Category: Tower News

St Nicholas, Hereford

There is an evening practice at St Nicholas, Hereford on the 3rd Wednesday in the month; from 1830-2000, the next of which will be Wednesday next week, 20th September.

All methods and abilities will be catered for, but I would like us to concentrate specifically on Double Oxford Minor, (plain hunting treble), and Stedman Triples. Any ringers who might be interested to look these methods up; learn them, and we will have a go at ringing them.

Please come along and support this practice to help us out.

Yours sincerely,
Stu Swift (new Tower Captain and Steeple Keeper at St Nicholas, Hereford – initially for a trial period.)

Chetton bells are ringing again

In mid-May, the Guild received an enquiry from a group of new and lapsed ringers who wanted to get Chetton church bells ringing again.

The bells hadn’t been rung for several years, so on 14th June, Darren and Jools from Broseley popped over to check the bells over (picture above). Fortunately no problems were found.

Practices were started up on Tuesday evenings. Ginette then began the task of teaching the new learners and helping the existing ringers regain their confidence.

Despite usually only having one teacher to four learners, the new ringers are progressing well and it is expected the band will be able to ring independently by the end of the year.

Sue Robinson, our Master Elect, kindly drives over from Bromyard to look after things when Ginette is on holiday.

One of the returned lapsed ringers, Vikki, is now helping to teach the learners which should help to move things along even faster.

Vikki being presented with her Guild membership certificate by our Guild Master Nick Cronin at a ringing outing on 12th August.

Anyone interested in supporting the new band is welcome to visit Chetton on a Tuesday evening. Practices start at 7pm and are usually followed by a drink in the church.

Returned lapsed ringer Charles (left) with the four learners Tim, Sarah, Elisabeth and Phil.

Hereford District Practice

To All Hereford District Members

Our next Open bellringing Practice for all members of Hereford District will be at Kingstone on Saturday 12th August

So come along for plenty of ringing. All levels of ringing will be given the opportunity to ring from Rounds & Call Changes, Plain Hunt, Grandsire Doubles, Bob Doubles and more complicated methods for those more experienced ringers.

Afterwards, a drink and something to eat at a local hostelry!

Broseley awards

Broseley ringer Darren Swancott won a national award for Contribution to Ringing on 11th March 2023.

The award was given by the Association of Ringing Teachers. There was a prize of £125 which will go towards Broseley’s bell project.

Another Broseley ringer, Yvonne Hadley passed her Level 2 Learning the Ropes certificate. Darren and Yvonne are pictured above with their certificates.

Listen to part of the peal rung at Coddington 17th March 2023

On Friday, 17 March 2023 in 2h 57 (10–1–20 in G), a peal of 5040 Surprise Minor (7m) was rung.
One extent each of Wells, London, York, Beverley, Bourne, Norwich and Cambridge.
Ringers were:
    1. Mark Pugh
    2. Paul R Smith
    3. Andrew J Hartley
    4. Nicholas J Green
    5. Christopher J Pickford
    6. David Jenkins (C)

Click below to listen to a part of Wells Surprise Minor

The past and future of ringing at Broseley

Tower Captain Ginette Pardoe has written an article called “The past and future of ringing at Broseley” which was publisted in The Ringing World in September 2022.

You can download a copy of the article here:  Broseley Ringing World article Sept 2022

Pictured above are:
Front row: Ginette Pardoe, Jan Baldwin, Gaynor Evans, Pam Sheldon, Mel Price (aka Ding, hiding) and Suzy Roberts (aka Dong).
Behind: John Maclean, Bruce Watson and Darren Swancroft.
(Photo Patricia Marinic)

David Lees 1938-2022

The ringers at Much Wenlock are very sad to announce the death of David Lees.

David learnt to ring at Kingswinford when nine years old and had many stories of how he cycled to other towers. He rang a total of 28 peals, 25 of them between 1952 and 1956.  His work took him to other parts of the country and abroad so peal ringing took a back seat but he always tried to maintain his service to the church through Sunday ringing.  In the early years he had the company of his brothers Roderick and Christopher both prolific peal ringers.  He joined the band at Much Wenlock in 1980 and has been a truly faithful ringer since, always trying to arrange any commitments on a Sunday around service ringing.

We will miss his jokes which never failed to make us smile however corny.   RIP David and thank you.

Broseley bells project

Broseley has an enthusiastic team of 15 ringers, 5 of whom started to learn since the Covid lockdowns.

However, we have some issues with our bells. The ropes are pulled at strange angles from the bells to the ringers, the pulleys are worn, the sliders have been repaired with metal patches and bells 3 to 8 have the remnants of the original crown staples which could cause the bells to crack in the future. The bells were originally a peal of 6 hung in a wooden frame, but 2 extra bells were added at a later date in a metal frame. The flexing of the bell frame causes issues with pinching of the bell fittings.These problems combine to make the bells quite difficult to ring.

We’re therefore raising money to send the bells away for preventative maintenance and retuning, and to have them reinstalled in a new 10 bell frame. If we can raise enough money we’ll be able to install an additional 2 bells.

We’ve currently raised £17,000 and are busy fundraising to obtain the rest of the money needed to start the project.

For more information, please download our PDF Broseley Bells Project Leaflet.

If anyone would like to donate, we have a JustGiving page: www.justgiving.com/fundraising/broseley-bells

Thank You!