Cathedral Ringers go to the Cotswolds & the Severn

Saturday the 18th October had dawned clear and fair when gradually a group of ringers began to assemble by the west door of Derby’s cathedral. The occasion was the Cathedral Outing – we waited – Brian was fascinated by the effects created by the wind and the leaves and stood at the eye of his own private hurricane as they swirled around him. Fortunately, unlike Toto and Dorothy he was not swept away, and was able to board the bus with the rest of us.

A restful journey for some saw us safely delivered to Stow on the Wolds by quarter past ten. Here we twelve were joined by Anthony & Elizabeth Cotton and Jonathan & Janice Sweetman, This 28 cwt eight proved to be one of the most memorable rings of the day. We discovered, as we raised the bells in peal, that the bell with the shortest rope was NOT being rung by one of the tallest ringers. Furthermore, throughout the time that we were there no-one was able to set that bell successfully when the rest of the band set theirs. However we were able to use the experience as a springboard since the ringing improved at subsequent towers.

We were next faced with a drive from the Cotswolds, through the outskirts of Cheltenham, to Prestbury, the Sweetman’s home tower; these are a delightful eight and we were able to do them better justice. The leisurely lunch, and the ringing that followed, at Bishop’s Cleeve, Hinton on the Green and then Badsey, as we meandered past Breedon Hill and through the Vale of Evesham to our ultimate tower, were enjoyable and sufficiently varied. But the piece de resistance had to be the final tower, Evesham. Here the abbey remains consist of a bell tower - an island set in lawns and flowerbeds - and not one but TWO churches, which had been used by the town and by the abbey respectively. The bells here are superb, they are a ring of thirteen, numbered from 0 to 12, with a flat sixth; we rang numbers 1 to 12. Many of the band took time to admire the painting on the wall of the ringing-room by Philip Shepherd RWS, the one that was used on the cover of the Ringing World on 30th May.

In Evesham, too, we managed to find a convenient source of refreshment where we could also make our farewells to those who were travelling independently before yet another restful journey home. Our thanks are due to Andrew and Pam for so safely driving our charabanc, and to Andrew again for organising such a successful day.

A Humphreys

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Remembering Fifty Years ago

Mary Cox, Tower Captain at Brailsford, reached a landmark on 8th Nov 2003. It was the fiftieth anniversary of her first Quarter Peal of Grandsire Triples rung for the St Bartholomew’s Society of Change Ringers, at Haslemere Surrey, half muffled for Remembrance Day. The anniversary was marked at Brailsford with two Quarter Peals of Grandsire. One on the actual day, Sat 8th November, the second on Remembrance Sunday, rung half-muffled.

Although it was a 50-year anniversary Mary has had a 30-year gap in her ringing career, returning in the 1980’s when Brailsford was in need of ringers. Mary would be the first to say she should have progressed further into more advanced methods, but she is essentially a teacher and enjoys teaching new recruits. There are all sorts of ringers – some endeavour to reach the higher skills, some are content to ring as well as their ability will allow, some like to encourage others to develop their skills whatever their level. Mary is one of the latter – a teacher by nature and training. She has taught more than 30 Brailsford ringers, many of whom still ring at Brailsford and elsewhere, and helped to teach ringers at other local towers including Mugginton, Longford, Osmaston, Ashbourne and Mayfield. The ringers for the anniversary quarters were all people she had taught.

Brailsford, Derbyshire. (All Saints) 8 Nov, 1260 Grandsire Doubles: Rosemary Chesshire 1, Jenny Booth 2, Mary Cox (C) 3, Keith Baines 4, Chris Booth 5, Rex North 6.

Brailsford, Derbyshire. (All Saints) 9 Nov, 1260 Grandsire Doubles: Rosemary Chesshire 1, Jenny Booth 2, Mary Cox (C) 3, Chris Booth 4, Keith Baines 5, Rex North 6.

JMB

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A Stranger bearing gifts

I returned home one evening to find a telephone message from a stranger who had been given my name by Pat Halls. He informed me that his name was Alan Inckle, and that he was a lapsed ringer who had some ringing memorabilia acquired from St Andrews, and from his grandfather, Harold Inckle, who at the age of seventeen in 1903 had been a member of a band that had rung a peal of Stedman Triples at St Andrews, the Victorian Gothic railway church which formerly stood on London Road.

Alan wanted to make contact with Derby ringers so I invited him to come along to St Peter’s practice. When he arrived he introduced himself and from his bag produced first, a hand painted peal board which had originally been on the wall of the ringing-room in St Andrews, and had been rescued when the tower was demolished in the sixties. It measured roughly fifteen inches by ten inches, and we later decided that it was a piece of mahogany that had probably come from the carriage and wagon works. The decoration on the red background included highly ornate gold scrollwork, probably transfers derived from the carriage and wagon works, and two insignia, on the left was the buck in the park, and on the right St Andrews cross. Other items were a photograph dated 1912, which showed the St Andrews Society members, together with the vicar and churchwardens, most of the peal band was there. There was also a Midland Counties Association Membership certificate for Alan’s grandfather dated 1904, and copies of some books in the Jasper Snowdon series. The copy of Double Norwich Court Bob Major was an 1884 edition in a soft binding. Bound together in a hard binding were three books, 1881 editions of Standard Methods and of Diagrams (the book that first gave rise to the term blue-line, because unusually, that was the colour of the ink used), and an 1888 edition of Grandsire, a book which was completed posthumously by Jasper’s brother, William. Thumbing through these, one became aware of how fashions change; whoever has heard of Yorkshire Court Major, let alone rung it, it was not in any collections of methods that I checked out and yet it was sufficiently well thought of to be included. Or might it be there because Snowdon was a Tyke and the method was popular in his own patch?

As an ex-railway employee Alan had many memories of ringing in and around Derby twenty or thirty years ago to which several of the company were able to contribute. At our debriefing session at the local water-hole we decided to commemorate the centenary of the peal at St Andrews in some appropriate way.

(To be continued . . .)

A Humphrey

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Maintenance Tip

To reduce rope wear at the garter hole make sure the wheel has “bobbins “ on each side of the garter hole to reduce the angle through which the bell rope turns as it is rung handstroke to backstroke. Consider fitting a thin leather sleeve around the rope at the garter hole. Rub Russian tallow or candle wax on the surface of the rope to make it slippy and reduce frictional wear.

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Tripping the Light Fantastic

Between sixty and seventy people attended the Barn dance on 8th November, the bar was successfully drunk dry (at least of beer) and a good time was had by all those present.

It was a delight to watch people dance past because there was such a variety of styles and of expression amongst the dancers. Some were, contrary to expectations, incredibly light on their feet. Some danced with economy of movement, others with vigour. Yet more appeared to be in a perpetual daze as far as their awareness of the progress of the particular dance was concerned, and there were even those who danced without steps at all. These seemed to launch themselves around the dance floor without any regard for music, rhythm or choreography and despite all of that ended up in the correct place at the correct time. But most importantly they all had fun.

Thanks are due to all of those involved in making the evening a success behind the scenes, but particularly Lizzie Cotton, who organised the licence and ran the bar, and Chris Willis, who was the prime mover of the whole event.

AH

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Overheard . . .

Before a recent quarter of minor in an 8-bell tower -

Are we ringing the back 6?
Why don't we ring a pentatonic scale? It would sound better.

Better than what?
(Slight pause)

Better than Winster!

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