaranteed.
On Friday 15th September we met with friends to ring St Clements Bob Minor. It was very warm in the ringing room even with the window open and the fan blowing. The ringing was unsettled and had mistakes. After two attempts I suggested that we change the plan and ring Plain Bob, which was agreed.
It was a good decision because we had some very nice ringing which took 45 minutes. I called my favourite 720, which is by Benjamin Annable which he composed in 1735.
Afterwards, we retired to Nutbells for a cup of tea and enjoyed the warm sunny late afternoon chatting about ringing. During the ringing the Rector had emailed Sheila about another matter. She had been listening to the bells and sent her best wishes to us and complimented us on our ringing.
As president of the Huntingdon District Ringers, Phillip had been chatting with Geoff Burn in his capacity of District Bell Advisor. They had met at Waresley to carry out a bell inspection, and the converstaion turned to ringing at Catworth, where Geoff is tower captain. Always on the look out for new ringing experiences Phillip asked if Gransden Ringers could visit Catworth on one of their practice nights. Geoff welcomed the idea and an arrangement was made.
Thursday 10th August 2023 was a lovely warm summer’s evening and eight of us were able to make the visit along the A14 west of Huntingdon. The church spire could be seen which helped direct us to the village and along Church Road to St Leonard’s.
Geoff greeted us, and other local ringers soon arrived, about nine in all. Brief introductions and friendly greetings were made. During the evening we rang call changes, Plain Bob and Grandsire Doubles. The bells are heavier than ours, (15cwt tenor) and rung from the ground floor, so the ringing experience is slightly different with moere rope to handle. But the bells go well and everyone rang very well as we joined in most touches as a mixed band.
At the end of the practice we rang down in peal and Geoff invited us to see the bells, which most of us accepted. The bells are squeezed into the belfry in two tiers. As they are quite big bells there is not much space to manoever but we managed to admire the installation and take a few photos.
We had an excellent evening and agreed that there whould be a return visit and hope that Catworth ringers can visit Great Gransden later in the year.
The Glorious Twelth
The Glorious Twelth! Well, not in the grouse shooting context, but it was a red-letter day for Gransden. On Saturday 12th August we rang the 300th quarter peal on the bells!
The first recorded quarter peal was on the 29th June 1961. It was 1260 changes of Plain Bob Doubles, a method to feature often through the year, there being a total of 84 being rung.
On this occasion we wanted to ring something which gave us a small challenge but was not too difficult. The emphasis was on quality of ringing. We wanted to include family and close longstanding friends which meant travelling over from Leicester for daughter Rebecca and husband Mark Banner, and there was a bit of pressure to succeed to make the day worthwhile. Catherina Griffiths, who would ring her 100th quarter peal on the bells, was an essential member of the team, and her late husband Tim would have been too, so to maintain the family connection we invited their son David to join us.
The methods chosen were spliced Single Oxford and St Clements, and spliced Plain and Little Bob. The calling was straight forward but there were 26 changes of method, which added a little challenge.
The ringing was very good, soon settling down to complete the quarter peal in 45 minutes. By co-incidence there were some landmark footnotes for the ringers. As mentioned, it was Catherina’s 100th on the bells. It was Rebecca’s 200th quarter peal and 30th on No 4 bell. It was Phillip’s 100th quarter on No 5 bell.
Sheila and Phillip have each rung 263 quarters on the bells and a total of 404461 changes have been rung in quarter peals.
Thanks to all the ringers for helping achieve this milestone. We look forward to ringing many more quarters. Here is a link to listen to the end of the quarter peal and the ring down in peal. https://youtu.be/-vOv8RdZHRY
300th Quarter Peal Ringers L-R: Sheila, Catherina, Phillip, Mark, Rebacca, David
Saturday 29th July was one of the Ely Association’s twelve-bell practices at Great St Mary’s Church in Cambridge (GSM). Five of us were able to go. It was a beautiful summer’s evening and we met up outside the church with other ringers as we waited to acscend the tower.
The ringing room soon filled with about 32 ringers of all ages and during the eveining Lesley Boyle, our stand-in Riging Master, made sure that we all had a chance to ring on the 12 bells. There were novices and experts but everyone was made to feel welcome and mucked in with the ringing in typical ringers’ style.
We were all excited to ring on twelve, and it was the first time for Josh. Some of us managed call changes and a bit of Plain Hunt on 11, and the evening finished with a bob course of Grandsire Cinques. I think its fair to say that it was a brilliant evening.
Thanks to GSM for hosting the event and to Lesley for looking after us, no mean feat with over thirty ringers!
We’ve had a busy month preparing for our Rusty Ringers tower open day which was on Saturday the 8th November. We had advertised it on the village email system and Facebook group as well as on Black Cat Radio. Personal invitations to former ringers helped boost visitor numbers although only twenty attended an this was disappointing.
However, one person said they would be interested in learning to ring and another indicated that they might, and we invited them to come along to our practice on Thursday.
We hade extensive displays of photographs in the church both hard copy and as a projected presentation. The handbells were available to ring Jingle Bells and there were homemade cakes for our guests to enjoy.
Although visitor numbers were low it was good to welcome them and they all visited the tower where they could chime the bells. Rusty Ringers were able to ring with us under supervision and we hade a great time chatting about former times.
Many thanks to all our ringers for making cakes, looking after our guests ad helping tidy away afterwards.
In the evening most of us ventured out to the Chequers in Little Gransden to a Pizza supper arranged by David Prest. The company included ringers and friends and about 20 of us enjoyed made to order pizzas in the cosy back room.
The Chequers is a must visit traditional village pub and you are sure of a warm welcome from Bobby and Wendy Mitchell. In 2001 we rang a quarter peal to celebrate the Mitchell family’s 50 years at the pub. So next year will be an opportunity for another quarter peal to celebrate 75 years!
Finally, this year marks the 80th anniversary of the end of WWII. As usual at this time of year we rang the bells half muffled during our practice on Thursday the 6th and on Sunday the 9th for the service of Remembrance at 11.00am.
The ringing was very enjoyable, coducted by Sheila George calling Sixty on Thirds.
Gransden ringers have had two quarter peal successes in the last eight days.
On Monday the 18th August we arranged a ‘holiday’ quarter peal for Josh at Little Paxton, where he rang the tenor very nicely to mixed doubles. He rang his first QP 12 months ago. This was his fifth quarter and in five different towers. https://bb.ringingworld.co.uk/view.php?id=1878056
18th August 2025
Quarter peal at Little Paxton
Elinor, Sheila, Charlotte, James, Phillip, Josh
Today, Monday the 25th, Hazel rang her first QP inside, which was of Plain Bob Doubles, in her home tower – Gt Gransden. This is Hazel’s ninth QP, the others being on either the treble or tenor to doubles. https://bb.ringingworld.co.uk/view.php?id=1879974
By ringing her first quarter inside (some very good ringing too) Hazel has reached a milestone today in achieving her Level 4 LTR certificate. Well done, Hazel.
25th August 2025
Hazel’s Level 4 quarter peal
Elinor, Becca, Hazel, Phillip, Tom, Sheila
In July, four of us visited our friends at Biggleswade on their practice night, to ring on their lovely ten bells. We offered a reciprocal invitation and we were delighted to welcome six of their ringers to our practice on the 21st August. By coincidence, two from Histon also came.
So we had sixteen ringers in the tower plus the necessary adult supporters for the three youngsters. It was cosy in the ringing room but most of the chaperones stayed downstairs in the church while we got on with the serious stuff.
With Biggleswade’s expertise we were able to ring Cambridge and Stedman, and T/C Sheila George made sure that call changes, Plain Hunt, Plain Bob, St Martins and Grandsire were also rung in abundance with mix and match teams.
It was good to ring together. Highlights: Seeing 9 year old Oscar ringing the tenor to call changes, his heaviest bell so far.
21st August 2025
Sixten ringers
Biscuits brought by Charlotte which were much appreciated, and between us we devoured a whole tin of them during the course of the evening. Reminscing with Anthony over the early quarter peals rung in the tower and recorded on the notice boards, and our once close links with nearby Bedfordshire towers.
Ah! The joy of ringing and all that it brings! A great evening!
On midsummer’s day some of our ringers took part today in a striking competition at the Huntingdon District Ringing Festival held at Hemingford Abbots.
Six teams entered from different churches and we were in the call-change section. The team rang very steadily and in their typcal determined style under the leadership of tower captain, Sheila George.
The judges placed our team 1st in the group. If we had been judged amongst all the teams (change-ringers included) we would have come in 3rd place.
Well done and special mention to: Treble – Sheila George, 2 – Josh Crutch, 3 – Hazel Pettit, 4 – Catherina Griffths, 5 – Tricia Williams, 6 – Martin Prest. You are all winners!
A certificate was awarded to the team and all ringers received a medal.
‘1st’ certificate with chocolate medals
Sheila (left) with chocolate medals, and Catherina
Great Gransden Bell Ringers 