Category: News

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

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.

On 7th January 2025 we sadly lost Ena Plant, a ringer and great friend. Ena died in hospital after losing a battle with cancer.

Ena learned to ring in 2014 and was a very keen member of Broseley band.

Ena hadn’t been able to ring for some time due to a heart problem, but she was a very sociable person and always joined in and helped where she could. She organised prize draws for the BRF at District meetings and came along to tower fundraising and social events whenever she could.

During her working life She worked as a post lady and had also worked at RAF Cosford. During her retirement she enjoyed spending time with family and friends, sitting outside her bungalow with husband Paul enjoying the sunshine and walking their dog Bertie.

Ena was great fun and always smiling and laughing. She brightened the lives of many people and will be very much missed by all who knew her.

Our thoughts go out to Ena’s husband Paul and their family.

See also Coalbrookdale & Broseley Bellringers Facebook

We are very saddened to inform you that Mike Jefferis of Holmer died on 7th January 2025.  Mike was an extremely loyal, kind and dedicated man, his personal faith meant he was very much part of the warm and friendly atmosphere at Holmer church.  A member of our Guild since 1991, Mike was an enthusiastic and reliable member of the Holmer band and he will be hugely missed.

Our thoughts and deep sympathies are with his wife Sally and daughters Kirsty and Jody.

See Holmer Bellringer’s Facebook post

After many years as Peal Recorder, Neil Bennett has regretfully had to step down due to his health. Neil has been working closely with Andrew Watkins recently to add all the Guild peals onto Bellboard; Andrew will step in as Acting Peal Recorder for the time being.

With effect from 04/01/2025, there is a new address to be used for all Peal Recorder enquiries, including arrangements for paying peal fees and the election of new Non Resident Life Members.

All emails should be sent to pealrecorder@hdgb.org

It was a surprisingly sunny Saturday for our Tower Open Day around North Herefordshire, with a couple of last minute changes due to the deluge a couple of days earlier, we kicked off the day at Tarrington. Twenty-two towers were open throughout the day, with thanks to Anne at All Saints, offering the bells last minute to replace Marden and Bodenham, both
which had been flooded the previous day.

The route took ringers through some of our county’s pretty black & white villages, towers varied, with ground floor ringing rooms, detached towers, an anti-clockwise ring, the recently rehung and those still on plain bearings, from the three bell tower of Brinsop to the 10 at Leominster. Refreshments were available at several churches, with a selection of
cake and some fabulous soup provided by the ringers at Burghill.

Visitors included those who were new to ringing, experiencing their first new towers outside of their district, to those who had ventured across the country. We had ringers that travelled from Essex, Suffolk, North Wales and further afield with one making the trip down from Dunblane in Scotland. Five ringers managed to ring at all 22 open towers during the day, a small prize awaited them at the final tower, Leominster.

We are delighted to say that over £1100 was raised for the Bell Restoration Fund. We would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who came along, whether as a visitor, a steward or to help out with refreshments, your support is greatly appreciated.