Category: Guild News

By Greg White & Sally Townsend, Ross District

“Greg, Can you arrange for the Wombel to be collected and assembled in the church in time for the AGM on Saturday?”.

“No problem 🙂”  was followed just a few seconds later with “What is a Wombel?  🤔”

Internet Definition:  A Wombel is a Saxilby Simulator dumb bell mounted on a frame to make it transportable between towers and other venues. The combined unit is known as a Wombel. This can be easily rung by both ringers and non-ringers. It has many uses such as recruitment, raising the profile of ringing and training and it can be used indoors or outdoors in fine weather. The Wombel is an impressive piece of equipment and comes with computer, speakers, extension cable and everything needed for its operation.

Greg and Peter attended training to learn how to assemble and disassemble the Wombel, and arrangements were made for collection the day before the AGM.  Assembly in St Mary’s, Ross, on a borrowed piece of carpet to save the church floor, was a slow process 🫤, but eventually the Wombel was up and running. The church was looking ready to welcome the ringers; alongside the Wombel was a ringers book stall, ringing merchandise and a wonderful visual archive of HDGB. 🤩

Eight towers in the Ross District hosted bands for Call Changes and Beyond.  There was an excellent morning of ringing with a wide range of methods being rung. The bright, sunny morning was matched by the atmosphere in the towers where excellent conducting and the enthusiasm of the bands was enjoyed by all.  At Linton a more experienced group assembled, and spirits remained high despite the unfortunate mishap of a rope breaking, 😖 cutting the practice short. While disappointing, 🙄 the incident did little to dampen the camaraderie and good humour of the day, and it served as a reminder of the challenges that come with maintaining historic ringing equipment.

The AGM was very well attended, with 78 people in total, so we were extremely pleased that our efforts paid-off.

Interest in the Wombel was very good and there was a steady stream of people wanting to have a go 🙂 (see video below).

There were two teams of hand-bellringers which entertained us with some stunning tune and method ringing, information about ART courses and BRF; there was something for everyone and the atmosophere was fabulous 😃!

The Shropshire Association of Church Bellringers are organising 10 and 12 bell practices monthly at St Chad’s, Shrewsbury starting on Mon 28^th April and have kindly invited any interested ringers from the Hereford Guild to join them.

They suggest some confidence in basic ten bell methods as a minimum ringing standard: they will ring mostly on 12 if we have enough people.

Please contact them if you are interested; Their wesite is here, and Facebook page is here

All Guild members are very warmly invited to come along to our Guild Festival and AGM on 10th May 2025.

This year we have changed the format so that there are more activities and options of things to do as well as the traditional open towers. We have targeted ‘Taster Sessions’ in the morning alongside a general ringing route, and we have a range of stalls, information and activities available in Ross church during the afternoon.

at St Mary’s Church Ross on Wye:

13:30 – 14:00	Café church service & refreshments
14:00 – 15:00	Annual General Meeting (to include Special General Meeting)

After the meeting  (17:00),  Activities to include General Ringing at Ross

Activities and stalls within the church of St Mary, to include

• • • Bell Restoration Fund stall
    • Guild merchandise
    • Wombel
    • Handbell sessions (both tune and method ringing)
    • Recruitment information/advice
    • Bookstall
    • ART information stand
    • History & Archive

Open Towers (General Ringing)

9.30 – 10.30	Garway (5)
11.00 – 12.00	St Weonards (6)
12.00 – 1.00	Linton (6)
13.00-13.30	Ross on Wye (8) with service touch by a band representing each district
15.15 – 17.00	Ross on Wye (8)

Taster Sessions

(limited numbers – places must be pre-booked*)

10:00 – 11:00	Plain Hunt/Doubles	Weston Under Penyard (6)
11:00 – 12:00	Plain Bob/Grandsire Triples	Bridstow (8)
11:00 – 12.30	Introduction to Foundation Skills & Kaleidoscope Ringing (ART Module 2)	Much Marcle (6)
12 – 1pm	Surprise Minor	Goodrich (6)

*To book a place at the Taster sessions go to membermojo.co.uk/hdgb,  sign in then go to Your membership then click on Visit Store to reserve your FREE place, or email bookings@hdgb.org

For full details of the AGM with all the documents you need (agenda and appendices), see https://hdgb.org/agm/

Gerald Hodnett of Bridgnorth District died 8th February 2025.

Gerald joined the ringers at Much Wenlock in 1973 and was a member of the Guild for 52 years, receiving his certificate as an Hon. Life Member in 2003 of which he was very proud. He lived at Ditton Priors but he could always be relied upon every Sunday for service ringing and Tuesday practice night. Unfortunately he had to give up ringing due to ill health and for the last few years has been in a Nursing Home. R.I.P.