The New Year is always a good time to plan for the new ringing season. We have had a break from tied bell practices over the Christmas period and its always good to start the new season with a theory session before we get back into the tower.

On Wednesday 18th January our first meeting was as Nutbells when we looked at the requirements for Level 3 and Level 4 stages in the Learning the Ropes training scheme. After establishing what everyone had to aim for we discussed and practised writing out Plain Hunt of 5 bells. This exercise was understood and some “informal” homework was set to write out a Plain Course of Plain Bob Doubles, just an extension to Plain Hunt, to be submitted in a week’s time when we will meet in the tower again.

Of course, there was a lot of chatter about other ringing topics and this was accompanied by coffee and shortbread. Our normal hour session was extended by 30 minutes but we rounded off the session feeling refreshed and challenged! Now for some hard work in making things happen – Level 3 and 4 certificates to be accomplished this year!

On Thursday 19th twelve of us met for practice. It was a chilly evening and thank you David for venturing across to the tower early to switch on the heaters. Sheila G kept us all busy, and warm, by scheduling in Plain Bob Doubles, Plain Hunt 6, Grandsire Doubles and call changes.

Sheila also included Rounds for Josh. Josh is a new young ringer we are teaching. He has had two lessons and is ringing backstrokes and handstrokes seperately. He is learning to ring up a bell. He had a go at ringing just the backstrokes to Rounds and achieved this with excellent results. This is the first time he has rung on open bells and an opportunity for him to try and pick out the sound of his own bell. He also rang the handstrokes in Rounds. His achievements were accompanied by words of encouragement and congratulations from the other ringers.

We were also very pleased to present level 2 certificates to Tricia and Julia, so our emphasis this year will be on Level 3 and Level 4, as well as Level 1 and Level 2 for Josh. Exciting times ahead!

Ringers were reminded about the Annual District Meeting on Saturday 21st to be held at Gamlingay. Our next ringing will be at practice next week, but with tied bell practice on Wednesday for all who wish to attend, when we will be working on bell control when dodging and striking accuarcy.

Fifteen of us (ringers and partners) squeezed around the dining table on Thursday 5th January to enjoy a feast at our Christmas party. Everyone took their part in cooking, baking or otherwise providing a super three course meal.

The usual jollity of Christmas crackers, paper hats and poor jokes were shared as we enjoyed our time together, one of the few occasions when we aren’t ringing!

After dinner David thanked Phillip & Sheila for their work and encouragement during the year and presented them with a personalised gift – a jigsaw puzzle featuring fully muffled bells of Great Gransden. In reply Phillip thanked David and Sheila P for hosting the party and to everyone for contributing to the wonderful food; and for their loyal support through the year…oh! and don’t forget, ringing tomorrow at 6.15pm for the service of Epiphany!

We were then entertained by one of David’s quizes, resulting in two winning teams. Because there was only one set of team prizes they were awared to the losing team, accompanied by laughter and approval all round! Quizmaster rules!!!

A super evening all round!

Ringing for the Epiphany

On Friday 6th we rang for the service of the feast of the Epiphany. We had been asked to keep the Christmas lights on in the ringing room as part of the celebration.

We held our last practice of the year on Thursday 22nd December and celebrated our ringing by presenting Mirjam with her Level 1 Learning the Ropes certificate. Mirjam’s certificate is the third this year for our ringers, others were for Julia, L1 and Hazel, L3.

In between ringing, which included 120 Grandsire Doubles, Call Changes and ringing Rounds with alternate bells at opposite strokes (!), we enjoyed mulled wine and biscuits. The dress code was Christmas jumpers and hats etc. and the decorated ringing room added to the occasion.

We have had an exciting and busy year. Our ringing and events have been summarised into a new promotional video entitled “A Year in the Life of Great Gransden Bell Ringers (and friends) 2022. We hope you will enjoy the video which can be found by following this link , its just 2 minutes 40 seconds long.

Finally, we would like to thank all our followers and supporters in the village and we look forward to ringing for you in 2023.

On Sunday 4th December Rev Rachel had arranged three 5-minute services of light and reflection in this season of Advent. We were asked to ring for ten minutes before each service. The church was illuminated mainly by candles which gave a different light and created a calm, peaceful atmosphere.

A small team of ringers was rostered for the occasion and during the services we watched quietly from the ringing room using torchlight to enhance the moment.

Some of the ringers attended the last of the services and others headed off to the Reading Room Night Cafe, where local Christmas crafts were on sale, refreshments served and live music entertained us. A lovely village event.

Our last foray of the year!

Thankfully we missed the torrential rain of Thursday and enjoyed a bright, dry but cool Friday 18th November visiting three towers in the Ely District for our Autumn mini outing.

Meeting at Bottisham first (6 bells, 11cwt) with an interesting access to the ringing room. Then on to Swaffham Bulbeck (8 bells, 10 1/4cwt) and their lovely ringing gallery with open views into the church. Lunch was enjoyed at The 5 Bells PH in Burwell where we enjoyed a leasurely lunch before the short walk to the magnificant church to ring (8 bells, 13cwt).

Our modest repertoire of Rounds and call changes, with touches of Plain Bob Doubles was successfully excercised, with only one or two false starts!

A good day was had by all. Many thanks to Martin Kitson, Lesley Boyle & Gareth Davies, and Dee Smith for allowing us to visit, and David Prest and Sheila George for being Ringing Masters.

District Meeting

A cool, dull, mizzly November day. “Will anyone come to the ringing meeting this afternoon?” “Will everyone decided to stay at home in the warm?” These were the questions Sheila and I asked each other as we made our way to the church tower.

Well, we needn’t have worried – ringers soon appeared. The heating went on in the ringing room and the bells were raised.

During the afternoon about 25 ringers from all parts of the district (inc. Ramsey, St.Neots, Gamlingay, Godmanchester, Fenstanton, Holywell, Huntingdon and St.Ives) took their turn, and the methods rung included Call Changes, PB5 & 6, Oxford TB, Cambridge, Ipswich & London Surprise minor, and St.Clements.

We rang until 4.00pm after which were served refreshing cups of tea with biscuits immediately before a short business meeting.

Great Gransden ringers were thanked for hosting the event and esp to Sheila George for providing the refreshments.

Another very enjoyable afternoon ringing.

Saturday 5th November, 10.00am. Everything is ready to welcome people to our coffee morning – the first time we have embarked on this type of fund raising and PR event.

The handbells have been laid out, the bunting is up, the perpetual overhead slide presentation is running, the kettle is on and we are keen to get going. It started with a trickle of people but soon developed into a steady flow ordering their refreshments.

The biscuit decorating table soon started to attract youngsters as did the handbells, which throughout the morning were rung by complete novices, under the tutelage of Sheila George. Two seasonal tunes had been selected to be rung, Jingle Bells and Good King Wenceslas, both providing gentle entertainment amongst the excited chatter of our visitors. Christmas cards were on sale (designed by Rebecca Banner).

It was good to welcome everyone, and we met a lapsed ringer who we hope will visit us on a Thursday evening practice session.

Our thanks to everyone for supporting our endeavour either by visiting or donating cakes and raffle prizes which helped us raise £270 for our tower fund. In this case raised specifically to pay for our new laptop for the training facility and towards handbell insurance.

This was a really good PR opportunity for ringing, and an excellent morning! Thanks to the team for their hard work, David and Sheila Prest, Hazel Pettit, Tricia Williams, Julia Smith, Sue Taylor and Sheila George.

n.b. all photos of young people are published with permission from their parents.

Sheila and Phillip George were married in Great Gransden church on 7th October 1972. They rang for their own wedding and then a quarter peal band took over ringing 1260 Plain Bob Minor before attending the reception.

Fifty years on the 7th October 2022 they rang another quarter peal. This time with another couple celebrating their Golden Anniversary on the same day.

On Saturday the 8th there were further ringing celebrations when a date touch of 1972 changes was rung, this time including daughter and son in law Rebecca and Mark Banner, and two of our ringing friends Catherina Griffiths and Naomi Laredo. The method rung was Cambridge Surprise Minor.

The Queen is Dead, Long Live the King!!

What happens in the bell tower?

After eleven days of mourning Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, bell ringers everywhere will be “getting back to normal”. The muffles will be taken off the clappers and stored ready for our next act of remembrance as our memories of recent days tarry for a while.

During the last week or so we have rung at specific times in the process code-named Operation London Bridge, the guidance on “what to do” when the sovereign dies. Of course, it started as Operation Unicorn because the queen died in Scotland. Although the queen died on the 8th September (D-Day), D-Day was actually assigned as the 9th.

Ringers everywhere were mobilised at short notice and many rang on the 9th at midday to honour Her Majesty. In Great Gransden, as with many other towers, the bells were rung fully muffled but with the tenor “open” at backstroke, meaning that it had only one muffle on the clapper. Tower captain Sheila George organised the ringers so that everyone had equal opportunity to experience this unique and exciting type of ringing. Fully muffled ringing is reserved to mark the death of the sovereign.

Accession is instantaneous. As soon as Queen Elizabeth II died, Prince Charles became King Charles III. Although in mourning, the country had to mark the accession. Proclamations were made, first in London on the 10th September and a day later in the provinces, where Royal guidance advised us to ring on Sunday 11th from 4.00pm, and the Gransden ringers did so, ringing on open bells in celebration.

The days following the proclamation continued with end to end “mono-tely”, as ordinary life seemed to be on hold and there was an endless commentary on tv by many presenters saying the same things time and time again! The “Queue”, as it became known, to Westminster Hall where Her Majesty was lying in state was several miles long and could be seen from space! Ringers continued marking the queen’s death with muffled ringing, and in Great Gransden there was eagre anticipation of our next special ringing as emails were exchanged to coordinate the team.

Monday 19th was our final act of remembrance. We rang from 10.00am for 45 minutes. Once again Sheila had organised us and the bells were rung almost continuously. Finally, at 10.45am the tenor was tolled for 15 minutes until the start of the funeral service of Her Majesty.

It has been an extra-ordinary week and an honour to have taken an active part in this moment of our country’s history.

The evenings are drawing in, the weather is a little cooler and the butterflies are begining to search out sheltered places to hibernate. The ringing room is a favourite place for them and we will find them now all through the autumn and winter. If they emerge whilst we are ringing we gently encourage them to seek a cooler, darker part of the tower.

We have started a new season and have exciting plans for the coming weeks. We have a few quarter peal attempts coming up in September and October, a training day, and in November we are hosting a district ringing meeting. We have a fund raising coffee morning in November too and we are looking forward to an autumn mini outing. Check out our calendar for these. Reports will follow of course.

Our most recent community ringing was for the church fete which took place on Saturday 27th August. It was held in the garden of Rectory Farm, immediately adjacent to the church. We received several compliments on our ringing. On this occasion we rang call changes to a touch called Saucy 5, which was conducted by Sheila George.

The Central Council of Church Bell Ringers has posted a link to a very useful online document. It is called Belfry Upkeep and it comprehensively describes maintenance of bells, fixtures and fittings. I have added a link on the Safety Inspection and Maintenance page of this website. I shall check that I have everything covered in my own schedule of checks.

Although the year is far from over as autumn settles in I find myself reflecting on recent months, what we have achieved together, and I am continually looking for ways to engage with our wonderful community. I have been looking for inspiration for a new promotional video and have made some test videos to check feasibility of my ideas. It is very much work in progress at the moment so patience is the key word!

I have also started to write an account of the bells and ringers of Great Gransden from the late 1890s. I have quite a lot of material but am discovering that writing a factual, but most importantly an interesting history is quite challenging. Sheila G is helping in the geanealogy department and I am spending a lot of time thinking! This is going to take a while to complete so I might post interim updates as I go along!

As I research this and start writing, new ideas come to mind. They are sometimes a distraction because the doors which they open are just as exciting. Today, during my work on this project, I remembered that somewhere I have some videos of the bells and clock before the restoration in 2000. Fortunately I had the files transferred to a DVD in 1995, and lo and behold it was in my office drawer. I have transferred the files to the desktop PC, so at least there is a back up for these important, unique historic films. Now I have to decide what I can use from them to create a short video to upload to YouTube. More news on this later.

Our website doesn’t have many email subscribers. My regular blogs summarise what we are doing and I hope they make for interseting reading for non-ringers too. Please encourage others to #subscribe, there is no obligation and there will be no emails except one occasionally to say that something has been posted. Comments can be left if you wish.

Some of our ringers had expressed an interest in ringing at St.Neots, our 10-bell, 29cwt neighbour. Knowing that access to the bells and top of the tower was easy I made arrangement with tower captain Alban Forster for us to visit one Friday evening.

Through mutual agreement we decided on the 19th August and we were welcomed by Catherina Griffiths who escorted us whilst giving an interesting history of the clock and the bells. We were able to go into the belfry and then on top of the tower where panoramic views of the town and beyond could be enjoyed and photographed.

Afterwards, we went back down the turret stairs into the ringing room where we received a warm welcome from local ringers, including the vicar, the Rev Paul Hutchinson. There were also a couple of visitors, including one from Wymouth. I was invited to run the practice, which I was pleased to do, and we were able to make good use of the bells by ringing Rounds, call changes, Grandsire Triples, Plain Bob Doubles and a course of Cambridge Surprise Minor.

Most of our ringers had not rung there before and found that St.Neots bells are quite different from our small six at Gransden, but they rang very well, enjoying the new experience.

Our thanks to Catherine for meeting us, to Rev Paul for allowing us to tour the tower and the local ringers for their support during the evening.