Category: Guild News

140th anniversary of the Hereford Diocesan Guild of Bellringers

2026 marks a remarkable milestone — the 140th anniversary of the Hereford Diocesan Guild of Bellringers.

This is a wonderful opportunity to honour our heritage, and to come together to ring our bells. Here are some planned events and ideas to help us celebrate this special year in style.

1. Anniversary Ringing

The actual anniversary of the Guild falls on Monday 2nd March 2026. It would be amazing to have general ringing, touches (perhaps even 140 changes in length!), quarter peals or peals recorded in as many of our towers as possible over the week.

Please add details of all your commemorative ringing throughout the year to Bellboard at https://bb.ringingworld.co.uk/event.php?id=22351

If you’d like to ring a simple 140 changes of Plain Bob or Grandsire Doubles you can call a standard 120 and follow it by two bob leads.

There are a number of methods already named after people and places from within our Guild, you can visit https://complib.org/ to find what you need, or, if you would like some help to identify a suitable method please contact Andrew, pealrecorder@hdgb.org.

2. 140 Firsts

Throughout the year we want to keep a record of all the firsts achieved by our ringers and achieve at least 140 firsts. Everyone at any stage of their ringing journey can join in this challenge, please make sure the
event is recorded on BellBoard and linked to the event we have created.

A “first” can be anything, first time ringing call changes, first time ringing for Sunday service, first time ringing on 10, first QP, first in a new method, first peal and any other first you can think of. Congratulations Burghill on the first entry!

Latest on Bellboard here: https://bb.ringingworld.co.uk/event.php?id=22372

3. 140 New Recruits

This target is clearly ambitious, but we need something to aim for, and the new recruits will hopefully convert to becoming guild members in time. All of us can encourage people to come along and give bellringing a go, we all know the benefits are enormous, as a hobby it ticks so many boxes, and it is within the capabilities of most. Encouraging towers to open their doors to the public, offering guided tours, bell handling demonstrations, and ppportunities to try ringing is a fantastic way to engage communities and attract new recruits to the art.

4. Forthcoming Events

      • Saturday 9th May 2026 Guild Festival & Annual General Meeting – Hereford District
      • Friday 12th June 2026 Guild Dinner
      • Saturday 18th July 2026 Guild Competition Day, Bromyard District
      • Saturday 3rd October 2026 – Tower Open Day

Thank you!

Many thanks to Ashley Smith who has designed the new logo we will be using throughout 2026, we hope you like it –

If you would like a copy of the logo to use on your documents/publicity for the coming year, you can download it from here, or please contact your district secretary or contact@hdgb.org.

Please share all our activities and photos with the Guild newsletter and website. Contact Fran Watkins, Guild Secretary guild_secretary@hdgb.org, Nicky Aubrey, Public Engagement Officer peo@hdgb.org or Nick Chapman, webmaster@hdgb.org

Guild membership renewal

It’s time to renew your membership!

All members who have registered on membermojo will need to log in to renew their membership for 2026 (even those whose membership is free – to ensure their information is still up to date and correct).

You can renew your online membership from 1st November onwards, but the system will also send out automated email reminders.

Follow the link in the renewal email, or go to https://membermojo.co.uk/hdgb/signin to login then go to Your Membership and click on Renew

A step by step guide is available here: HDGB Renewal Guide 2026

Basic Awareness Safeguarding Course.

If you would like to undertake the Church of England Basic Awareness Safeguarding Course in person rather than online, there is to be a course –

Friday 16th January 2026 7pm at Pencombe Village Hall HR7 4SH. Course delivery by Jason Walker – HDGB Safeguarding lead.  Refreshments will be on offer.

Limited places available so booking is essential. To book a place:

Bell Restoration Fund AGM

The Bell Restoration Fund AGM will be held at 8pm on 15th October 2025 in The Art Room, Leominster Community Centre, School Road, Leominster, HR6 8NJ.

As a reminder, the membership of the BRF comprises all current Ringing Members, Honorary Ringing Members and Freemen of the Guild, together with one representative from each affiliated church’s Parochial Church Council. Members are entitled to attend, speak and vote at the Annual General Meeting.

More about the Bell Restoration Fund and its work can be found here.

Mordiford Update June 2025

Work on returning the rare set of bells at Mordiford Holy Rood church is progressing well. They have now come back from Taylors in Loughborough who have completed the conservation and cleaning and are currently being rehung in their strengthened frame.

There will be a Quarter Peal rung at 4pm on June 30th, followed by open ringing @5pm, to celebrate the return of bells and Roger Moss’ 82 birthday.

More information on the Taylors website here and a Hereford Times Report is here.

Anyone wishing to donate to the Mordiford Bell project, should do so through Mordiford Parish Giving or cash or cheque to PCC of Mordiford c/o Mr R G Moss, Little Hope, Mordiford, Hereford HR1 3LT.

A Reflection on Our Hosting of the HDGB AGM

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.

Happy ringers …

… and happy eaters!

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

Heather Kennard receives her 25 year certificate

as does Stuart Edinborough

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 😃!