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.
Great Gransden Bell Ringers 