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.
Great Gransden Bell Ringers 