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!
The ringers were greatly shocked to hear of the sudden passing of Andrew Fogg on the 7th July. Andrew had been a member of the church choir for 27 years and was a personal friend of many of the ringers. The choir and ringers have close ties, there being some members in both camps. Andrew and his wife Rachel were always hosts during our annual summer Safari Picnics.
We were privileged to be asked to ring for the service of thanksgiving to Andrew on Wednesday 26th July when we were joined by one of Andrew’s former work colleagues and friend, Kit Kilgour, who rings at Cottenham.
Our ringing was call changes which included Sixty on Thirds and we rang as the church became full with friends and family.
After the service we adjourned to Little Gransden Village Hall for refreshments when there was ample opportunity to share our memories of Andrew with people from far and wide.
Andrew was a good friend and supporter of the ringers. His place in the choir cannot be filled!
It isn’t often that we see so many young ringers together. They tend to be few and far between, mainly in ones and twos in a few isolated towers. Sunday 16th July was a special day for us at Great Gransden because we welcomed a dozen or so young ringers, with their parents/mentors, to meet and ring together.
Some were sporting the Fen Tigers tee shirts. They had recently entered the Riging World National Youth Striking Competition in York and were proudly displaying their logo.
The ringers were supervised by Lesley Boyle and Dee Smith, and were kept busy for 90 minutes ringing Rounds, Plain Hunt, Call Changes and Grandsire Doubles. There were a few “firsts”, some of the youngsters rang the tenor backstroke to Grandsire for the first time and for a couple at least it was the heaviest bell for them to ring so far. Call changes were called “up” and “down” which was a good test for everyone, but there was always collaboration amongst each band to establish the protocol before they started! There was also a test to see how quickly from start they struck an accurate row of rounds. Focus on the job led to a significant improvement on the second attempt.
All the ringing was very good for a mixed ability group and each of them brought buckets of enthusiasm with them, and the ringing finished with a good fall in peal.
Several of the ringers were keen to see the clock and bells and given a brief tour of the tower.
Thank you for coming, Young Ringers, well done, you are always welcome!
Most of the things we do are routine. We meet for ringing every week on a Thursday evening and hold tied bell practices too to hone our skills in bell control and theory of ringing. We sometimes take for granted the enjoyment of the fellowship of ringing, something which I am sure we all value as we ring for ourselves and the village.
So, what has happened in the last month?
Well, in summary, Josh was presented with his Level 2 certificate in the Learning the Ropes scheme (his achievement reported last month). Five of us attended the Hunts District Training Day on Plain Hunt and Hunting the treble to Plain Bob. This was very successful and we were able to practice our new found skills at our own practices. Hazel and Tricia have been learning how to take off and re-set the clock hammers before and after ringing, and there seems to be a constant replenishment of sweets from ringers returning from holidays, or simply because, as with many things, we share the resposibility!
One major event was the return visit by Aston Bellringers. Aston is near Stevenage and is where our ringer James learned to ring. We visited their practice last November and we were delighted to welcome twelve of their ringers to our practice on the 29th June.
We rang call changes, Grandsire and Plain Bob Doubles. Some of the call changes were called using the “down” bell, the tradition at Aston. Much of the ringing was by mixed bands and I think it is fair to say that we all enjoyed the evening. We were particluarly pleased to welcome learner ringers too amongst their number.
After the practice a few visited the clock and bells, a new experience for some!
The recent popularity of enamel badges produced for the Platinum Jubilee, the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and the Coronation of King Charles III, led to an interest in producing an enamel badge featuring our own logo. After discussion with Rebecca Banner, who’s original idea it was, I placed a order with a firm called Black Rooster and subsequently received a batch on 100 badges. They are £5 each +P&P. Please contact me if you would like one.
We have a full diary of events over the summer and I’m looking forward to reporting on them in due course.
We had a super practice last night. Our usual repertoire was rung, being call changes, Plain Hunt and Plain Bob Doubles, but there were thirteen ringers in the tower including Catherina and new visitor, Ruth.
A couple of our local ringers are away and any chance of Grandsire 5 is away with them, but as both Catherina and Ruth can ring it we ended the practice with a 120 (calling PSBS), and it was very nicely rung. This was followed by a very good ring down in peal.
During some other ringing, Josh was assessed for his level 2 certificate in the Learning the Ropes scheme which he passed. Now the hard work begins!!! He will be presented with the certificate next Thursday.
Overall it was a jolly good evening with new sweets opened during the notices and summer events announced.
Also this week, as it was half term, Josh joined our Wednesday morning tied bell practice. He came along with his grandad John. Afterwards we went up to see the old belfry. Here are Josh and John standing by the old No 3 bell.
Saturday 20th May 2023 – ringing for the wedding of Martin and Maggie, the first wedding of the year for us. The bells were rung up in the morning and we all arrived in good time to sit quietly exchanging conversation as we waited patiently, watching proceedings in the church from the ringing room.
It was beautifully warm and sunny afternoon and a group of well-wishers gathered outside to await the bride who arrived on foot having walked the short distance from her home. The group was refreshed with glasses of sparkling wine which was a lovely treat.
At last it was our turn to take part in the ceremony and as the married couple left the church the bells rang out to Rounds and Call Changes by Julia, Josh, Sue, Tricia, Phillip and James. After a few minutes Sheila and Hazel arrived having sung in the choir, and after a ten minute ring they joined the team and Sheila called 60 on Thirds.
Josh ran down to see if the wedding party was still there and he reported that there were still loads of people. So we had a final ring, this time firing the bells superbly and then rang down.
It was Josh’s first wedding ringing, well done Josh; and reports from listeners said that it sounded very nice. Thank you everyone, a job well done.
Wow! We have had a great weekend Ringing for the King. We started on Saturday the 6th May at 9.00am with general ringing for all our ringers when we were joined by some family members too. The ringing included Call Changes, Plain Bob Doubles, and we fired the bells.
On Sunday we rang for the service of celebration and on Monday the 8th six of us rang a quarter peal in the morning to round off the royal events. The link to a short viodeo of our ringing can be found here. This includes video or audio recordings plus photographs which were taken during the weekend.
The ringing room was decorated and certificates were presented to all the ringers. Special coronation badges have been issued to mark the event.
We arrange at least one outing every year to vist a few towers within about an hour’s drive. We decided on an early adventure this year, with an option for a second one later, and on this occasion we travelled to north west Essex. Tricia volunteered to organise the day and she and I and Sheila G met one day to study the map and plan a route. We decided on two towers before lunch and one in the afternoon.
The first port of call was Steeple Bumpstead, a 14 1/ 2 cwt six. Julia learned to ring here for the millennium when a band was trained up for the occasion. Sadly, there is no regular ringing there anymore and the ringing room could do with some TLC. The bells are quite nice and a good weight for a six.
From here we went on the Radwinter, a 12cwt eight. More signs of life here with a white board with plenty of blue lines. The ropes of Nos 2 and 3 go through shutes in the clock box but those who rang them managed perfectly. We rang a course of Cambridge S Minor on the back six, probably our best piece of ringing during the day.
Lunch was taken at the Coach and Horses PH at Newport. We enjoyed a relaxing time here and appreciated the good food. There were six handbell ringers in the group and during this break we rang Plain Bob Minor and Single Oxford Bob Minor.
The last tower was Newport, a ten minute walk from the pub. This church has a tall tower faced with stone and flint but its interior is brick. It was restored in 1858. The bells, also a 14 1/2 cwt six are a little awkward in a unique and interesting way. They are quite deep set and have long unguided ropes making good bell control essential. Some of our ringers rang only once but we did manage a course of Plain Bob Doubles as our last touch. There is no regular ringing here, possibly only one or two visiting bands a year. The ringing room is dusty and small pieces of detritus fall from the walls/ceiling when the bells are rung!
Although we didn’t ring on any bells that “we would like to take home” we had a very enjoyable day. It was interesting to briefly look around the churches and of course it is always fascinating to discover things in the towers and ring the bells, even if some are a little challenging.
Our grateful thanks to Tricia for organising the whole day and to the local people who met us and allowed us to ring their bells.
L-R: Steeple Bumpstead, Ringing at Steeple Bumpstead, The church interior from the rfinging room.
L-R: Radwinter, Descending the tower, the south porch.
L-R: Handbells at the pub, Newport church, door to the roof at the top of the spiral staircase at Newport.
Great Gransden Bell Ringers 