News and articles 2015

Longer articles:

Bell Handling Training, 14/02/2015

ITTS Module 1, 18/04/2015

Wisbech District Outing 27/06/2015

Ringing at Walsoken and Terrington St Clement for St George's Day

Walsoken ringers rang at All Saints to celebrate St. George's Day, 23rd April, by ringing ‘Tittums’ and ‘Walsoken Surprise.’

The ringers at Terrington St Clement featured in the autumn issue of the quarterly magazine 'This England'. The article to accompany the photo said:

'The ringing of church bells is the very essence of Englishness, and right across England on St. George's Day, in the most majestic city cathedral and the most humble village church, dedicated volunteers were making sure that peals of joy greeted our national day. One such group could be found at Terrington St. Clement in Norfolk. (Left to Right) Barry Mallet, Anne Waddelow, Peter Bird (Captain), Julie Lister, Paul Scase and Jane Mallet. Thanks go to Mike Lister for the information and the photograph.'

Ringing for the 70th Anniversary of VE Day, 8/9th May

How to run a successful tower - seminar report

The Ely DA seminar 'How to Run a Successful Tower' was held at Swaffham Bulbeck on 30th May 2015.

This is a personal perspective by participant Bob Cox, Walsoken, Wisbech

Successful towers are needed for bell ringing to have a sustainable future. We need to consider “what does ‘Successful’ mean?” for a tower. ‘Successful’ means different things to different people in differing situations which is a serious hurdle to overcome. Ringing institutions such as ITTS, ART, CCCBR and The Ringing World all try to embrace this issue by regularising their approaches towards their standards which many people baulk at for a variety of reasons. The rationale I use in this brief report will, of course, be my own as taken from my understanding of our group discussions kindly led by Mark Regan. Mark is the ringing master at Worcester Cathedral and the DAC advisor for Worcester. I would also like to thank Phil Bailey, Lesley Boyle and their support teams for providing a well run training event. Read the full report here.

Young ringers at St Wendreda's, March

On Saturday 18th April the local young ringers group joined in St Wendreda's church (with six bells) for a ringing session. Many learners new to ringing (me included) also came and despite sometimes catching the sally wrong – and sometimes missing entirely – everyone had fun and many very impressive rounds, peals and call changes were rung and even the adults struggled to keep up with some of us!

Upstairs in the bell tower it was surprisingly crowded with young ringers (I had no idea that there were so many young people involved). We started by letting the newer ringers practice on their own and some of the more experienced ones get used to the bells. Then we did simple rounds and call changes for ringers like me with a few adults filling in. Once we had finished that some of the more skilled young ringers began on more complicated method ringing.

Whilst people a lot more skilled than me were ringing, some of the newer ringers and I went to see how a bell worked, by playing with a contraption that looked suspiciously like a bike wheel on some pipes (mainly because that's what it was). It was attached to a tiny sally and rope so that as you 'rang' it you could see the 'bell' on the wheel swing and learn how it all worked on a much smaller scale.

After all the ringing on the large bells was done, we had a go on some of the handbells, which were nowhere near as simple as you might think: you had to swing them quite sharply to make any sound at all, and once you got going and could make a noise, you had to do it with a bell in each hand and four other bells in the same pattern that the large bells do. I really enjoyed playing on them and it was a skill I never thought I'd try to learn.

Emily Adams

Stretham - one person's experience

However, I've learnt from my own experience today that ‘instructor and pupil’ is best for ‘learners’; that more than two at a time would mean a lot of hanging around; and that it’s not really a ‘one-off’, you need to be prepared to start at the bottom and work up. Don’t go there with the idea that you can hone your Stedman Triples, or indeed, Bob Doubles, straight off. You need to get used to the computer and the steady, even pace, which may be quite unlike ringing in your own tower. (There have to be two of you, in case Barbara is unable to stay, in order to comply with insurance and health and safety requirements.)

I wanted to iron out handling faults in a calmer and less busy arena than a regular practice and I found it was in my best interests to start with rounds and plain hunt to doubles. Abel, the ringing program, provides visual clues, but it was much easier to listen to the bell without trying to follow a screen. I was really pleased to practise ringing the tenor behind to six, eight and ten bells without anything to guide me except my ears - a skill I'm always being exhorted to practise - and delighted to achieve at least partial success. I am very glad I went to see what it was all about and I hope to go again in the near future. Thanks to Barbara and to Anne, who very kindly came along to help me as well, I had a thoroughly enjoyable two hours of ringing time and hope to put the lessons to good use..

To find out more and check availability, contact the Administrator (see http://www.elyda.org.uk/strethamrec for details). Don't leave it until everyone in the EDA is vying for time!

Pam Wakeling, 13/08/2015