This is the second year that we have invited Year 6 of the local school to visit the tower. Monday 13th July was selected. This fits in with their end of their activities which include their founder’s day on Thursday 15th.

The Rev Barnabas Oley was vicar in Great Gransden from 1633 until his death in 1686. He founded the school in 1670. He was a senior fellow of Clare College Cambridge.

After a brief welcome we started the tour in the ringing room where Em Santus demonstrated a bell ringing which could be seen on the cctv monitor. The bell was then rung down and through a carefully choreographed plan 22 pupils were accompanied in small groups to the clock room and belfry in turn.

Those remaining temporarily in the ringing room rang six handbells to Rounds and Queens under the tutelage of Sheila George.

After the tour everyone came back into the ringing room and under supervision were able to chime the bells in a cacophony of sound.

Thanks go to headteacher Mrs Downes for supporting the visit and teacher/supervisors Mrs Hussey and Mrs Hipwell for coordinating and accompanying the children’s groups.

We had a super afternoon, with great enthusiasm. Good luck year 6 pupils at your next schools.

Practices and Visitors

The weather during the last few weeks has been extremely hot and although the ringing room is relatively cool there are times when we just want to relax. Em took advantage of time out during our practice on the 9th July and we shortened our ringing to suit the warm conditions.

During the practice we congratulated Josh for achieving 6th place with his Fen Tigers team when they rang in the National Young Ringers Striking Competition held at Nottingham on the 4th July. Josh eas in the change ringing team, a first for him, previously ringing in call changes. Well done Josh.

On the 9th July we were please to receive some guests from America, visiting Great Gransden to trace their ancestors. The Sealey family were residents in the 15th century. The rector, Rev Rachel Blanchflower, asked if we could arrange a tower tour for them which we were delighted to do, and they were able to see the clock and the bells during their visit.

We are always delighted to welcome the Ely Association young ringers AKA The Fen Tigers. They are currently practising for the Ringing World National Youth Contest which is going to be held in Nottingham on Saturday 4th July.

On Sunday the 17th May five of their number and their leaders (Dee Smith and Lesley Boyle) visited our tower to practice their skills and generally have a very enjoyable social time. A few ringers were missing, busy revising at home for forthcoming exams but those attending enjoyed some good ringing.

It was interesting to see how they have developed in the last two years. Previously, Rounds and Call Changes dominated the repertoire. This year, with some help from adult ringers this included Plain Bob Doubles and Minor and Cambridge Surprise Minor. They also included Twizzeling, where each ringer turns through 180 degrees to face outside the circle. This develops rope handling confidence and listening skills.

A refreshment break half-way through was a good chance to discuss plans for the big day and the possibility that two volunteer Fen Tigers would be loaned to the Norwich team due to shortages. This will be a reciprocol arrangement, Norwich having loaned one of their ringers in a previous competition. Its all about teamwork, networking and sharing the resource. It also builds new friendships and inter-personal skills

We had a great afternoon, it was a pleasure to ring with them. Good luck in the competition!

Quarter Peal by Visiting Band

In 30 degree temperatures on Bank Holiday Monday, 25th May 2026, a visiting band rang a quarter peal of Bourne Surprise Minor. Conuctor, Phil Bailey, had asked for the bells and we were pleased to arrange this for him.

Knowing that it would be rather warm in the rining room we set up our two verticle fans to at least move the air around. Deputy T/C, David Prest, met the ringers and made sure all was ready, and the quarter peal was successfully rung. Here is a short clip of the ringing. (Video by David Prest)

See details here: https://bb.ringingworld.co.uk/view.php?id=1974807

On a normal practice night we can often ring Plain Bob, Grandsire and perhaps St Simons. This week three of our ringers were absent and to make up our numbers we invited some from nearby St Neots. This helped us continue to develop these methods for our novice ringers and keep on track of our training schedule.

Our friends from St Neots, James and Charlotte Gamble, are experienced ringers and their presence was most beneficial. Tricia was able to ring the treble to a touch of Bob Doubles, Josh and Hazel rang plain courses of Grandsire, and Josh, working towards his level 4 certificate in the Learning the Ropes scheme called plain courses of Bob Doubles and rang St Simons inside.

We also rang call changes where all members of the band made calls in turn and our visiting expertise enabled us to ring two touches of Plain Bob Minor and a half course of Cambridge, the latter usualy only rung by visiting bands!

In addition, we have two new ringers and both were able to ring backstrokes to Rounds.

During the evening there were three conductors, plus the call-change team. oh! and we finished with a very smart ring down in peal.

Well done everyone, it was a super practice, thanks for your hard work and to James and Charlotte for helping us out on this occasion.

We are occasionally asked for use of the bells by visiting ringers. On Saturday 2nd May we hosted the Huntingdon District Trainig Day (our local district). Local ringers Phillip & Sheila George, Sue Taylor, Tricia Williams and Hazel Pettit were on hand to welcome ringers and provide refreshments, and ideed to take part in the ringing.

The training was co-ordinated and supervised by Ed Groome and focussd on Plain Hunt and Plain Bob Doubles. Call changes were included too. One ringer who rang the tenor said that it was the heaviest bell that he had rung, and another was visiting the tower for the first time. Other ringers achieved their objectives to ring ‘touches’ * of Plain Bob assisted by several experienced ringers to stand with them or take part in the ringing.

Refreshments at 11.00am were taken in the kitchen area when we were able to relax for a few minutes before session two was eagerly commenced.

Sixteen ringers attended and everyone had a very enjoyable and productive morning. The ringing was well received from listeners outside and inside the church who were preparing for a wedding in the afternoon.

After the training event we had an hour or so before we were back in the tower to ring for the wedding which included our standard touch or ’60 on Thirds’ ** conducted by Sheila, and three lots of ‘firing’*** before ringing the bells down.

*’touch’ A variation from the normal ringing which requires additional skill.

** ’60 on Thirds’ A famous traditional set of call changes rung predominantly by ringers in Devon.

*** ‘firing’ When all the bells are sounded together as if to give the impression of canon fire.

It is a tradition that church bells are not rung during Holy Week. Gransden ringers take opportunity to hold their AGM at this time, which is usually held at Nutbells in Little Gransden.

This year seven of us were present with one apology and we enjoyed a relaxing hour or so discussing tower business. The tower officers were re-elected, Tower Captain – Sheila George, Deputy Tower Captain – David Prest and Secretary/Steeple Keeper – Phillip George.

We reflected on what we had achieved in 2025, summarised in our year-end video previously highlighted on the website – https://youtu.be/kXWEyv7aiaY and although we are few in number we seem to manage to do quite a lot!

Our wish list for 2026 includes an autumn outing and until then we will continue with weekly tied bell and Thursday practices, service ringing and ringing for weddings and the church fete. We are hosting the Ely DA Young ringers in May and the Huntingdon District Training Day, also in May. We are grateful for the support we receive from regular visitors which helps enormously with ringing methods and the general ambiance in the tower.

After the meeting we rang handbells which included Plain Hunt and Plain Bob Minor and Rounds on ten. Thanks to everyone for your support.

Ringing over the Christmas period is as follows:

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

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.

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!

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.

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.

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!

(photos taken and published with permission)

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.

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

Thank you – singing and cake wonderful. JW

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.

The power of good public relations.

We rang a very smart but poigant quarter peal this morning at Great Gransden for the Hunts District Quarter Peal weekend. https://bb.ringingworld.co.uk/view.php?id=1846810

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.

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.

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!

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.

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)

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.

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

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.

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.

A summary of our ringing during the day

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!

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.

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.

Mark can be contacted at:

Mobile: 07973 234099   Office: 01480 539978
Drone Aerial Photography and Website Consultant

mark.george@evo-air.co.uk

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!