Summer 2021 Number 162

SALISBURY

DIOCESAN GUILD

OF RINGERS

NEWSLETTER

Deadline For Next Issue: 1 October 2021-f2f@sdgr.org.uk

In this issue:

From Our Patron 1

Guild News 3

LEBRF and Restoration

7

Recruitment, Education and

Retention 9

Guild Survival and Recovery

Survey 10

Covid Survival and Recovery

11

Nicki‘s ‗Return to Ringing‘ Exercises

14

Ellacombe 200 16

Young Ringers 17

My Encounter with Prince Philip

19

And in Other News ...

21

Thomas Hardy and the Bells of

―Wessex‖ 24

Tower Profile: Seend/ Rowde

26

Towers and Branches

27

Obituaries 32

‗The Back Page‘ 34

GOODBYE GOODBYE

AND AND

THANK THANK

YOU YOU

BISHOP BISHOP

NICHOLASNICHOLAS LATEST GUIDANCE

ON PAGE 33

South Wraxall Bells Go for Restoration (Report on Page 7) Pictures: Chris Bush

Page 1

From Our Patron

On his retirement as Bishop of Salisbury and Patron of our Guild for the last ten years, Bishop Nicholas

writes exclusively for Face to Face: Thank you for the honour of electing me a Vice-President of the Diocesan Guild in recognition of my patronage and support of the Guild during my tenure as Bishop of Salisbury. It has made me think about my own life as a ringer and why church bells matter

to me. I was born in Launton near Bicester in Oxfordshire where my father was the village schoolmaster. Fred Sharpe lived almost next door. He

ran a village handbell ringing team. I didn‘t realise how well known they were in ringing circles. It just seemed natural to me. We moved to Enfield when I was nearly four so I grew up in North London. When I

was 12 I followed my sister and a few of the others in the church choir to learn to ring in the eight bell tower of St Andrew‘s Enfield. Some of the better ringers also rang elsewhere so there was always a sense of being able to learn more. At Durham, where I read Geography, I joined the university band.

Ringing wasn‘t my main thing but it was an enjoyable hobby. I wasn‘t the best but I learned Stedman, Kent and Cambridge. But then I set off on the path to

ordination and it wasn‘t so easy to ring before the service as well as take an active part in the service but I did have a sense that bells and church go together and ringing and ringers matter.

As a parish priest I was blessed by the towers of the churches where I served. As a curate in Stepney we had the Whitechapel bell foundry in the parish, next door to the East London Mosque. Some of those who worked there rang at St Dunstan‘s and occasionally I rang with them. A priest‘s life often involves evening

commitments so I couldn‘t commit to practice nights

and on Sundays I had different responsibilities so I could help and support but not commit to regular ringing. In Lincoln we had a young family and I was teaching at the Theological College and looking after a parish church without a ring of bells but at Christ

Church on the Isle of Dogs we had a ring of eight. In 1912 the first peal rung by ladies was there. Some of our youngsters from the Salisbury Diocesan Guild rang there a few years ago in a striking competition. There was a brilliant ringer living in the parish, Roger Booth, who was determined to teach local people to ring and got a few of the congregation

involved. When we moved to St Martin-in-the-Fields

I found myself in the Premier League of ringers. The Cumberlands rang there as well as St Martin‘s own

regular service band. One of the things I liked about St Martin‘s was that you met the same culture and

values in every part of the organisation. The ringers made a point of welcoming visitors on a Sunday morning and even if they only rang rounds and call changes they would still get to ring. One of the St Martin‘s ringers, John Barnes, was determined to get me to ring a Quarter before I left so I covered on the tenor for Grandsire Triples. When it was announced

that I was coming to be Bishop of Salisbury, The

Cumberlands made me an Honorary Member. I didn‘t have their skill but, like you, they were pleased with my support and I had taught their Treasurer to ring a long time before when we were both growing up in Enfield. I love the connections of the ringing

community. At my installation as Bishop of Salisbury the ringers from St Martin‘s set up a small expo tower outside one of very few cathedrals without a ring of bells. I feel I owe them an apology for not achieving their ambition for Salisbury getting its own ring during my

time as bishop. My experience as a ringer has given

me a sense that bells celebrate the life of church and nation. Bells are rung for the national big occasions

‗Ikon John‘s‘ Gift To Bishop

Nicholas

Wording: A piece of Chilmark Stone recovered

from the Fabric of Salisbury Cathedral by

the Cathedral Masons during renovation work and then cut into this shape and size for this

picture to be painted on it. Painted by Ikon John

(John Coleman) Artist, Iconographer and fellow Bellringers as a gift to

Bishop Nicholas Holtam

to mark your Retirement as Bishop of Salisbury on 3rd July 2021....A

piece of Salisbury Cathedral to go with

you .....!!!

Our Message to Bishop Nicholas:

On behalf of all officers and members of the Salisbury Diocesan Guild of Ringers, thank you Bishop

Nicholas for being our Patron for the last ten years and for all that you have done, supported by

Helen, to advance and encourage the art of change ringing, to the worship of God, in your Diocese.

We as a Guild have appreciated your support at events such as those held in the Cathedral in 2014

and 2018 to mark the First World War and I know that many bands around the Diocese have been

overjoyed to welcome you to ring with them on your visits to your parishes. We wish you a happy

retirement and perhaps a chance to do a little more ringing in your new local home tower!

Judith Williamson (Guild President) and Robert Wellen (Guild Master).

Page 2

From Our Patron

like the Queen‘s Diamond Jubilee as well as for life‘s personal big events of weddings and funerals. In my

first term at university I rang for the funeral of the Bishop of Durham, Ian Ramsey, a much loved and exceptionally able bishop who died aged fifty-seven. Bells are also for the regular celebration of Sunday worship. I am grateful ringers continue to make this a big commitment. Bells call people to prayer but they also take the church out into the local community.

Occasionally there are complaints about the noise but most people love to hear church bells and most tower captains are sensitive to local issues when there

needs to be particular consideration for the neighbours. St Martin-in-the-Fields is next door to the South African High Commission so the bells were rung in 1996 when President Mandela was in

Trafalgar Square whilst making a State visit after the years of Apartheid. The Press Association phoned to ask me to turn the bells off as they were so noisy. Of course the ringing stopped before the President spoke. Bells are expensive but ringers are practical and usually the maintenance and some of the repairs

are done by ringers. Spread the costs over the years and maintaining a ring of bells is not massively expensive. When bells are rung regularly they are

part of a healthy church and society. They are

traditional and they can be part of the contemporary

Church of England. In a time of enormous change, activities and organisations that nurture and sustain us and build community are important. Because of the pandemic the local has become more significant. We need to rediscover this whilst understanding and

respecting the global. Church is an important part of that because we are local everywhere and have beliefs and

v a l u e s t h a t

nurture what it is to be fully human in the way of Jesus Chr i st . Ringers are a part of this. As I retire

as Bishop of Salisbury, thank you to the contribution you make and may God continue to

bless and keep

you.

Ringing in the

Guild for the

NHS, Social

Care and

Frontline

Workers‘ Day-5 July 2021

Source: BellBoard

Bournemouth (Sacred Heart)

1260 Plain Bob Minor

Bradford on Avon

(Holy Trinity) Rounds

Fovant 240 Plain Hunt

Doubles

Kingston 240 Grandsire Doubles

Martinstown Tolling

Howard Bowering

Rowde Tolling

Richard Heath

Royal Wootton

Bassett

1260 Plain Bob

Doubles

West Lulworth (Holy Trinity)

73 Chiming Elaine Knight

Chimed 73 times at 8pm by members of West

Lulworth WI

Wool 72 Stedman Minimus

New Guild Handbook

and Report

Distribution this

Summer

From Judith Williamson (Guild President): A Choral

Evensong with farewell to the Bishop of Salisbury took place on Saturday 3rd July at the Cathedral. It had been hoped that the Cathedral would be full but as Covid 19 restrictions had not been eased, the two-metre rule, masks and hand sanitising were strictly observed. Attendance was by invitation only

so I was delighted to be there. It was wonderful to hear the choir singing so beautifully, the hymns

were some of the Bishop‘s favourites and all well known, it was difficult not to join in! Under each seat was a gift bag containing a soft drink a small bottle of wine a paper cup some peanuts and sweets. At the end of the service we were invited to

open our bag and consume the contents during the presentations. It was at this point I remembered that there is no such thing as a free lunch, I heard the Acting Bishop call for the representative of the SDGR to come to the front and make the Guild‘s presentation. I presented the Bishop with a Vice President certificate in a silver frame. In his

acceptance speech he particularly mentioned how

delighted he was to be made a VP. Picture: Ash Mills

Page 3

Guild News

Successful Virtual Festival

From Robert Wellen (Guild Master): On Saturday 8

May 2021, the ‗sacred‘ second Satur-day, the Guild held its

Festival and AGM. In the long history of the Guild this was the first

(and let‘s hope the last!) time that this event was held ‗virtually‘ by the medium of ‗Zoom‘. In ‗normal‘ circumstances our rota would have taken us to Ramsbury, in the Marlborough Branch, but alas we could not make that appointment, however we were delighted to have the Bishop of Ramsbury, the Right Reverend Andrew Rumsey, to lead our service. As

much as possible we tried to ‗mirror‘ all the traditional elements of the day. We started off in the

early afternoon with ‗virtual ringing‘ on

both ‗Ringing Room‘ and ‗Ding‘ platforms. Attendance was ten people (plus ‗tower captains‘), and those who took par t reported it well worthwhile. Vicki Rowse acted a ‗tour

guide‘ and helped people navigate the breakout rooms and here are two reports: (by the way, ‗Wheatley‘, apparently, is ―A bot for Ringing Room that can fill in any set of bells to increase the

scope of potential practices‖, a second cousin of ‗Bob‘ on Ding?): ―One or two ringers joined each of the four Ringing Room Towers with people moving around

between the towers. The two 6 bell towers joined forces and with the help of ‗Wheatley‘ managed some ringing helping out a ringer who had never rung in Ringing Room before. The eight bell tower ended up with two ringers who, with the help of ‗Wheatley‘ rang a touch of Grandsire Triples and Stedman Triples. The

10 bell tower rang Grandsire and finished off with a Service Touch of St Osmund Bob Doubles‖. ―At 'Old Sarum' we had attempts at Reverse Canterbury, Plain Bob and Grandsire Doubles. There was also some

useful discussion on various aspects of ringing in Ding and on downloading the app. All in all it was time well spent‖. Many thanks all who ‗facilitated‘ this part

of the day: Jack Pease, Hilary and Rob Child, Andrew Woolley, Chris Caryer and Debbie Phipps. Next we gathered for what is always the emotional and spiritual highlight of our Festival, our service-usually the only time in the year when Guild members from across the Diocese join together to worship. ‗The

Lord moves in a mysterious way, he wonders to perform‘, and I have to confess that there were a few technical problems that meant that some of the

participants could not hear the handbells and music

during the ser-vice. Frustrating yes, but everyone

took this setback in good spirit (on the chat box) and most of what was m i s s e d w a s eventually played

for all in the gap between the end of the service and the AGM (and later posted on the Guild website). The hymn singing for three hymns: Let Bells peal forth,

Unchanging God and Ring the bells and tell the story was lead by a choir drawn from members across seven branches of the Guild, as far afield as Bradpole, Swanage and Royal Wootton Bassett. The organ was

played by David Warwick, recorded in Wimborne Minster. Following the sermon, a Plain Course of Grandsire Caters was rung on handbells by five ringers from Wimborne Minster, recorded on video two weeks previously, outside and socially-distanced. Part of the video included a slide show of photographs of Guild towers, provided by Alan Bentley. The

Anthem Glad bells ring loud and clear (words by the

Reverend William J T Smith, with music specially composed for the 2021 Guild Festival by David Warwick) was sung ‘remotely‘ by thirty five members of a Festival Choir made up of Guild members who had pre-recorded their voices before being brought

together by David. There were 82 people ‗in the congregation‘, which compares well to our usual turnout. The Reading was from St Matthew's Gospel, Chapter 6, vv 25-end, and was read by Judith Williamson, our Guild President. The Bishop gave an address focusing on the Christian witness of church buildings and their bells and the depth of prayer,

likened to bells.

In doing so the Bishop quoted from a current book ‗he has on the go‘, The Nine Taylors by

D o r o t h y L Sayers. The Annual General Meeting was chaired by

me (Guild Mas-

ter) and was

Page 4

Guild News

uncontentious. There were 80 members in

attendance. The Master opened the meeting with a minute of silence to remember the Guild members lost since our last AGM in 2019 and then thanked those who had worked so hard to prepare our unique

Festival this year–in particular our Assistant General Secretary, Kathryn Tyson and Vicki Rowse, our General Secretary. He also thanked all Guild members for all that they had done at tower, branch and Guild level during the last, pandemic, year. David Hacker, Education Officer, announced the recipients

of our Guild Awards for 2020: highly commended was Eric Hitchins for his fundraising for the LEBRF, with the adult award going, jointly, to David Norman and

Giles Wood, from Trowbridge, ―for the creation and development of the virtual ringing platform ―Ding‖‖ and the junior award going, collectively, to the Young Ringers‘ Friday Group, ―who have regularly attended

online weekly practices and made exceptional progress‖ (see page 17). We moved swiftly through the usual AGM business, including endorsing the decisions taken in 2020 by the Guild Executive, in lieu of the 2020 AGM. Officers‘ Reports were accepted as were the Guild accounts

and it was agreed that the Guild subscriptions for

2022 would continue unaltered. With the retirement due in July of our Bishop and Patron of ten years, the Right Reverend Nicholas Holtam, the AGM agreed to the unusual step of making him a Guild Vice President (for life) in recognition of his extraordinary patronage

of our Guild (as a ringer himself). Ken Webb, from the Calne Branch, and Julian Newman, from the Dorchester Branch, were also made Vice Presidents. Honorary Life Membership went to Ken and Pauline Webb (Bremhill) and Laurie Turner (unattached-East Dorset) (50 years) and to John Hunt (Shaftesbury (St Peter)) and David Davidge (Avebury). The meeting

put in place arrangements to welcome the ringers of

the Channel Islands to the Guild, to be effective from the date (yet to be announced) when the islands

move from the W i n c h e s t e r diocese. We were glad to welcome

Jane Le Conte (Channel Islands district chair) and John David (Vale) (Nicki David had joined John for

the service) to

w i t ne ss t he

votes. It was agreed that on the transfer date a new Channel Islands Branch of the SDGR, will be created,

and 64 named ringers from seven towers on the islands, were elected Guild members, to be effective from that future date. They will make up the initial membership of the Branch. A rule change on Vice Patrons, adding the Deans of Guernsey and Jersey, was also agreed, to come into operation on the transfer. There were other uncontentious rule

changes agreed on insurance and the LEBRF. The meeting enjoyed a presentation by Hilary Child, on the young ringers‘ activities during lockdown (see

page 17) including a number of ‗interviews‘ conducted by the ‗Dads‘. We also saw a new fundraising video

made by the LEBRF: https://www.youtube.com/

watch?v=NxoWDeI8dso&t=306s. There was a Just

Giving page established for the day, in lieu of the

usual ‘Grand Raffle‘ and this raised in excess of £230

which is about the same amount as had been raised

in previous years by the AGM raffles/teas. Finally,

on the election of officers, I had the honour of being re-elected for a further three years as Guild Master. David Hacker and Christopher Sykes were thanked for their service on retirement as Guild Education Officer

and LEBRF Independent Examiner, respectively, and were replaced by Julie Miles, from the Marlborough

Branch as our new Education Officer and Richard Picker, from the East Dorset Branch, as the LEBRF Independent Examiner. All other exiting officer holders were re-elected for a further year. The post of Guild Publicity Officer remains vacant. Under any other business, Giles Wood, gave a demonstration of

development with his ‗Ding‘ virtual ringing software.

A ‗Lively‘ Evening with the Editor!

From Robert

Wellen (Guild Master): During the evening of 8 May, after a couple of hours away from ‗the

screen‘ and a ‗at home tea‘, many Guild members were joined by

others from further afield, for a ‗late night chat show‘, with me in conversation with Will Bosworth, the Editor of The Ringing World. Again there was a good turnout

for the evening, which overran a little, and which also gave audience members and Will, the chance to ask some questions. As intended the ‗live‘ and ‗unscripted‘ event was relaxed, entertaining and informative. We focused on Will‘s local Dorset roots and his early ringing career, with ‗cameo‘ appearances from Mum (Sue Bosworth) and early

‗mentor‘ Philip Rioch. Discussion then moved on, via Will‘s peals, to the role of Editor, how the team work and the place and future of ‗the end product‘ in the ringing fraternity. More guest appearances here from Nigel Orchard (ex-Chairman of the Board) and Chris Caryer, current compositor. It was a really fun

evening, lots of smiles, and concluded, I am glad to

Guild Festival Music and Handbells

https://sdgr.org.uk/festival-hymns/

https://sdgr.org.uk/glad-bells-ring-loud-and-

clear/

https://sdgr.org.uk/handbell-ringing-for-2021-

guild-festival/

Page 5

Guild News

has received £705 in Just Giving donations in the four months to date in 2021-primarily associated with the

very successful SDGR Winter Talks programme‖. Just one comment on one talk: ―I really enjoyed the talk, it was very interesting as I didn't know all the facts about what happened, but do now!‖ I hope, Covid-19 aside, that these talks can be repeated for winter evenings in the future. If you have any suggestions for speakers please let me know.

Tolling Across the Guild for the Funeral of Captain Sir Tom Moore

say, with the audi-ence recognising

the extraordinary role The Ringing World has played during the pan-demic and showing its appreciation to Will and his team

for bringing this about (at least one of the audience promised to look at renewing a subscription!) We are really grateful to Will, for ‗going beyond‘ on a

Saturday evening, and for being such a great sport with the occasional ‗leg pull‘. Just some of the fan mail: ―Very well done on chairing...with humour and skill‖, ―very enjoyable, thank you‖, ―an entertaining

evening!‖, ―excellent evening yesterday, many thanks and well done‖ and ―thank you so much for organising a very jolly, informative and relaxed evening‖. For his part, Will‘s reflections on the evening were: ―Many thanks for inviting me for an evening with the Guild. It was lovely to see lots of familiar and friendly faces

turn up, and the conversation flowed very freely–and thankfully not just from me!–with lots of stories about old Guild characters and places, and some interesting

questions about the RW. I hope everyone had an enjoyable evening; I certainly did. Sending my best to the newly-enlarged Guild!‖

Talk, Talk, and More Talk...

From Robert Wellen (Guild Master): In the last edition there was a report on Chris Pickford‘s first on-line talk in this series. Four other talks followed (pictured

above, in date order clockwise from top left), from me on War and Covid, on 20 February, looking at the wartime ban on ringing compared to today‘s recent

restrictions; from Gareth Davies on For Weddings and Some Funerals on 20 March, explaining how the customs and practices for ringing for these events developed; a ‗sparkling‘ Mark Regan talked on I Do Not Know, Says the Great Bell of Bow, on 27 March, telling the fascinating story of the three different rings of 12 in the tower; and the finally, a more

‗select audience‘ for David Bagley talking on The History of Ringing Simulators on 17 April. All attracted good audiences on the Zoom and were well

received. Anne Wardell has reported: ―that the LEBRF

Date Tower Toller

Beaminster Harry Murley

Breamore Mary Melbourne

Bromham Paul Jordan

Calne Andrew K Woolley

Canford Magna Paul Tyson

Chilmark No name given

Codford St Mary

Lionel French (Pictured below)

Longbridge Deverill

Richard Abbott

Lytchett Minster Stephanie Smith-

Cooper

Melksham Karen McGrane

Milton Lilbourne Amanda Burch

Pewsey Nigel Talbot

Poole N Hodgson

Puddletown Robin J Mears

Rowde Richard P Heath

Seend Steve Johnstone

Stratford sub Castle

Jim Platt

Sturminster Newton

Jonathan Wyatt

Trowbridge Benjamin Kipling

Vale (St Michel du Valle), Guernsey

Fr Stuart Tanswell

West Lavington Wing Commander

(Retd) Anji Scofield

Westbury Chris Jenkins

Winterslow No name given

28 February Fovant Anthea Targett/ Vicki

Rowse

1 March Lytchett Minster Jack R Pease

Information from BellBoard as of 6 March 2021

27 February 2021

(Day of the Funeral)

Page 6

Guild News

ringers willing to impart their wisdom. Highworth had a Surprise Major band on a Sunday so it was hard not

to learn and progress. There was a group of teenagers from around the Branch who rang together and this is partly where I clocked up so many quarter peals as we enjoyed ringing new methods and would usually learn it for a quarter peal. I love ringing Doubles and all the combinations you can do with very little extra learning needed (#lazylearning). I

was a regular at Aldbourne for many years and am very grateful to the current band who always invite me back to ring something with them every year. I

have always dropped in and out of St Mary‘s, Marlborough and have been a regular over the last few years. I helped Preshute teach their Millennium band which was good fun and I continue to enjoy the

friendships with the ringers to this day. I‘ve rung around 85-ish peals and just over 2,000 quarter peals, mostly during a misspent youth! I think I‘ve taught around 30 people (that I can remember at least) with most still ringing. I‘ve had many positions in the Swindon branch, including ringing master,

deputy ringing master and secretary. I‘ve been tower captain and deputy at Highworth and have been the secretary for the Marlborough branch for two or

maybe three years (lockdown is playing with my mind!). I help with the simulator training sessions held at Marlborough and set up ringing on Ringing Room during lockdown for the branch. I have

arranged some online theory sessions for the branch during lockdown which have been opened up to the Guild and will continue in some form over the coming months. I organised and ran the G&B Spring training day a few times in the early 2000s which involved attempting to herd around 200 people to the correct groups and towers across two regions. I also help

teach at Marlborough. Teaching and helping people

learn the theory behind learning methods is my favourite thing about ringing and something I enjoy very much. [PS ‗Highworth‘/ ‗Swindon Branch‘ are in the Gloucester and Bristol Association (‘G&B‘)].

‗Real‘ Quarters Are Back!

F r o m B o b Crighton: If Bellboard is to

be believed, I think that with our 10 a.m.

start on 17 May 2021 at Child Okeford, we can claim to

have rung the first tower bell Quarter Peal for the Guild for 14 months. Pictured are the band that rang 1320 Cambridge Surprise Minor in 44 minutes (with a minute to spare!), ―jointly conducted by Bob and Tim, both celebrating their 70th birthday today‖: LtoR:

Sue Bosworth (1), Tim Collins (2), Bob Crighton (6), Flick Warwick (3), David Warwick (4) and Ben Duke(5), ―The band enjoy a celebratory glass of fizz and

cake‖.

Guild Presentation to National

Champions From Robert Wellen (Guild

Master): On the afternoon of 13 March 2021, ‗hot-foot‘ after our second Guild

Survival and

R e c o v e r y Workshop that morning (see

page 11), I had the privilege of making a presentation to fellow Covid Recovery Champions from across the country at a meeting convened by

the ART/ CCCBR Survival and Recovery Group (the producers of the Toolkit of the same name). The audience included Simon Linford, the President of the Central Council. I ‗came on‘ after Steve Coleman, who talked on the Gloucester and Bristol Winter/ Summer Schools. I talked about what we as a Guild have done over the last year, what we are doing now, and what

we are planning to do. A slide from my PowerPoint presentation is shown above. I am really grateful to Vicki Rowse, my fellow Guild Champion, and all other colleagues from across the Guild who answered my request for information, especially from individual towers. Also to members of the Guild Executive who

saw a run through earlier in the week. Obviously, as the second Guild Workshop was that morning, there was a tight turnaround in reporting its results in the presentation–the ‗ink was still wet‘! Grateful thanks to the group facilitators, Pat Davidson, David Barrance, Kathryn Tyson and Sue Bateman, as well as Vicki, for their prompt checks. The talk seemed to go down

well, spurred some questions and ‗stealing of ideas‘, which it‘s all about. Annie Hall, the Group convenor, e-mailed afterwards: ―Thanks for such a wonderful talk this afternoon. It was excellent and truly inspirational. I came away with so many ideas I want to develop‖. In producing this presentation it really came home to me how much all of you, as Guild members, have

done over the last year and are still doing. Many thanks indeed for a great team effort!

We Have a New Guild Education

Officer: Her Name is Julie From Julie Miles (Guild Education Officer): I learnt

to ring at Highworth, Wiltshire and passed the 30 year mark in January. I was very lucky when I learnt to ring as the Swindon Branch was thriving and I was able to

ring every night of the week. All abilities were catered for and there was a

wealth of experienced

Page 7

LEBRF and Restoration News

Christopher with the bells. The Village website includes details of the bells project: https://

southwraxall.wordpress.com/the-church/the-bells/ The Keltek Trust is also supporting the project. Two of the bells are cracked and will need to be welded at Soundweld of Newmarket. Hopefully when the fittings are removed from the bells no further cracked bells will be found. The proposal

to get South Wraxall ringing again has been attempted on a number of

occasions over the years (I have seen correspondence going back to 1978) but finally we have a scheme

that is going ahead and has caused a great deal of excitement in the Devizes Branch. This is, of course, just the first stage of a long journey but I, for one, am looking forward to the installation being completed. [More pictures on the inside front cover].

The Work of the LEBRF Continues

From Anne Wardell (LEBRF Administrator): Despite the Covid lockdown still affecting the lives of all of us, there has been progress with several of the bells projects supported with grants pledged by the LEBRF: works at Warminster, Ramsbury, South Wraxall,

Norton Bavant and Barford St Martin are well-underway or completed and awaiting sign-off. The huge Calne project is a step closer to starting, and they hope to complete their works in 2022. With

LEBRF grants pledged to 13 ongoing bells projects of various sizes, there is almost £56,000 of the fund currently ring-fenced for these grants–but the LEBRF

still has some granting capacity available for new projects if your tower is planning to do any work on the bells. You can download a Grant Application Form here: https://sdgr.org.uk/lebrf/ Our traditional methods of fundraising have been curtailed by Covid, and this is where JustGiving has provided a lifeline to the LEBRF–as you know, in 2020

Eric Hitchins raised over £2,000 for the charity with his ‗90 miles for 90 years‘ sponsored challenge. In

early 2021 Robert Wellen ran a

Fund Raising Can Be Hair Raising!

From Anne Wardell (LEBRF Administrator): Braving the unseasonably chilly weather on Sunday 20 June 2021

Marlborough Master Thatcher and avid bellringer Richard 'Bones' Metters shaved off his abundant locks to raise a grand total of £2,456 for a

charity very close to his heart: the Llewellyn Edwards

Bell Restoration Fund (LEBRF). ‗Bones‘ is well-known around Marlborough and the Pewsey Vale not only for thatching peoples' roofs, but also as tower captain of bellringers at St George's Church in Preshute, having learned to ring at St Mary's in the town over 30 years ago. ‗Bones‘ has been

involved in several bell restoration projects over the years, many of these supported by vital funding

from the LEBRF, and so he wants to give something

back to the charity-raising money for the fund so that it can continue to keep bells ringing across the Salisbury Guild now and for future generations. Bones' charity head-shave was live-streamed on video via Facebook, watched by scores

of family, friends and well

-wishers. Just before sub-mitting to the razor Bones was uncharacteristically quiet, but speaking after-

wards he said ―My head is so cold that I‘ll definitely need to wear a hat now–

it‘s all worth it though!‖ I say Bones is an absolute superstar braving the shave and for raising £2,456. Great work, Bones, and thank you!

South Wraxall Bells ‗See the Light of Day‘

From Chris Bush: I heard that the bells of South Wraxall were being lowered from the tower and would be lined up outside for a photo opportunity before being taken away by the bell hanger, so went over to see this historic moment. Sure enough, when I

arrived, they were all lined up on the church path. A few people had been told and the press were also there to cover the story. You can read the press report here: https://www.wiltshiretimes.co.uk/news/19330109.south-wraxall-church-bells-havent-heard-130-years/ The project has been

masterminded by Christopher Thornhill who is chair of

the restoration committee. Above right is a picture of

Page 8

LEBRF and Restoration News

series of Zoom presentations with guest speakers on a variety of topics which raised just over £1,000 for

the LEBRF. Following my video appeal at the May 2021 SDGR AGM, one of the Marlborough Branch ringers, Richard ‗Bones‘ Metters (Tower Captain, Preshute) came up with a VERY novel way of fundraising for the LEBRF! [reported previously] Thank you all for your ongoing support of the LEBRF-a bell-restoration charity run by SDGR members for

SDGR towers. If your tower is planning a bells project or if you‘d like to get involved in the charity then do please email me on lebrf.admin@sdgr.org.uk, and

you can donate to the LEBRF here: https://www.justgiving.com/llewellynedwardsbellrestoration

Ramsbury Rehang

From David Jack-son (picture of rehang f rom

David Close): The Bells of Holy C r o s s w e r e dragged away

screaming last November or

t h e r e a b o u t s . There were those that accused us,

at the time, of organising a world wide-pandemic to lessen the blow that their absence might bring. We laughed of course, because we are an idle lot and the prospect of a few months of Sundays without having

to get out of bed at an ungodly hour had a distinct appeal. But those days are drawing to a close. On 29th June, our ‗Farmer Ringer‘ Peter Wilson was summoned from his fields with his JCB to help

offload the bells from the White's lorry. Our bells are now sitting in the vestry at Holy Cross along with their fittings, bearings, clappers and a pile of wood.

Work starts on July 1st to lay a new floor in the bell chamber and the bells will be lifted into place on 5th/6th July. However there is a good deal of ‗fettling‘ to be done and White's are committed elsewhere the following week. So the general view is that the bells will not be in a state to be rung until about 19th July

and even then our long awaited rope guides may not be ready. However once they are in their final state we will announce this to the world and set about planning how we might celebrate the event.

Bratton Bell Tower Project Update

From Dusty Millier (via Devizes Branch May 2021 newsletter): There is good news regarding the repair

a n d r e f u r b i s h m e n t programme for our Church bells and Tower. At the end of January we were granted a Faculty, which now

enables us to plan for the work to be done and

confirm the tendering process. Nicholson Engineering and Bell Hangers, our favoured contractor, have been selected to do the much needed work to the bells and bell frame and this is planned to start at the end of August. This will involve the removal of the bells and

bell frame from the tower, to be taken away to be worked on at Poole. A few of us will start a few weeks prior to that to clear the ringing chamber and

disassemble some of the ancillary items, ropes, wheels stays and sliders ready for a good start by Nicholson‘s. Through this period, I will be liaising with and agreeing our work with Andrew Nicholson.

Hopefully this will not cause too much disruption to the Church services. Once the bells have been taken away, contractual work will commence on the belfry floor and tower and this will probably also require scaffolding to be put up. If all goes to plan we hope to have the fully refurbished and renovated bells back in the repaired tower by the end of November, in time

to hear the sound of bells ringing out across the

valley again by Christmas! This progress has all been made possible thanks to the tremendous support given to our Bell fund which was launched nearly three years ago. We have now raised over £26,000 thanks to generous grants from the Friends Fund, the

Parish Council, Westbury Area Board, the WHCT, the LEBRF, the Sharpe Fund, the 100 Club and several other sources as well as many very generous donations and several fundraising events. Furthermore, John Baker of The Wiltshire Times has written a couple of articles in support of our fund raising, and from that we have raised over £3000

from the public, and one of those contributors was

Janet Bartlett the widow of Alan Bartlett chorister and Bell Captain of Bratton for many years. Alan was the person who started the training of ringers at Edington to get their bells ringing again. Our focus now is on raising the remaining £12,000 required for the project and to maximise the opportunities that will come

once the lock down restrictions are gently eased.

‗Left Overs‘ At Little Bedwyn (From the 2014 re-hang of this ring of five)

Don‘t Like Reading Face to Face ‗On-Line‘? Then You Can Receive a

Personal Printed Copy.

£8 a year (three editions)-£12 by post. Contact the Editor: f2f@sdgr.org.uk

Page 9

Recruitment, Education and Retention

‗Third Time Lucky‘ for Training and

Learning Event

From David Hacker: Not quite what was envisaged when the first

consultations took place back in 2019 for a day of Teaching and Learning with talks, practical workshops and some ‗in tower‘ courses. What started out as a ‗wild idea‘ soon developed into something we might actually do, in conjunction with The Association of Ringing Teachers (ART) and The Dorset County Association (DCA). Some of us had a chat over a cup of coffee one morning at Blandford where a rough itinerary was sketched out and within a few days we had a

programme for our Teaching and Learning Day. A date was set, hall and towers booked, speakers and exhibiters started preparation and then along came Coronavirus and Lockdown. After being postponed from 2020 and rearranged for 2021, with the restrictions still in place, we decided to cut it down to half a day and deliver it online and so on 24th April 2021 we met via Zoom for what proved to be a informative, instructive and inspirational morning of presentations and theory sessions. We started with a

presentation given by Lesley Belcher, Chair of ART [pictured left], and David Sparling, an ART Tutor, on the possible return to ringing, what we can expect to be different once we can go back to our towers and how ART can help us regain

our skills and confidence along with training new recruits to replace any ringers that are unable to return. Lesley comes from a ringing family; being taught by her grandfather as a youngster and ringing with her mother at Earl Shilton in Leicestershire. After a twenty-year break from ringing, due to work and family commitments, Lesley was attracted back after hearing a peal being rung in her (normally silent) local tower. David [pictured below right] learned to ring at St Michael's Kirby-le-Soken, Essex at the age of 10. He is a competent handbell ringer as well as a 10 and 12 bell ringer. He is a past Master and a Life Vice President of the Essex Association of Change Ringers and has been a regular tutor on the annual Essex Ringing Course. A quick anonymous poll of all present was taken asking when people would be

happy to return to ringing and what needed to be in place before they would feel safe to go back to a tower. The results were varied with some wondering what all the fuss was about while others were much more cautious. Although this was a sample of a small number it showed the task which could lay ahead in persuading all our members to return to their towers. It was then time to join breakout rooms of our choice with three subjects on offer, ―Getting the basics right‖, which was led by Paul Lewis from Edgmond in Shropshire. Paul is an ART Tutor and a university senior lecturer; ―The Theory of Ringing Up and Down in peal‖ was delivered by Gill Hughes from Belper in Derbyshire. Gill was involved with the Central Council Education Committee before coming to ART. Gill had supplied all those who had chosen to attend her breakout session with theory notes to study beforehand so the hour could be more of a discussion group exploring different

experiences in raising and lowering. And finally, ―Moving to Minor and Beyond‖ which was presented by Chris Bush from Melksham in our Guild. Chris is an excellent teacher with an in-depth knowledge of computer technology which enables him to deliver his talks with illustrative slides. Chris had a big task on his hands as his audience came from differing experience levels but as always, he adjusted his talk to accommodate everyone. After an hour we all came

back together for a very interesting talk and presentation entitled, ―The Birmingham School of Ringing and could it work in a rural Guild like ours?‖ This talk was delivered by Clare McArdle [pictured above] who had the original idea to form the school. Clare is Master of the St Martin‘s Guild which covers the Birmingham area. In 2013 Clare came up with the crazy idea of a bell ringing school to centralise training in Birmingham and spread the load and responsibility of teaching, thereby supporting towers without teachers and distributing new ringers to towers within the St Martin‘s Guild. Having presented the idea, she was surprised, but extremely grateful, that it was immediately supported by key figures in the Guild and thus the Birmingham School of Bell Ringing was born. The morning concluded with a discussion and thoughts on ―what we should be aware of when we eventually return to our towers‖, led by David Close, Health and Safety Officer for the SDGR. David gave us ideas of what we need to look out for when we carry out Risk Assessments and how we can reduce risks of contracting Covid-19 by increasing ventilation, using hand sanitisation and possibly wearing face coverings. Presentations and Recordings from the morning at: https://sdgr.org.uk/online-teaching-and-learning-morning/

Can You Help The

Charmborough Ring?

The Charmborough Ring is currently based at New Alresford in Hampshire. In 2019 we took the ring to 19 different events. We would like at least two more local operators to share the workload. The ring is

predominantly used at weekends during the summer months, although we are keen to take the ring into schools and shopping centres throughout the year to help with promoting. Ideally volunteers will live in Southern England or South Wales, preferably somewhere near the M4 corridor, the M25, or the A34. The ring and its trailer weighs 2.1 tonnes, so volunteers should have a vehicle capable of legally towing that weight. We usually transport the ring during the week, so you will need somewhere reasonably secure to park the trailer when not in use, either in the open air, or inside. It measures 4.53 m long x 2.08m wide and is 2.20m high. We will provide training on how to erect and dismantle the ring. If you would like to help with taking the ring to events, please contact Roger Booth roger@charmborough.org or 07411 181583 for further information.

Page 10

Guild Survival and Recovery Survey

From Vicki Rowse (Guild General Secretary): The survey was a slightly adapted version of the ART/Central Council Survey. It was sent to all towers in the Guild with a Guild email address (tower@SDGR.org.uk) in period March-June 2021 and included the Channel Islands towers. We received responses from 58% of ringable towers and 94% of ringable towers that had a band pre lockdown.

During the Pandemic

The Future

From Robert Wellen (Guild Master):

Many thanks to Vicki for her hard work on this survey. There is still more work to be done and the final

results will be published on the

Guild website soon.

The Branch response rate: for our existing eight branches, ranged from 72% of ringable towers with a band to 87%.

apply

Page 11

Covid Survival and Recovery

Summary of Two Guild Workshops:

―HOW THE SALISBURY GUILD WILL RECOVER FROM COVID‖

F r o m R o b e r t We l l en (Gu i l d Master): The First Workshop was

held on Zoom on S a t u r d a y 2 8 February 2021,

with approximately 50 members, cov-ering all eight b ranches , a t -

t e n d i n g . T h e session lasted approximately 90 minutes. I opened the meeting with a short presentation,

after which a representative of each branch was asked to give a short ‗general overview‘ of the local situation.

Individual members contributed. Most of us came away feeling positive. We could have done with a few more ‗grass roots‘ ringers as well as officers and experienced ringers. At the end everyone asked to

keep thinking, share ideas with others, and come back to the 13 March Workshop ready to build a ‗plan of campaign‘. The following are the MAIN points that arose: Every Branch felt that ‗most would come back‘.

The loss rate was estimated, at worst in the region

of 10-15% in some branches, mainly from new

recruits and older ringers. Some would only come back when Sunday ringing

was restored to ‗normal‘ i.e. all bells could be rung, no masks and ringing was felt to be a ‗safe

environment‘. Widespread concern at impact of pandemic on the

Church of England–number of church buildings, patterns of worship, ringing service times, especially in villages.

Retention was viewed as the immediate priority on

return. Recruitment to follow, needed to be timed

carefully, and general feeling in favour of a

‗national‘ high profile campaign, like Ring in 2000 or Ringing Remembers.

Support for novices–anxious–return to ringing in

familiar surroundings–home tower and familiar bell, before moving out.

Some expression of ‗what‘s the fuss all about‘–

many people in the past have come back to

ringing after long gaps! Outdoor ‗social events‘, if possible in the summer,

to get people feeling confident and secure again. Co-operation between Guild branches, with DCA

and other Guilds. Help with bell maintenance and checks before

ringing resumes.

Physical and mental fitness to ring.

Communication at ‗local level‘ as well as Guild

website/ Branch e-mails–phone calls to local bands.

Make full use of teaching/ mentoring resources–

those who had attended ART courses pre-pandemic as well as other competent teachers.

―As a relative (18 month) novice I am desperate to get back to ringing! Going to leave the experts to it but thanks all. Keep up the good work folks‖.

The Second Workshop was held on Zoom, Saturday 13 March 2021, with approximately 45 members,

covering all eight branches, attending. The session lasted approximately 2 hours. I opened the meeting with an updated short presentation. The meeting divided into four breakout rooms and after 30 minutes reconvened. Each group was facilitator led. On return, Vicki Rowse, our General Secretary, explained to members the Guild-wide survey that

would be sent out shortly to all towers. Members had a chance to ask questions. The facilitator from each group gave a brief report (summary below) and then there was a general discussion and agreement on the

Guild‘s Initial Recovery Plan (details above).

Retention ‗Lack of confidence‘ can be across the age range. Need to ‗nurture and encourage‘–a ‗gentle return‘–

no pressure. Importance of non-ringing social get togethers–

regaining social contact and confidence.

Fear/ embarrassment from ‗experienced‘ not being

able to remember blue line. Kind to each other on return. Continue use of technology alongside return to

towers.

Encourage collaboration.

Guild Initial Recovery Plan (Agreed after Two Workshops)

Each Branch to nominate its own Recovery

Champion or Champions. Local advocates for the Survival and Recovery Toolkit and

local point of communication.

Branch Recovery Champions to meet

fortnightly with Guild Recovery Champions –assess developments and needs–Guild

Recovery Group.

Future Guild wide Workshops at strategic

points–for instance after the Survey Tool results are in.

Retention before Recruitment in initial

stages.

Guild to continue to guide members through

roadmap and what can be done and when.

Social events to be organised in the

summer to ‗get us back together‘.

Page 12

Covid Survival and Recovery

Recruitment Need to target ‗range‘ of age groups, middle years

–alongside young and retired. Balance of timing between a national campaign

and local one–some towers cannot wait for any national campaign in 2022.

Need to provide the right balance of attention for

everyone–if either learner or existing ringers‘

needs are not fulfilled-could lose from both existing and new ringers.

How many teachers are available–where are they

–are they in the right place-when are they

available–breakdown the barrier, or perceived barrier, between ART trained and not.

Ensure teachers don‘t get ‗burnt out‘. Have

enough support for them to learn as well. The Church Fewer services to ring for in rural benefices a

concern. Arrangements between clergy/ PCC/ ringers on

service times to maximise ringing opportunities for services.

Getting back to Sunday ringing to be a priority.

Possible complaints locally after a year of silence/

or capitalize on impact of bells returning. Future patterns of worship–is it appropriate to ring

the church bells, in an empty church, for a virtual service?

Work with Bishop Nicholas, on promoting return to

Sunday ringing and also importance of communication with and the Diocese.

Confidence Safety in the tower–bell maintenance and safe

ringing environment. What about members of the band who are not

vaccinated/ refuse or unable (exempted) to wear masks–impact on rest of the band‘s confidence.

Locally, branches should establish list of GF towers

with good ventilation, rope spacing–for initial return to ringing/ training.

Physical preparation for return.

For novices/ anxious 1:1 support. Return should be ‗taken slowly‘ and individually

focused. Challenge of transferring virtual skills into tower

ringing–manage expectations, avoid fall in

motivation/ confidence.

How to Re-Establish Ringing in a

Village Band

From Debbie Phipps (Lytchett Matravers) (pictured left): I was delighted to be invited to give a talk on Sun-day, 9th May 2021 at the

Recovery Convention. I sent Lesley Belcher (ART Chair) a previous pres-entation I thought I could use. I added a couple more slides about

what we were planning on doing to get our ringers‘

bell handling skills back and was quite pleased with the result. However, a week before the presentation, when I was discussing it with Lesley, she felt all the information was there but it needed turning on its head. Oh my goodness where was I going to find time to do this. Instead of the presentation being historical

and then focusing on what we were doing and going to do when we return to ringing, I changed it to describe how we would plan our sessions on our return to ringing and the hurdles that village bands might face. It was then followed by some ideas on how to recruit, retain and maintain which have worked well for our band. My original presentation

was half an hour now it became more like 40 minutes. It struck me that this was just my perspective so I decided to ask my band to give a short helpful sentence each. We got together on a Zoom meeting for a practice, which went quite well, but we were missing a couple of people, so we called that our dress rehearsal and tried again. We did have

a couple of ‗hiccups‘ which needed removing from the video which were expertly removed by Jack Pease and it was interesting what the ringers said–you might have thought I had given them a

script but it was all their own w o r d s a n d supported all the things I had said in the presentation. Around 114 attended the course and

several contacts were made afterwards. I was able to talk with a listener who wanted some ideas for giving a presentation at their school. It was deemed to be a useful presentation with people taking away a few ideas for their bands. [You can watch the recording via the Recovery Convention link above].

Recovery Convention

Presentations On-Line:

http://ringingteachers.org/news/recovery-convention-presentations

Page 13

Covid Survival and Recovery

Are Cluster Groups a Solution?

From David Hacker: We have had much discus-sion and seen a lot wr i tten about the

Survival and Recovery of ringing recently; so you would think it would all be plain sailing once we can return to our towers

unhindered. For some who had strong bands,

with more ringers than b e l l s b e f o r e t h e

pandemic, this will most likely be the case, these bands will soon be back to where they left off, however sadly it will not be that straightforward for many others. Those who were struggling to maintain enough people to ring their bells and those who had a

high percentage of their band in the ‗elderly bracket‘ might well find their numbers are now depleted, making regular service ringing almost impossible. How might these bands, most likely in more rural

areas, overcome these difficulties? We can try and carry on as before, attempt to recruit in our local

community and train any new recruits in our own tower, assuming of course we have someone with enough experience to teach. Or we can think slightly ‗outside the box‘ and form what is known as a ‗cluster group‘, with other towers facing the same challenges that are within a reasonable travelling distance; to teach and progress together whilst still maintaining

our own tower identity. On 3 June 2021 the Guild was pleased to have a presentation on the success of

cluster groups delivered to us by

Frank Seabright [pictured opposite left] from the Ledbury District in t h e H e r e f o r d Diocesan Guild. The Ledbury District

consists of nine towers, so just a little smaller than our own Calne Branch, with no

more than 12 miles between any of the towers [map of the Ledbury District and towers above right]. Frank explained that in 2012 they realised that his district was in a precarious position, due to a very large

proportion of the members being in the higher end of the age range. If action was not taken, then there was a real danger of a shortage of ringers with some towers falling silent. After discussions with all the members it was agreed to form a cluster group of all the towers in the district. Those willing to teach were

taken to the Worcester Cathedral teaching facilities for a day where teaching instruction was given by Bernard Taylor, and the ‗cluster‘ started recruiting

and teaching together. A once-a-month ‘District Practice Week‘ was established during which all other tower practice nights were cancelled, so there could be concentrated teaching and learning across the

cluster that week. This was all pre-ART so they devised their own syllabus for teaching which in the end proved to be very similar to the ART Learning the Ropes syllabus and since the formation of ART the teachers have attended day courses and many have become ART accredited members. Their philosophy

throughout has been to take

existing ideas, adapt them to

suit their needs, improve them if they can and then use them. Frank‘s presentation can be viewed at https://sdgr.org.uk/ringing-recovery-resources/

and is well worth a watch. We don‘t need to be tied to towers in our own branches or even in our own guild to form clusters; cross boundary co-operation can work extremely well, the important thing is ‘sign-in‘

from the members in the

towers involved in any particular cluster. There will be some opposition, as people do not always like change, but Frank‘s experience is that many of the initial doubters

will ‗come across‘ as they see its success. And you cannot be held back on something supported by the many, and helping the many on the basis of the doubts of a few. Why

not give it a try in your area?

Page 14

Nicki‘s ‗Return to Ringing‘ Exercises

Nicki Tinkler is a Guild member who rings at Broad Chalke in the Salisbury Branch. Her professional qualifications are as a personal trainer with a relevant specialism in managing lower back pain and working

with older adults.

Page 15

Nicki‘s ‗Return to Ringing‘ Exercises

In addition to the information already available on getting physically fit to ring again, in the Survival and Recovery Toolkit (http://ringingteachers.org/survival-and-recovery-toolbox/fit-to-ring) and from other Guilds

(https://stmartinsguild.org/teaching/training-and-resources/exercises-to-support-us-back-into-ringing/), members might find these exercises from Nicki to be useful. Also on Guild website: https://sdgr.org.uk/nickis-

return-to-ringing-exercises/ Thanks Nicki.

ALL YOU NEED FOR RECOVERY AND SURVIVAL IN ONE PLACE:

https://sdgr.org.uk/ringing-recovery-

resources/

Page 16

Ellacombe 200

Ellacombe Keeps Swanage Ringing

From Max Pike: During the pan-demic, the bells have fallen silent

both nationally and here at St Mary‘s, Swanage, for the first time since the Second World War.

I was heartbroken seeing my bellring-

i n g p r o g r e s s stopped in its tracks for the last 15 months. Bell-ringing has been my main hobby

(which I had been loving!) since I was 13 years old.

With all the lockdowns and bellringing being stopped I felt as if it had been lost to me. Whilst not being that attracted to the online alternatives, such as Ringing Room, it was great when Rachael Rutter (Swanage

Tower Captain), asked whether I would like to be part of a team that would chime the Swanage bells using

the Ellacombe Apparatus every week to keep the bells going through the pandemic. The 8 bells in Swanage have not been silent, all through the pandemic a number of the Swanage ringers have chimed the Ellacombe Apparatus for every Sunday service. It has been a great way to call church goers to service and try to maintain some normality. We have received

many positive comments from the congregation about hearing the bells being chimed. As well as rounds/call changes we have also chimed hymns and tunes which they were not used to hearing on bells before! The

Ellacombe Apparatus has given us here in Swanage a continued link to the world of ringing during the pandemic, for which I have been grateful and have

enjoyed. On Saturday 26th June 2021 a worldwide celebration was planned for the 200th anniversary of Revd Henry Thomas Ellacombe‘s invention of ringing chimes. To celebrate its Bicentennial, it was arranged that towers chimed their bells at 12 noon in their respective countries starting in New Zealand, followed

by towers in Australia, Hong Kong, South Africa and then on to here in England. In Swanage a number of ringers took part on the day, and we chimed rounds and also call changes, such as Queens, Kings,

Reverse Rounds, Tittums, Exploded Tittums, Whittington‘s and Rollercoaster were all heard. Additionally, the tunes and hymns of All Creatures of

our God and King, All Things Bright and Beautiful, Oranges and Lemons, Thine Be the Glory, Jerusalem, Be Still for the Presence of the Lord and many, many more! It was a great team effort with Clare Hulley, Eddie Dicken, me, and Matthew Pike [pictured LtoR above] and me all chiming the bells. On a public Facebook page [link below], you can see all the saved

videos from Swanage and other towers from around the world that took part in this celebration: www.facebook.com/groups/135681541720946/?

form=MY01SV&OCID=MY01SV

The West Stafford ‗Three‘

From Janet Ranger-Dennis (pictured right): St Andrew‘s Church has been a place of worship

for over 700 years; the f i r s t Rec t o r was appointed in 1307. The tower, affiliated to the SDGR has 3 bells which

were cast by John Wallis in Salisbury. The treble

and tenor are dated 1620 and the middle bell dated 1595. None of the bells has ever been tuned but they are considered ―a bright and cheerful little ring‖. They are reputed to be ―the three

bells of Talbotheys‖ in Thomas Hardy‘s novel ‗Tess of the D‘Urbervilles‘. The Ellacombe Frame has, quite literally, been a Godsend during the Coronavirus pandemic when no bells were allowed to be rung in

the traditional manner. When Services were permitted we could use the frame to chime the bells;

an anonymous quote-―bells are the external choir that calls out across space and time‖. This is a Ground Floor Ring with the ropes sited in the tiny vestry of this very small church-due to the mandatory Covid Risk Assessment only one person at a time was allowed in there! Being near Dorchester in Dorset, we have many tourists visiting the area who are

delighted to see our lovely ‗quintessentially English‘ village church.

Chilmark-Well Done Olive!

From Linda Jones: Chilmark took part in this global bicentenary event with Olive Thick ringing the chimes of St Margaret's at 12 o'clock mid-day on 26th June

2021. Olive is a local villager who has been playing the chimes for many years (before my time). She is not one of the band but has been a huge help in

playing the Ellacombe for Sunday services whenever we have not had enough ringers, for which we are very grateful. It was a pleasure for me to watch her yesterday, as I have

never seen her do this before. Olive plays hymn

tunes rather then change ringing, and it is indeed her specialism.

See Max ‗in action‘ on the Ellacombe chimes on the

Young Ringers page (page 17).

Page 17

Young Ringers

Young Ringers Talk to the Guild

Festival

From Robert Wellen (Guild

Master): Hilary Child made a presentation to the Guild Festival meeting on 8 May 2021 on the activities of the Guild‘s young ringers over the last pandemic year (see

page 4). As mentioned

previously, the interview skills of the ‗Dads‘ were very much on display, well done gentleman! The presentation included a video of Max (p i ctured le f t) , f rom

Swanage, doing his ‘party piece‘ on the Ellacombe chimes, whilst at the same

time sporting a snazzy new line in knitwear. Below are some of the slides from the presentation (also see page 19 on ringing associations with Prince Philip).

We Are Back!! (Please believe us everyone is smiling and

delighted to be back ringing again!)

From Hilary Child: After our practice on 14th March 2020, I wrote: ―…we all headed back to our home areas, not realising that this would be our last

practice for quite a while. We will be back!‖ Well, ‗quite a while‘ has turned out to be almost 14 months, but now we ARE back! From the middle of

April 2021, it has been permissible to organise practices for up to 10 young ringers, supervised by one DBS-checked adult who may also ring if

necessary. We have now obtained permission from several tower captains and incumbents of suitably well-ventilated towers and so will be holding a number of events over the next couple of months to try to get all our young ringers back ringing again. When I contacted the tower captain at Wareham, he had just been asked to provide bells for a wedding on

1st May, something which the local ringers aren‘t yet allowed to do. And so it happened that on Saturday afternoon five young ringers from the East Dorset and

Dorchester branches ended up ringing for the wedding. This wasn‘t quite the low-key first practice that I had envisaged, but after the last year my new motto is ―seize the day!‖ We practised for half an

hour before the ceremony with the shutters closed and then rang again with them open as the wedding party left the church. Some people hadn‘t touched a rope since March last year, others had only had the chance to ring briefly on a couple of occasions. Nevertheless, after a few minutes everyone was back

into the swing of it, and we rang some really good Rounds and Call Changes on the front six. The bride was 20 minutes late and, instead of enjoying an ice-

cream on the quay in the sunshine whilst the wedding was on, we had to seek shelter from torrential rain and hail. However, everyone agreed that the opportunity to ring properly more than made up for

it. We would like to thank Phil and Tim at Wareham for checking the bells over and raising them prior to our visit. The five young ringers were: Ellana, Pippa, Connie, Agnes and Annabel. Well done girls!

The tenth annual Ringing World National Youth Contest will take place on Saturday

11th September 2021 in Worcester. We will be

there! GO BELLISTIC!!

More Ringing Room Success: On 19 February and 5 March 2021 during the

weekly SDGR Young Ringers practice on Ringing Room, Ben and William, respectively, called their

first touch. Well done boys!

Page 18

Young Ringers

Bertie‘s ‗Grand Day Out‘

From Hilary Child: On Saturday 12th June 2021, we

held a ‗north-meets-south‘ practice at Fovant in the Salisbury Branch. This was Bertie the mascot‘s first chance to see our young ringers in action. Six young ringers attended (Pippa and Ellana from the East Dorset Branch, Annabel and Connie from the Dorchester Branch, Robert from the Devizes Branch

and Ben from the Calne Branch). We rang Call Changes (expertly called by Annabel, our ‗Tenor Queen‘), Plain Hunt on 5, Plain Bob Doubles and Reverse Canterbury Doubles and everyone managed very well on these light bells with a relatively long draught (especially compared with what Pippa is used to at Poole and Oakdale!) It was really encouraging to

see everyone getting back into ‗proper‘ ringing and beginning to put into practice the skills acquired during our virtual Ringing Room practices. Afterwards we enjoyed some socially-distanced socialising and refreshments in the sunny churchyard with parents and grandparents. Thank you Vicki Rowse for

arranging the tower for us and the lovely weather!

And Finally .... From Hilary Child and Sue Carter: Congratulations At the SDGR Guild Festival in May it was announced that the Guild ‗Young Ringer of the Year‘ award was being given to the ‗Friday night virtual ringing group‘,

in recognition of its dedication and progress over the last year: Ben, Connie, Eve, Hannah, Pippa, William B and William R. Each young ringer will receive a certificate has been allocated £20 to spend on bellringing resources. Well done!! From Chris Jenkins:

Young Ringers at West Lavington Some positive news, today [15 May 2021] following the latest

guidelines, the young ringers from the Devizes branch plus a couple others were able to ring together at West Lavington. This was a little bit last minute and I would like to thank Hilary Child, Richard Heath and Julia Russell for working hard to make it happen. Hopefully this is a sign of good things to come! And from Hilary: ART Awards I'm afraid we weren't

successful in the ART awards yesterday [6 March 2021]. But we did at least manage to raise the profile of the Guild with "the great and the good".

Safeguarding Advice for Young Ringers Online

Safeguarding is important IN THE TOWER and ON-LINE. We hope that more and more of our young

ringers will be able to return to ringing safely in our

towers but on-line ringing is also here to stay. In general bellringers are lovely people but very rarely

things can go wrong. To help young ringers stay safe when ringing online:

When you are going to a practice make sure

there is someone you know and trust there.

If someone says something inappropriate use

the ―Report Behaviour‖ link on Ringing Room and tell an adult you trust (mum or dad, tower captain

or another family member).

You can take screenshots to keep a record of

conversations.

If you need more help or don‘t know who to talk to, go to cccbr.org.uk/safeguarding or

Contact our Guild Safeguarding Officer, Alan,

at guild.safeguarding@sdgr.org.uk or via the Guild website.

For The Less Experienced

From Ben Duke, our Handbook and Annual Report Editor, material due to be published in spring 2020, but which

could not because of Covid: https://sdgr.org.uk/annual-report-2019/ To be serialised in four parts.

Part 4: Grandsire Doubles

Page 19

My Encounter with Prince Philip

From Robert Wellen: According to Bellboard there were 110 ‗performances‘ credited to the Guild in April 2021 to mark the death of HRH The Prince Philip. Thank you to all who tolled. Below from LtoR are Robin Mears (Puddletown), Edward (aged 7) ringing the service bell at Powerstock and Viv Endecott (Lytchett Matravers) who achieved Gold DofE Award and her skill was bellringing for Bronze.

I thought it might be a nice idea to ask our readers for any recollections of encounters with the Prince or associations with his Award Scheme and here are their stories, starting with one of our young ringers.

Vicki Rowse writes: ―On Saturday 10th April a bell was tolled 99 times at St George‘s Church Fovant in memory of HRH The Duke of Edinburgh by myself and Anthea Targett. I had the privilege of meeting the Duke in October 1991 when he came to stay at the safari lodge I was working at in Zambia. My first encounter with him was the evening he arrived when I walked into our restaurant he was stood at the bar and as

I walked toward him he said ―Hello I‘m Philip, who are you?‖ We had a short chat but I can‘t remember what about as I was so nervous! He stayed one night, we all had dinner together and he went on a game drive. I do remember he was no trouble and all his staff were lovely and so down to earth‖. This next account comes from Bob Crighton, from Child Okeford: ―I was privileged to meet the Queen and Prince Philip in July 1973 whilst serving in HMS BACCHANTE. Prince Charles had just been appointed to HMS MINERVA and Her

M a j e s t y w a s apparently keen to see what she was like. We were a sister ship and happened to be a l o n g s i d e i n Portsmouth so a visit was hastily cobbled together, with the sh ip ‘ s company scattered about the

ship supposedly doing typical things to give HM an idea of life onboard a Leander class frigate. I and the DWEO, plus a couple of Officers on exchange from the German and Norwegian Navies, were ―Officers relaxing in the wardroom‖ when our visitors ―just happened‖ to walk in. The Queen and Prince Philip were on separate tours of the ship, so we had two visits to the wardroom and interestingly the Queen seemed far more relaxed and chatty than the Prince, who you would have thought would have been in his element in the wardroom of an HM Ship‖. In case you are wondering Bob is third from left in the picture above right.

Here‘s an account from Anji Scofield (Wing Commander (Retd): ―At West Lavington on 17 April 2021 I rang the tenor half-muffled prior to the Silence and Funeral of Prince Philip. It was a great honour to commemorate the funeral of such a remarkable man, who it had been my privilege and good

fortune to have met on two occasions. I was a nursing officer in the Princess Mary‘s Royal Air Force Nursing Service and the first time I met Prince Philip was when I was working as a Flight Nursing Officer. On the occasion of the Commemoration of the 40th Anniversary of the D-Day Landings on 6 June 1984, I escorted a Hercules aircraft full of veterans to Arromanche-les-Bains, France. Prince Philip stopped to talk to a group of veterans behind me. On 29 November 1985, when I was working at the Defence Medical Rehabilitation Unit, RAF Headley Court, Prince Philip came to open a new gymnasium. After I was presented to the Duke (I am on the far left of the photograph right), he turned right instead of left and caught sight of a security man who was lurking behind a curtain. The Duke‘s immediate response was ―Are we expecting to find reds under the beds?‖‖

Janet Collins, from Bradford Peverell, submitted the following article to The Ringing World No. 5741–7 May 2021: ―I signed up to take part in the Duke of Edinburgh‘s Award Scheme on 20th July 1971 in readiness for the new academic year. I had to be persuaded by a friend as I considered myself already busy playing sport, and I had to choose my interest quickly or I would be stuck with making soft toys. I spent ages thumbing through the handbook but it always fell open at Campanology, whatever that was. So, the following Tuesday off I went to Sherborne Abbey. We started at 6pm by tying the bells and had our own practice until 7.30pm, learning to handle a bell but also learning the ―theory‖. Learning to ring at Sherborne was hard work. I had to pull right through to stand any chance of keeping the

Page 20

My Encounter with Prince Philip

bell up while not allowing it to go over the balance. I eventually mastered it and was assessed for the bronze award in April. The report reads ―Has done well on difficult bells‖. Other activities on the way to the bronze award included First Aid and an expedition. The expedition was 7 miles in the New Forest relying on our newly acquired map reading skills. Bronze Award completed, I pressed on with the silver. This consisted of more First Aid, an expedition of 16 miles on foot with a night camping, and a spot of flower arranging, plus of course the campanology. For the silver award, you had to call a ―touch‖ and be able to ring three methods. With this under my belt, off we went to the

assessment at the quarterly meeting at Lillington, a 6cwt peal of five on a sloping floor with platforms to stand on. Spot the similarity between that and the bells at Sherborne! I thought they had forgotten to attach the rope to the bell! Ringing light bells was mastered fairly speedily and the ―touch‖ was duly called. Silver Award completed, only one to go. There were only two of us planning to do the Gold Award so we had to join other groups. The Gold Award had an extra section called a residential qualification. We chose to do a National Trust Acorn Camp at Newark Park in Gloucestershire. This proved to be right up my street. We worked hard and had good fun. The place was said to be haunted and when the ceiling collapsed in a thunder storm we believed this to be true. The expedition was now a three-day affair. The training was done on Exmoor and the real thing on Dartmoor. Three girls for three days on the south moor is one way of building resilience. For my service section, I assisted with the organisation of the Award Scheme at school. I remember running a practice for the bronze expedition with a map, a compass and a bicycle for transport. No mobile phones in those days. Thankfully, we all got back successfully but I wouldn‘t want to repeat that one. And then there was the Campanology. By this time I was one of the regulars at Sherborne. We enjoyed chips after the practice, rang or chimed for services and rang for weddings at £1 a rope which was good money in those days. But I still needed to get the Gold Award. The standard was high and I had no idea how I was going to ring a peal. Luckily Tim turned up one practice night and the rest is, as they say, history. So I was able to complete the three awards in four academic years. I was invited to Buckingham Palace to receive the Gold Award and briefly met the Duke of Edinburgh. The local MP, Sir Jim Spicer, said he would treat Gold Award holders to lunch in the Stranger‘s Gallery at the Houses of Parliament. It was quite a day! As well as meeting the Duke of Edinburgh at the palace, my friend and I also met him at a county function. It was at a large school and we did a table display about bellringing. Prince Philip came by and asked us some searching questions and chuckled in a friendly fashion at our embarrassment when we couldn‘t answer everything. In the introduction of my record book, Prince Philip writes ―I hope you will discover fresh interests and make new friends, and find satisfaction in giving service to others.‖ Assisted by the Duke of Edinburgh‘s Award I have managed to do all of these. It is

frightening to think that I started the awards nearly fifty years ago and I still enjoy many of the activities now. I would encourage young people to take part in the award

scheme. It is as relevant now as it was then‖. Robert Newton, from Hilton recalls: ―Twenty years ago I was asked if I would like to teach l i f e s av i ng a t Bryanston and

Milton Abbey schools. This was to be my first encounter with the Duke of Edinburgh award scheme and since then I have become involved with many students. My contribution to their qualification was to train them in first aid, resuscitation and water safety skills at the end of

which they would have to d e m o n s t r a t e t h e i r competence in front of a Royal Life Saving Society examiner. In 2012 I was invited to St James's Palace for the presentation of the Duke of Edinburgh Gold award to the students I had trained. It was a real honour for me. We arrived at the time requested and had a short tour of the Palace which I found stunning. We then moved to the presentation room. We had to stand when Prince Philip entered the room and only speak to him if spoken to first. We were all very nervous while waiting but as soon as he arrived he engaged with the students and guests, laughing and talking so that we all relaxed a little. I was extremely fortunate to speak with him and you could tell that he was really interested in the contribution people had made to the scheme. On April 10th, I chimed a bell 99 times at noon at Hilton to pay our respects at the passing of Prince Philip. I did this whilst thinking of a charming, amusing man who will be missed by many‖. Finally two further more ‗brief encounters‘, first from John Bancroft from Melksham: ―While I was not involved in tolling for his funeral (not in the right bubble) I met the Duke in Jamaica back in 1966. This was the occasion of the British Empire and Commonwealth Games hosted by Jamaica, held at Kingston from 4th to 13th August in the presence of the Duke & Prince Charles. I was the Air Electronics Officer on one of the 3 Victor V-bombers of 139 (Jamaica) Squadron that opened the games with a fly-past. The aircrews attended the Prime Minister‘s cocktail party afterwards, and it was then that the Duke came over and chatted with us, having, as he said, escaped from the bevy of women who were desperate to meet him, so that he could instead have an intelligent conversation‖. And then a nautical tale from Peter Carnell from Bradpole: ―Neither my wife Wendy or me actually met the prince, although Wendy grew up in Cowes and I used to sail with her father in Cowes Week. We once received a cheery apology from the Duke when he carved us up with a much bigger boat! A very tenuous connection!‖

‗Our Vicki‘ Runner Up in Round 1 of CCCBR Photo Competition

The first of the two runners up was a

picture of Marston Bigot, in the snow, taken in 2009 by

Vicki Rowse, which Roger Law-son (judge) de-

scribed as ‗another well captured and composed image

that seems to lead you along the lane, through the gate and into the church‘ (The Ringing World, 9 July 2021, page

625).

Page 21

And in Other News ...

I Have Got News for You!

From Robert Wel-len: Out of the blue, in mid April 2021, I received

an e-mail from Vicky of Hat Trick Productions Ltd, a Researcher on Have I Got News

for You. At first I thought it might be a scam, but having phoned Vicky I realized it was genuine. Vicky

had written: ―we are interested in featuring your newsletter ‗Face to Face‘ on our programme. On ‗Have I Got News for You‘...each week we have a ‗Missing Word‘ round where newspaper headlines from the week are read out with a vital word missing for the panel to guess the word which has been removed. It is tradition for a guest publication to be

featured alongside this. We would like to include ‗Face to Face‘ in this feature...‖ Having consulted colleagues I signed the licence agreement and waited. At the beginning of May, I received the following from

Vicky: ―I‘m delighted to be able to confirm that ‗Face to Face‘ (the official newsletter of the Salisbury

Diocesan Guild of Ringers) will be used in this week‘s recording of our brand-new series of Have I Got News for You, broadcast on BBC One at 9:00pm on Friday 14th May 2021. The programme will then be available on the BBC iPlayer on demand service for 30 days. Our guest host this week will be Romesh Ranganathan and joining team captains Ian Hislop

and Paul Merton will be comedian Jo Brand and author Lemn Sissay‖. I alerted the membership! This e-mail from Vicky was accompanied by a warning that we might not get into the ‗prime time‘ show on BBC1,

in which case we might get into the extended programme on B B C 2 t h e

following Mon-day, or we might end up ‗on the cutting room floor‘. For-tunately, as it

turned out, we got into the BBC1 prime ‗cut‘, broadcast to the nation on 14 May 2021. Romesh (pictured above) (if I can call him that

now!), introduced Face to Face as the guest publication, showing the front pages of the last three editions, and after a brief quip, showed the caption:

―Everyone learning to bell ring knows that............is essential‖. A misquote of a slightly obscure opening

line from an article on simulators by our own Chris Bush (now available for celebrity appearances) on page 10 of the Spring 2019

edition. Panellist Jo Brand (lapsed ringer, pictured left) s u g g e s t e d ‗ a n A & E

reasonably close by‘ as a

answer, on the basis, she revealed, that she

used to be a bellringer (Big Ideas Company take note, a possible front woman for a future national ringing recruitment campaign!); she also informed us that ‗it‘s very

dangerous‘. Vicky later revealed to me the link between Jo Brand and the choice of Face to Face: ―I was doing some research into our guests and that

gave me the idea of bell ringing as a good area for a guest publication!‖ Paul Merton also made a witty comment that I could not be repeated unless you are reading this after the 9 p.m. ‗watershed‘. A few rude

comments about an anonymous group of ringers and the programme moved on (the answer, by the way, to the missing words, was revealed to be ‗rope time‘). Henceforth therefore, this publication can claim to be ‗As Seen on TV‘. (Pictures: source BBC/Hat Trick/HIGNFY).

Guernsey ‗Do Well‘ in ART Awards

From Robert Wellen:

Guernsey did very well in the ART Awards as announced in March 2021: Learn-ing the Ropes Achievement Award W inne r : Donny

(pictured left); Learn-ing the Ropes Contri-bution Award Win-ners: Jayden (Roos,

East Yorkshire), Jo-seph (pictured right) and Mary (Reedham, Norfolk)

and The Sarah Beacham Youth Award Winners:

Elizabeth College and the Kildwick Mini-ringers

(North Yorkshire). I contacted Jane Le Conte

(Channel Islands District Secretary) to find out

more, she said: ―We are thrilled at the recognition

that Donny and Joseph received and also Elizabeth

College pupils who are hugely supported by Town

Church ringers‖. Jane also sent me an article from Guernsey Press of 12 March. In it, reporter Juliet Pouteaux, wrote: ―the judges commented on the integration of ringing into the curriculum [in the

College] during a recent music and maths cross-

circular day...the judges were impressed that students had the ability to ring...during lunchtimes on the college mini-ring...Year 10 student Donny [won his award] in recognition of his fast progress onto some of the hardest pieces of ringing music...as well as [helping] other ringers achieve their goals as well

as his own...Year 11 student Joseph [won his award] for the huge breadth of involvement he has with ringing in Guernsey and his proactive attitude to supporting other ringers‖. The report quoted ―Maths teacher and head of bell ringing at Elizabeth College, Duncan Loweth‖ saying: ―It was a fantastic evening

for Elizabeth College...I am extremely proud of

Page 22

And in Other News ...

Donny, Joseph and all the students involved in bell ringing at Elizabeth College‖. What a great title ‗head

of bell ringing‘, all schools should have one?!

The ‗Other Legacy‘ of Llewellyn Edwards

F r o m T r i s h Hitchins: I am sure that everyone in

the Guild is aware

that our LEBRF was started with a £150 legacy from the R e v d F r a n k Llewellyn Edwards [pictured left, his

h e a d s t o n e i n Kington Magna churchyard], but did you know that he also left a £150 legacy the Ancient Society of College Youths? He was elected to the ASCY in 1897 while he was studying at Ridley Hall Cambridge and was a member for 59 years. The ASCY records state: ―At the Business Meeting held on 9 March 1957 at The

Ship, Talbot Court, EC, where the Master Mr J S Mason was in the Chair, the Treasurer read a letter from Edwards‘ Executors informing us that he had bequeathed the sum of £150 to the Society. The letter stated that it was the wish of Mr Edwards that the money be invested and that the interest be used

to provide a band to ring the bells of one of the London Church every year on Shrove Tuesday. It was proposed by Mr C G Watts and seconded by Mr A A Hughes that the acceptance of this bequest be placed on record‖. This investment has continued to this day, occasionally topped up by subscription, to provide beer for members every Shrove Tuesday in his

memory. On Shrove Tuesday this year via their Zoom business meeting the ASCY remembered Frank Llewellyn Edwards and my brother Chris Rogers gave this reminiscence of our meeting with him. ―I expect that I am the only member present to have met Frank Llewellyn Edwards. Since he died in 1956, that would not be surprising. My parents, Harold and

Olive, had got to know him through attendance at Central Council meetings and, as we always took our summer holiday at Swanage, they arranged to visit him during our 1955 holiday. I was 11 at the time and my sister, Trish, was 8. I‘ve talked to her and these are our memories of that day. Our main

memory is of a little old man in a large, somewhat dingy, rectory right out in the country. There was a set of handbells hanging in the entrance hall and we went down a dark passage into a room full of books. There his housekeeper brought us some tea. Trish remembers the house as being rather scary. After tea he took us out to a small barn where many years

previously, he had hung a couple of small bells with rather crude wheels and fittings. We did not attempt to ring them. We then went down a path to Kington Magna church, which had and still has a ring of 5 with a 15cwt tenor. Llewellyn Edwards rang the treble, my mother and I rang 2 and 3, and Dad, always up for a

challenge, rang 4 and 5 double-handed. We only managed rounds. After that, we drove back to

Swanage, never imagining that we would be remembering him 66 years later. The date was 1st September 1955–I know this because when I got home, I entered Kington Magna in my tower book, my 35th tower and first ring of five!‖ Does anyone else have memories of meeting him?

Sherborne and Tournai: Marvellous Coincidence?

From Robert Wellen: I found this report on page 34 of the Salisbury Diocesan Guild Report for 1934. I passed this on to Tim Phillips at the

Abbey and the authors of The Bells of Sherborne Abbey. Tim replied: ―I do wonder though whether it was all a c o i n c i d e n ce . P e r ha p s someone (Major John Hesse, for example) organised it

that both events should occur at the same time. John Hesse was an Old Shirburnian and it is quite possible that he was involved at Ypres in WW1. We shall probably never know!‖ This is what is in the report: Just before the Dedication of the Lady Chapel on 29

May, the Vicar of Sherborne received the following letter. 4a, Boulevard Viscount Marechal Plumer, Ypres, Belgium, Trinity, 1934. My Dear Sir. We English Residents here, caring for the graves of our Glorious Dead, read with great interest that the Bishop of Salisbury on Tuesday dedicates the restored Lady Chapel in Sherborne Abbey, and in memory of

the Men of Dorset who fell in the War, and many of them rest about us here. Glorious Comrades. We have arranged on the same evening at 9 p.m. that the Last Post be sounded at the Menin Gate, where the tablets contain the names of Dorset‘s men, the local Branch of the Legion being present, when a wreath will be placed. A remarkable coincidence is

that the Bishop of this Diocese comes to Ypres to dedicate a Lady Chapel here and the Bells, postponed on account of the death of King Albert. Another remarkable thing is that the new Bells of Ypres were drawn from Ypres on the same day and same hour as the Sherborne Boys bore the great Bell to Sherborne

Abbey that was a gift of Cardinal Wolsey, and from the great and ancient Bell foundry of Tournai near here, where the Ypres bells have been made as the old ones lost were made in Cardinal Wolsey‘s time. The Sherborne Bell was brought by the Sherborne College Boys, and the Ypres Bell by the College of St. Vincent here, a most remarkable incident, on the

same day. The Bishop of Bruges, R.C., dedicates the restored Lady Chapel of Ypres on the same day as the Bishop of Salisbury dedicates the Sherborne. We shall hear all on the Radio. Yours truly, LAWRENCE E.BROOKS.

Page 23

And in Other News ...

SDGR Keep the Bells Ringing in

Portsmouth

Report and Picture by Jack

Pease: For many experienced ringers visiting Portsmouth, the Cathedral is the most attractive choice, featuring a fine 25cwt Taylor twelve. However, it is the Victorian church at St Mary

Portsea [pictured left] that feels

more like a Cathedral building, with its splendid 167 feet high tower. This magnificent building, amongst the largest parish churches in the country, stands on the oldest site of worship on

Portsea Island. The present church, the third building on the

site, was completed in 1889, and the present peal of bells, a 17cwt Taylor eight from 1933, are considered amongst the finest peals of eight on the South Coast. There is no local band. The bells have thus been silent for sometime, but it was an ideal location for

two SDGR practices involving ringers from East Dorset, Dorchester, and West Dorset branches. Both of these practices have been very successful and the ringers involved have found it a great boost to their confidence, as well as a joy to visit another tower for the first time in a long while. Ringing included

everything from rounds to touches of Stedman Doubles. ―It was a great treat. The church building is very impressive and the bells are a joy to ring‖. My thanks go to the verger and tower captain at Portsea for allowing us use of their bells.

‗Just One Peal‘

In this feature leading peal ringers resident in the Guild are asked to recall ‗just one peal‘ from all that they have rung and tell us what makes it special. This time it‘s ‗R Nicholas Lawrence‘,

better known as Nick Lawrence, a ringer at Evershot in West Dorset, who has rung a total of 572 peals to date. Just One Peal, in his case, was Just Two...read on.

In 2014, not having been involved in serious ringing for over 30 years, and with 22 years since my last peal, I was standing in a field near Evershot, surrounded by a dozen other photographers, waiting for the Bristol-Weymouth steam train. The gentleman standing next to me

was discussing the location with another, pointing out where, in his youth, there had been a signal box: ―The signalman used to let me pull the levers-I knew him because he was a Churchwarden and I was a bell-ringer‖, he stated, at which I turned to him, and said "I used to be a bell-ringer!" "You must take it up again-come to my practice at Bradford Peverell on Monday; Tim Collins is my name." "I'm Nick Lawrence" said I, and in unison we said "You used to ring with Roy LeMarechal!" The following day,

apparently having informed Roy of his discovery, I received a 'phone call from Tim, inviting me into a peal, and that was the start of my rehabilitation. As a teenager, I lived in Barwick-in-Elmet, near Leeds, and despite there being no band, the 4 bells were augmented to 6. I was asked if I would like to learn, with a group of others, and we taught ourselves to ring up and down, rather agriculturally, achieving rounds for Sunday services. 'A'-level studies prevented my wholehearted application to the exercise, and it dropped off the radar when I joined the RAF, on leaving school. Many years later, I ended-up at RAF Thorney Island, (Sussex) where I decided to take

premature retirement, but driving through Westbourne one evening I heard the bells ringing, and remembering practice nights at Barwick, I went along the following week, to be met by the renowned E Winifred Keys. I managed to handle a bell, and in view of the hospitality of the band, decided to go back the following week, during which I studied PB Major, which I then rang almost acceptably, thereafter making rapid progress under the guidance of Ernie Treagus. Further ringing progress stopped when I left the RAF, and joined the Dubai Army, returning a couple of years later to temporary residence in West Yorkshire, and two months later I rang my first peal (PB Major) at Leeds Parish Church, thanks to Barrie Dove, followed by several more with him, before taking-up a post with the Army, near Winchester. In the course of the usual tower-grabbing I became a stipended member of the Cathedral Band and a Bishopstoke regular, with acceptance into the W&P 'A' Peal-Band, going-on to achieve several record-breaking peals, and pealing all but half-a-dozen Hampshire towers. I soon wanted to start conducting, and absorbing Roy's edicts on coursing-order, I canvassed some W&P ringers who wanted to ring a peal, but were unlikely to be invited into the 'A'-Band, and we scored PB Minor at Amport, on 5th August 1978. Ecstatic, we went for another at Old Alresford, a week later, and the W&P 'D'-Band was formed, thereafter scoring peals on a weekly basis, delighting in methods which had gone out of fashion. However, my candidate for "Just One Peal", which wasn't ‗one‘, was (or is it were) on 29th February 1980. A peal on 29th February was an obvious requirement, and the D-Band met at North Stoneham to ring the (at the time) standard 7 minor on the front 6 (3¾ cwt). Owing to the importance of the date, we left work early, and started at 4pm, rather than the usual 6pm, in case we needed a restart. I called a faultless peal round in 2h14, and we were a bit nonplussed, as the pub wouldn't be open for 45mins, so David Watson (†) suggested we ring another, and after a bit of discussion, Christine Joyce (Saunders) suggested we go for the same, and ring the same bells, which we did. Chris was one of those, often annoying, ringers constantly clock-watching, and with her cajoling-speeding-up and slowing-down appropriately, we came round in exactly the same 2h14. The two totally identical peals were sent-up to the RW with a covering note, to avoid any confusion, and duly recorded and

published as such. I believe this performance is unique. Postscript and Correction: After the ‗Just One Peal‘ column from Andrew Howes in the last edition was published, Nick got in contact regarding on historical error in the piece. Andrew and Nick were perfectly amicable about it and Andrew replied: ―... you [Nick] are quite right, we did not claim the peal of 24 Spliced S Major on June 19th 1992 for the W&P Guild as the most spliced for them like I said in the article, my apologies for that but did claim the most spliced record for the SDGR on April 24th 1992 at St Martin's Salisbury earlier in the year, sorry again, it must be my memory after 30 years‖. As a reward for raising this point, I asked Nick if he would write the next column!

Page 24

Thomas Hardy and the Bells of ―Wessex‖

Part 2

Gareth Davies has given his permission for this article to be reproduced here. Part 1 was published in the last edition.

The chimes of St Peter‘s, Dorchester played the Sicilian Mariner‘s Hymn and Hardy referred to them in The Mayor of

Casterbridge. They may also have been victims of the 1889 restoration for he noted in a footnote to the poem After the Fair written in 1902 that ―The chimes will be listened for in vain here at midnight now, hav ing been abolished some years ago.‖ Once again, though, it was memory of these events recalled some years later that provided Hardy with inspiration. This poem is about more than the loss of well-loved c h i m e s . O n 2 7 t h November 1912 Hardy‘s wife, Emma, had died after a long and painful illness. This came as a great shock to him, though the two had steadily been growing apart for years and it was

reputed that the new century had seen Hardy involved with a steady stream of literary ladies. Indeed, within a few months he had installed one such lady, Florence Dugdale, at Max Gate; marrying her

at Enfield Parish Church in February 1914. Neverthe-less, Emma dead proved a much greater inspiration to Hardy than Emma alive had ever done. In the year‘s immediately after her death he wrote more than fifty poems to her memory, many of them amongst his finest work. Emma had been a regular attender at St George‘s, Fordington and the Hardys could often hear the ring of six from Max Gate. In particular, listening for the bells on New Year‘s Eve seems to have been a feature of the household‘s ritual, both before and after Emma‘s death. Hardy's diary attested to this: ―New Year‘s Eve 1890 Looked out of doors just before twelve. I could not hear the church bells." ―Dec 31st 1910-Went to

bed at eleven. East wind. No bells heard‖. "Dec 31st 1923-New Year‘s Eve. Did not sit up. Heard the bells in the evening." [Article continues in red box opposite].

[continuation of Gareth Davies article] But it was a band of ringers several decades earlier who had provided the inspiration for what is, in some ways, Hardy‘s most interesting bell poem. Again, it was written as the result of a request for a contribution to a Special Christmas Number for 1925. This time the magazine was the "Sphere‖. The editor, Clement Shorter, obviously knew his man for he made his request almost in advance. Hardy replied in January 1925: ―Many thanks for New Year wishes I reciprocate. I will hear in mind the kind of poem you want and will try to let you

The Chimes

That morning when I trod the town

The twitching chimes of long renown

Played out tome The sweet Sicilian sailor‘s tune And I knew not if late or soon

My day would be.

A day of sunshine beryl-bright and windless; yea. think as I

might, I could not say

Even to within year‘s measure, when

One would be at my side who then

Was far away.

When hard utilitarian times Had stilled Saint-Peter‘s

chimes I learnt to see

That bale may spring where blisses are

And one desired might be afar Though near to me.

(Moments of Vision 1917)

End of the Year 1912

You were hear at his young beginning

You are not here at his aged end

Off he coaxed you from Life's mad spinning

Lest you should see his form extend

Shivering, sighing Slowly dying

And a tear on him expend

So it comes that we stand lonely

In the star-lit avenue Dropping broken lipwords only

For we hear no songs from you

Such as flew here For the new year

Once, while six bells swung thereto

(Late Lyrics and Earlier 1922)

Dorchester Remembers with Peals

and Thomas Hardy [continuation of Gareth Davies article] By 1914 the First World War had temporarily put paid to ringing, in 1919, however, James Milner, editor of the Graphic, asked Hardy for a contribution to the Jubilee Christmas Number. Despite

plenty of advance notice. Hardy was not optimistic. In June he wrote: "I fear I cannot do anything for the Jubilee number since, as you know. I write very little now; nor on searching can I find anything that would suit. But if I come across anything in the course of the next few days I will send it. However, as I say. I fear not." On Thursday 30th October Hardy received the inspiration he needed to fulfil Milner‘s request. It was supplied to him by a band of ringers from the Sa l isbury D iocesan Association [Guild?] who, on that day, rang the first peal at St Peter‘s, Dorchester since 1913. It appeared in the Ringing World for 7th November which records that Holt‘s Ten Part peal of Grandsire Triples was rung in 3 hours 14 minutes, conducted by Charles Goodenough. The footnote to the peal stated that: ―This peal, rung with hall-muffled clappers, was a memorial to those men of the Salisbury Diocesan Guild who gave their lives in the late war." Messrs Goodenough and Forfitt of Bournemouth, Uphill of Fordington, Jennings of Wyke Regis, Townsend of P o o l e , B e ams o f Bradpole, Stewart of Wimborne and Benger of Dorchester would not doub t have been surprised to learn that they were directly responsible for

The Peace Peal. [A peal board for this 1919 Peal is in St Peter‘s ringing room and a commemorative peal was rung at St Peter‘s on 30 October 2019].

The Peace Peal (After Four

Years of Silence)

Said a wistful daw in Saint

Peter‘s tower

High above Casterbridge slates

and tiles

'Why do the walls of my Gothic

bower

Shiver and shrill out sounds for

miles?

This gray old rubble Has scorned such din

Since I knew trouble

And joy herein

How still did abide them

These bells now swung

While our nest beside them

Securely clung. . .

It means some snare

For our feet or wings

But I‘ll be ware Of such baleful things!‘

And forth he flew from his

louvred niche

To take up life in a damp dark

ditch

- So mortal motives are

misread

And false designs attributed

In upper spheres of straws and sticks

Or lower, of pens and politics

At the end of the war

(The Graphic 24 November

1919 and Human Shows 1919)

Page 25

Thomas Hardy and the Bells of ―Wessex‖

have it soon. I think the price you offer very fair...‖ The poem No Bell-Ringing—A Ballard of Durnover appeared in the Sphere on 23 November 1925. It is possible to see in it the influence of a number of experi-ences from Hardy‘s

earlier life. In particular, a visit to a ringing chamber, a ghostly experience, a family tale and an architectural anec-dote. The visit to the ringing room of St Peter's, Dorchester occurred on New Year's Eve 1884 and was recorded in Hardy's diary: ―To St. Peter's belfry to the New Year‘s Eve ring-ing. The night wind whiffed in through the louvres as the men prepared the mufflers with tar-twine and pieces of horse cloth. Climbed over the bells to fix the muff lers I climbed with them and looked into the tenor bell: it is worn into a bright pit where the clapper is battered with its many blows. The ringers now put their coats and waistcoats and hats upon the chimes and clock and stand to. Old John is fragile, as if the bell would pull him up rather than he pull the rope down, his neck being withered and white as his neckcloth. But his manner is severe as he says ―Tenor out?"

One of the two tenor men gently eases the bell forward-that fine old E flat, my father's admiration, unsur-passed in metal all the world over-and answers "Tenor‘s out". Then old John

tells them to ―Go!" and they start. Through long practice he rings with the least possible movement of his body, though the youngest ringers-strong dark-haired men with ruddy faces-soon perspire with their exertions. The red, green and white sallies bolt up through the holes like rats between the huge beams overhead. The grey stones of the fifteenth

century masonry have many of their joints mortarless, and are carved with many initials and dates. On the sill of one louvred window stands a great pewter pot with a hinged cover and engraved: ―For the use of the ringers 16". The ghostly experience takes us back to an even earlier period; to 1852 when Hardy was twelve. He was returning home at three in the morning with his father who had been playing the violin at a gentlemen-farmer‘s. It was a snowy, frosty, moonlit night and they saw what they thought was a white human figure, without a head, motionless in a hedge. On closer inspection it turned out to be drunk wearing a white smock and in danger of dying from exposure. Drink and a

ghost also play leading roles in the family tale which was recorded in 1935 when the Women‘s Institute encouraged their Dorset members to contribute to a local history competition. Clerk Hardy who takes centre stage in the following story was also named Thomas. He was flourishing in Dorchester from 1724 onwards and was claimed by our Thomas Hardy as an ancestor: ―Here is a story of St. Peter‘s, Dorchester in 1814. It was Christmas Eve. The clerk and the sexton were in the church to decorate for the Christmas service on the following day, as was the custom...Clerk Hardy and Sexton Ambrose Hunt had locked themselves in, and were at length cold and tired. They sat down on a settle (now in the vestry) and from there they could see right down the north aisle of the church. Suddenly a most unlucky thought assailed their minds-the Holy Communion Wine was easy to come by. They seem to have offered little or no resistance to the temptation, and the wine was procured, but hardly had they taken the first sip than they became aware of a figure sitting between them, that of their late rector, the Rev. Nathaniel Templeman. They said he seemed to rise up suddenly; he looked at them with a very angry countenance and shook his head at them just as he did in life when displeased. Then rising and facing them he slowly floated up the north aisle and sank out of their sight. Clerk Hardy swooned, and the sexton tried to say the Lord‘s Prayer. They were both very frightened, but stuck to their story. They said they could not mistake their old master, looking as he did in life and wearing the same clothes.‖ The architectural anecdote takes us once again to Hardy‘s paper for the SPAB in which he recounts this experience: "I may here mention a singular incident which occurred in respect of a new peal of bells at a church whose rebuilding I was privy to, which occurred on the opening day many years ago. It being a popular and fashionable occasion, the church was packed with its congregation long before the bells rang out for service. When the ringers seized the ropes, a noise more deafening than thunder resounded from the tower in the cars of the startled sitters Terrified at the idea that the tower was falling they rushed out at the door, ringers included, into the arms of the astonished bishop and clergy advancing in procession up the churchyard path, some of the ladies in a fainting state. When calmness was restored by the sight of the tower standing unmoved as usual, it was discovered that the six bells had been placed ―in stay"-that is, in an inverted

position ready for the ringing, but in the hurry of preparation the clappers had been laid inside though not fastened on, and at the first swing of the bells they had fallen out upon the belfry floor". So there we have four strands; authentic ringing, a white figure, religious transgression and silent bells. Some of them it is difficult to take at face value but the link between them is what Hardy made of them in the following poem. (‗Durnover‘ is Hardy‘s name for Fordington, and the ‗Hit or Miss: Luck's All‘ was a local tavern, now demolished.) By the end of 1927 Hardy was ill and weak. His wife, Florence, wrote that: ―As the year ended a window in the dressing-room adjoining his bedroom was opened that he might hear the bells as that had always pleased him. But now he said that he could not hear them and did not seem interested‖. Eleven days later he was dead.

No Bell-Ringing A Ballad of Durnover

The little boy legged on through the dark

To hear the New Year‘s ringing.

The three-mile road was empty, stark

No sound or echo bringing.

When he got to the tall church tower

Standing upon the hill.

Although it was hard on the midnight

hour

The place was, as elsewhere, still.

Except that the flag-staff rope, be tossed

By blasts from the nor-cast,

Like a dead man‘s bones on a gibbet-

post

Tugged as to be released.

‗Why is there no ringing tonight?‘

Said the boy to a moveless one

On a tombstone where the moon struck

white.

But he got answer none.

‗No ringing in of New Year's Day‘

He mused as he dragged back home

And wondered till his head was gray

Why the bells that night were dumb.

And often thought of the snowy shape

That sat on the moonlit stone,

Nor spoke, nor moved and in mien and

drape Seemed like a sprite thereon

And then he met one left of the band

That had treble-bobbed when young

And said ‗I never could understand Why, that night, no bells rung‘

‗True there‘d not happened such a thing.

For half a century; aye

And never I‘ve told why they did not ring From that time till today.

Through the week at the Hit or Miss

We had drunk-not a penny left. What then we did-well now ‘tis hid

But better we‘d stooped to theft!

Yet since no other remains who can

And few more years are mine, I may tell said the cramped old man

―We swilled the Sacrament wine.

Then each set to with the strength of two,

Every man to his bell.

But something was wrong we found ere

long.

Though what, we could not tell

We pulled till the sweat drops fell around

As we‘d never pulled before.

An hour by the clock, but not one sound

Came down through the bell-loft floor.

On the morrow, all folk of the same

thing spoke.

They had stood at the midnight time

On their doorsteps near with a listening

ear

But there reached them never a chime.

We then could read the dye of our deed

And we knew we were accurst

But we broke to none the thing we had

done

And since then never durst.

(Winter Words 1927)

Page 26

Tower Profile: Seend/ Rowde Group

From Robert Wellen (Guild Master): What is the best

thing you can do on a May Day Bank Holiday evening? I recommend spending forty minutes with the lovely members of the Seend/ Rowde group, with Steeple Ashton ‘thrown in‘, as I did on 3 May 2021.

They are a bubbly, chatty lot, full of life, humour and comradeship, that has kept the band together, and attracted two new recruits from Suffolk, since before the March 2020 first lockdown. The local ringers are joined by friendly natives from nearby towers in the Devizes Branch, and on this particular night from

darkest Dorset. Leading this ‘wild bunch‘ is Len Murray, who started off the weekly Zoom meetings, and who tries (unsuccessfully most of the time!) to

keep some sort of order to proceedings. Talk easily gets diverted into tales of ‘oily rags‘, ‘rhubarb cake‘ and risqué comments and jokes that I could not possible repeat in a family journal such as this. But

underneath the humour there is a successful mission and a determination to continue ringing. The band has been using the ‗Ding‘ virtual platform to keep up its skill level, after arranging a surprise retirement performance for Len (see page 34, back page, of the last edition). Tied practice sessions on single bells have also been arranged, including ringing up and

down, to maintain skills and confidence ‗on the end of

a rope‘. During last summer three bells were rung for Sunday services. The towers of Seend and Potterne are the only two towers with ringable bells in the five parish Wellsprings benefice, so that, and the service pattern in a big benefice, means that there are not as

many services to ring for as Len and the band would like. For instance, in early May, the next service to ring for at Seend is on 13 June. However all the band report on instances of people in the local community, church goers or not, ‗missing the bells‘ and looking forward to their return. Len, who is also a churchwarden, speaks for the band when he says that

ringing the local bells is more than just great fun: ―Its

our Ministry-it brings people together‖. Plans are ‗afoot‘ for outdoor social events, if the weather ever allows and there are no signs of reticence on anyone‘s part at getting back in the tower;

something, I am sure, looking in as an outsider, that regular communication between the band over the

last year or so has ensured. Christine Purnell, from Melksham, a more regular ‘visitor‘ than me, also commented on the group as ―such a happy tower‖. One regular feature of the evening is a sharing of photos that individual members have taken during the preceding week. Pictures of gardens, landscapes and this week, the highlight, from Ann, the tower

correspondent, who apparently was ‗thrust into that job‘, recalling a recent family visit to Portsmouth and seeing the new HMS Queen Elizabeth (and she wasn‘t

arrested for ‗spying‘). This practice started when one member of the band kept in touch for six months by sending pictures from New Zealand when unable to return to the UK. I commend Len and all his ringers

for their positive attitude and their obvious support for each other that under lays all the ‗leg-pulling‘ and will ensure that ringing returns promptly, when allowed, to this part of Wiltshire.

Future Plans for Seend Tower Recovery From Ann Blake (Tower Correspondent):

We have maintained all our tower members and

increased in number by two-Paul and Pam Ebsworth have moved to us from Suffolk.

All members have, over the year since March 2020,

joined in with our weekly Zoom meetings.

Our TK has been into the tower with the TC and

maintained the bells and stays etc. ready for use.

Extra practices are to be arranged to prepare us for the

reopening of the tower.

Virtual lessons on Ding are held twice a week to keep

methods and changes fresh in our minds. Our TC Len Murray and TK Alan Bryer have worked hard to keep the team together. We are all now ready for the return to bell ringing when permitted to do so.

From ‗Len Murray The Poet‘; bellringer, tower captain,

gardener, cake maker.....

The Ringers‘ Plea

From Seend, the Cleeve, Inmarsh and Sells,

There are not enough ringers to sound the church bells.

The methods and rounds, the bobs and call changes,

Are threatened by silence, which then rearranges The wedding, the memoriam and Sunday prayer,

All hark to the tower but there‘s nobody there.

With ropes hanging limp and the belfry dumb, Holy Cross is still hoping the faithful will come.

So have you the gleam of an urge to pull

On a striped coloured sally all comfy of wool? Your name held in history for ringing a peal For calling the villagers on Sunday to kneel?

Then ring my bell, I‘m at number two, Show that you‘re willing to be part of the crew.

Learn a skill and a joy which bucks all the trends And wherever you go you will always find friends!

[Reference previous pages, ‗beat that‘, Thomas

Hardy!]

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Towers and Branches

The Sad Tale of a Lost Peal Board

F r o m Do r o t hy Blythe: During lockdown at St Mary‘s Church,

Marlborough, Wilt-shire one of the peal boards fell off the wall. On finding this on one of my

visits to check the ringing room I as-

sumed that the cord had broken. Later I went to examine it more closely and found the cord was intact and that the eyelet holding the cord was loose. To my horror I then discovered it was full of woodworm holes, both at the back and front and completely damaged. It is an important peal board as it records the first peal on the bells in 1969 on the newly

augmented six to eight. The peal was conducted by the Revd Roger Keeley, Guild Ringing Master who was the Curate at Marlborough, and has some familiar names on it (Don Lee and Alan Keen). I reported this

problem to the Churchwardens only to be told that woodworm had been found in the church and sadly

the Christmas crib was also a casualty. There will now be an inspection to deal with this but as for the peal board it will have to eventually be replaced [pictured above left the peal board and right, one of the culprits].

‗Virtual‘ Outing and ‗Virtual‘ Ringers Tea with a Touch of Magic!

From Debbie Phipps ( P ro fe s so r Po mo na Sprout) Tower Captain at Lytchett Matravers: Who said you couldn‘t have a

Ringers Outing during Lockdown? With Ringing Room and Zoom anything is possible. Though, over

the last year our band has met on several occasions either socially distanced or on Zoom we hadn‘t really had a whole afternoon together. Encouraged by two

of the things to do for Tail Ends in 50 Virtual Ringing

Things I set about to plan an outing. It started off quite simply to ring at two or three towers and have tea in the middle and drinks at the end as you would for a real outing but it sort of snowballed. I was worried that people might get bored of sitting by the computer all afternoon so we decided on only two

‗towers‘. Now to think about tea. In our last Guild Face to Face magazine there were four cake recipes from members of the Guild to try, getting us ready for returning to ringing. Between our ringers we made two of Pat‘s perfect Parkin, five of Gran‘s Victoria Sponges, three Chewy Cake and three Dark Side

cakes with a few variations. Our first ‗tower‘ was all

the way over in Somerset where we rang Call

Changes to Grandsire and the finale was to ring rounds on their heavy 16. We then broke up into groups for tea at ‗The Rope Retreat‘, ‗Sally‘s Social

Space‘ or ‗The Stay at Home Café‘. Guild Master Robert was able to join us here at ‗The Stay at Home Café‘ and had the opportunity to chat to some of our ringers. The previous week our Travel Agent, Helen had sent us a special O.W.L delivery ticket including a password letter to enable us to catch the train from

Platform 9¾ up to Hogwarts. Though a little late we were allowed in to ring there and thanks to Professor McGonagall (AKA Jack Pease) for running that ringing

session. We had to type our password into the Chat in Ringing Room before we were allowed to ring; an anagram of two words–one a bellringing word and another a ‗Harry Potter‘ word. At Hogwarts, we rang

Rounds to Reverse Rounds, Plain Bob Doubles, Rounds on 14 but then the speciality for Hogwarts which some of us had learnt was Transfiguration Place Doubles. Following ringing at Hogwarts Castle, Professor McGonagall consulted with the ‗sorting hat‘ to decide which Hogwarts house we will be joining for our second refreshment break. We were also joined

here by our vicar Stephen. Luckily Viv and John had

also joined us here and were able to put a spell on us to be whisked off to the houses where we had the opportunity to talk to a different group of ringers and friends and drink more tea or Hobgoblin beer. I think we all thought that three hours in front of the

computer would get VERY dull and I was concerned people would drift away during the second tea break but we all re-joined the main room for a final chat and farewell and were surprised how quickly the

afternoon had passed. I was even

asked when the next Outing would be! [Apologies to readers like me who know absolutely nothing about Mr Harry Potter].

Life in the Calne Branch

From Jane Ridgwell: Life in the Calne Branch continues to be quiet, however there is life in most of our towers now. Most towers are ringing for Sunday

service and some have started practices again. Most towers also rang on the occasion of the death of the Duke of Edinburgh. Some towers have made the

decision to wait for the further lifting of restrictions,

Page 28

Towers and Branches

because of the small size of the

tower, lack of ven-tilation or personal concerns. That doesn‘t mean that they won‘t be ring-ing again as soon as they feel that it

is pract icable. Some Calne Branch members meet on

Zoom on a monthly basis after the 200 club draw. Avebury has a fortnightly Zoom meeting and the Calne Branch Ringing Room practice has run regularly on Fridays since last November. Despite some

reservations the virtual ringing has been a life line in keeping people in contact and keeping the brain cells moving–and it has even been enjoyable after the first few weeks of coming to terms with the technology. Looking to the future, we are planning a Calne Branch picnic–hopefully with ringing and a service at

Yatesbury in July (or later if restrictions do not allow) [see back page report] and we hope to have monthly meetings in the last few months of the year. On a

positive note, experienced ringers have moved into our area and we look forward to welcoming them to practice nights and Sunday ringing. Also, we know of new recruits who are anxious to start training as soon

as it is possible. This is a great time to look at what we do and can we do better in the future. The reaction to hearing the sound of bells again has been encouraging with comments on social media saying how the bells have been missed and how lovely to hear them again. We were delighted to attend the Guild AGM via Zoom and even more delighted to see

three of our members be made Honorary Life

Members–Ken and Pauline Webb and David Davidge. We were even more pleased to hear that Ken Webb was elected to the role of Vice President for his work for individual towers, the Calne Branch and the LEBRF. Congratulations to all.

Steeple Ashton and Keevil Ringers ‗Keep in Touch‘

From the March 2021 Devizes Branch newslet-ter: Steeple

Ashton and Kee-vil have pro-duced a very in-formative news-letter detailing what has been going on in their

churches during the lockdown periods. Did you know that Keevil has the second oldest bell in Wiltshire/ Salisbury Diocese? The bell is the Sanctus bell cast in 1320! The oldest Wiltshire/ Salisbury bell is also in our branch (the Sanctus bell at Westbury cast in 1299).

Wimborne Minster Bells Ring Out

Again (Half of Them Actually!) From David Warwick: Since the partial release of

lockdown on 17th May, we have restarted our ringing with a series of quarter peals for Sunday Evensong and Tuesday practice nights. Selecting different bands for each occasion (the same ringers for Sunday morning and Sunday evening) and with household couples on the closest adjacent bells we have

managed to score eleven (out of fourteen) attempts

with a few firsts in the method and firsts as conductor. We‘ve learned to enjoy our ‗middle

six‘ (not a very complete circle—(8 cwt in A)) and

explore some less familiar repertoire, and our ringing

has brought about many complimentary comments from local townspeople who have clearly missed the sound of their bells over the past fifteen months. Eleven quarter peals covering nine different methods with seventeen ringers, eight conductors and not two bands the same and (nearly) all within the 45 minutes guidance limit. Quarter Peals in 2021: Tuesday, 18 May: 1296 Cambridge Surprise Minor: 1 Hilary Child, 2 Robert Child, 3 Trish Hitchins, 4 Flick Warwick, 5 David Warwick (C), 6 Harry Blamire. First quarter on the bells since March 2020. Sunday, 23 May: 1260 Mixed Doubles (5m): 1 Susan Riley, 2 John Riley, 3 Graham Duke, 4 Flick Warwick, 5 David Warwick (C), David Coates. Rung for Choral Evensong to celebrate Pentecost. Tuesday, 25 May: 1320 Cambridge Surprise Minor: 1 Alan Bentley, 2 Kathy Bentley, 3 Tim Martin, 4 Rosemary Duke, 5 Graham Duke, 6 Harry Blamire (C). With birthday compliments to Jenny Elmes and Sally Jenkins. Sunday, 30 May: 1260 Doubles (3m): 1 Susan Riley, 2 John Riley, 3 Trish Hitchins, 4 Flick Warwick, 5 David Warwick (C), 6 Lucy Warwick. Rung for Choral Evensong on Trinity Sunday. Sunday, 6 June: 1320 London Surprise Minor: 1 Rosemary Duke, 2 Graham Duke, 3 Trish Hitchins, 4 Flick Warwick, 5 David Warwick, 6 Harry Blamire (C). For Evensong. Tuesday, 8 June: 1260 Plain Bob Doubles: 1 Susan Riley, 2 John Riley, 3 Max Knight, 4 Hilary Child, 5 Robert Child, 6 Graham Duke. Jointly conducted by 2,3,4&5. First as conductor-3. Sunday, 13 June: 1260 Doubles (2m): 1 Rosalind Martin, 2 Tim Martin, 3 Robert Child, 4 Rosemary Duke, 5 Graham Duke (C), 6 David Coates. For Evensong. Sunday, 20 June: 1296 Norwich Surprise Minor: 1 Robert Child, 2 Hilary Child, 3 John Riley, 4 Flick Warwick, 5 David Warwick (C), 6 Harry Blamire. Rung for Choral Evensong on Fathers' Day. First quarter peal in the method for all the band. Tuesday, 22 June: 1260 Mixed Doubles (3m): 1 Kathy Bentley, 2 Alan Bentley (C), 3 David Coates, 4 Flick Warwick, 5 Harry Blamire, 6 Max Knight. First of Doubles on a working bell-3. Sunday, 27 June: 1296 Surprise Minor (2m): 1 Susan Riley, 2 John Riley, 3 Trish Hitchins, 4 Flick Warwick, 5 David Warwick (C), 6 Alan Bentley. Rung for Choral Evensong. Sunday, 4 July: 1272 London Surprise Minor: 1 Hilary Child, 2 Robert Child, 3 Kathy Bentley, 4 Flick Warwick, 5 David Warwick (C), 6 Harry Blamire. Rung to welcome the Dean of Salisbury Cathedral for the Friends of Wimborne Minster Choral Evensong. First in the method-2 & 3.

Pewsey Vale Bells Toll for UK Lives Lost from Covid-19

From Anne Wardell: At the request of the local clergy,

at 12 noon on Sunday 31st January 2021 each of the

Page 29

Towers and Branches

tenor bells at Milton Lilbourne, Pewsey and Upavon churches were tolled 100 times to honour the

100,000 people who had died of Covid-19 in the UK to date. We announced this very solemn commemoration in advance to local residents via the Pewsey, Milton Lilbourne and Upavon Facebook pages

in case people in the villages heard the bells–silent for so many months now–and wondered what was going on. Over 350 people responded to these Facebook announcements, and above is a selection of what they said. A final word from Revd Jennifer Totney: ―Thank you to the ringers for making this

happen. Let us pray for those who have died and those who mourn‖.

Lytchett Matravers is Buzzing! From Debbie Phipps: It was a ‗Trinity‘ of Bells to ce lebrate Easter at Lytch-ett Matravers.

We had a live service in the

church which was also sent out on a live feed. Not knowing originally what we would be able to ring on

Easter Day, first our Virtual Handbell group made a recording of ‗Jesus Christ is Risen Today‘. There were only three of us so we had several bells each but, as

we know, now this is quite possible in Ringing Room. Our vicar used this recording at the beginning of the service. Second, we are also back to being able to ring one tower bell, which Ann Manning rang for us. Thirdly, still in possession of the Branch handbells we were able to dash outside as people left the church

where four of us rang [pictured above left]. Following our ringing the whole congregation actually sang the last hymn ‗Thine be the Glory‘ outside. A very special Easter Day. Having missed our annual visit to

Brownsea Island in 2020 we were delighted to enjoy a day out with our ringing friends on 11 June 2021 [pictured below right]. We enjoyed a guided walk

from Cathy followed by our own picnics. The day was followed by ringing on five of the bells at Lytchett Minster. On 15th June we started to prepare the equipment for the cameras in the belfry which will be recording

one of our bells as it is being rung, and dis-

playing the image

on the new monitors within the body of the church. During June, the church is being rewired so when it is

open again we will be able to install the cameras and we hope that this will become a useful tool when training our ringers and to be of interest to the general public. And then there are our ‗Lockdown Learners‘. They have come on leaps and bounds on Ringing Room. They have also benefitted from Zoom training. We were delighted eventually to welcome

two of them into St Mary‘s to see the ‗real‘ bells and

have a go at chiming (Carol and Sue who also joined

us on our trip to Brownsea). Our third Lockdown

learner is Judy (my sister) from North Yorkshire and would you believe it that her planned visit, once we were allowed to travel, was the day the scaffolding went up. However, Lytchett Minster came to the rescue and they kindly let us visit for Judy to see the

bells and have a pull on a rope which she thoroughly enjoyed. [Pictured right] is Judy looking at the bells at Lytchett Minster and saying: ―So this massive bell is what moves when you press the

arrow key on the keyboard?‖ Judy has already rung tenor to her first Quarter Peal in Ringing Room.

Brief Update on the Marlborough

Branch

From Julie Miles: It has been a quiet few months here in the branch with limited Zoom catch ups and Ringing Room sessions due to ‗Zoom fatigue‘! The branch secretary (me!) has been a little quiet since May due to email issues and I'm sure the peace and

quiet has been appreciated by the Branch! Don't

www.salisbury.anglican.org/parishes/safeguarding/training

Also See

Page 31 For

A Full

Report

Page 30

Towers and Branches

worry though, I'm back! The monthly online theory sessions paused briefly whilst we re-assessed what

was possible as many excellent tutors have found it difficult to convert from their super training in a tower to the online format. As revisions to the theory sessions continue we will once again offer these out to the Guild. We are very much looking forward to Steve Coleman's theory session on the 3rd July on running a practice. Many of us watched Richard

'Bones' Metters live Facebook head shave to raise money for the LEBRF and commend him on such a brave move. It turns out his head is quite a nice

shape, no odd knobbly bits! [see page 7]. It is with sadness we report the passing of Bryan Castle HLM. Bryan was past chairman and secretary of the branch and very much involved with Marlborough

Town Council. Our thoughts are with his family and friends [see obituary on page 32]. In the May edition of the Great Bedwyn and Little Bedwyn Parish News: ―I would like to record appreciation for the Great Bedwyn bell ringers for their tolling of the bell prior to the minutes silence on Saturday 19 April. Their only

practice in over a year was the previous Saturday marking the passing of the Duke of Edinburgh. Well done the two ringers! Mike Younger‖.

A Few Bits and Bobs

(and an occasional Single!) From Robin Mears: Puddletown News: Easter Sunday April 4th 2021 for morning service: Rounds on 3 bells: Tom Woodland 1, Emma Hughes 3, Robin Mears 5. Birthday compliment to Tom. Saturday April 10th 2021: Robin Mears Rung tenor 99 times Half Muffled in memory of HRH Prince Philip Duke of Edinburgh. Saturday April 17th 2021: Robin Mears rang tenor for 20 minutes Half Muffled followed by 1 minute silence in Memory of HRH Prince Philip. Sunday April 18th 2021: Call Changes on 3 Bells: Tom Woodland 1, Emma Hughes (C) 3, Robin Mears 5. Rung open for Evensong in Memory of Prince Philip Duke of Edinburgh. From Peter Carnell: Bradpole Captain Stands Down: I have resigned from the Captaincy of Bradpole Bell tower, having held this post for most of the last 16 years. From Jim Platt: One Bell at Stratford sub Castle: We were ringing one bell from the restart of services in July until they were suspended after Christmas with a truncated rota of three of us. St Lawrence plans to have its first service since lockdown on Palm Sunday and Alison Clayton, our tower

captain will ring for that. I suggested to Alison that one way of getting people back into ringing would be to see if I can twist a few arms to ring the one bell for services. From Georgina Muir: Zeals Remembers: David Gatehouse tolled the bell at Zeals on the 23rd March at 12.01, the anniversary of the first lockdown in England, to remember all those who have lost their lives to COVID-19.

New Peal Board for North Bradley

From Chris Jenkins: At the beginning of June I was

able to pick up the completed peal board [pictured above right]. It was one of the last ones Maggie (the ‘sign writer‘) has made before her retirement. I gave her a retirement card on behalf of the SDGR. I am in touch with the incumbent at North Bradley and we are working towards getting it hung. It remembers

Fred Slatford and Laurence Hitchins.

Chilmark Bells Are Back

From Linda Jones: The following is what I contributed to the summer edition of The Village Voice, our parish magazine: The Bells I am very pleased to say that we

are now allowed to resume weekly bell-ringing practices: a sure sign of returning to some sense of normality, thank goodness. So, we had our first practice at St Margaret's on Thursday 17 June 2021

after a lapse of 15 months. It was so lovely to be able to create a full sound of all six bells again and to see

some ringers we had not seen for ages. Fortunately, we all remembered what to do with the ropes and had a very useful practice. Thanks are due to Anthony Lovell-Wood who carried out the necessary checks in the belfry before we could ring them again, and to ringers from East Knoyle and Fovant who helped to make up the numbers. Practices will continue every

Thursday in conjunction with the Tisbury band. The Editorial in the same edition said: How wonderful to hear the return of Thursday evening bell-ringing practice halfway through June...Long may that

continue...

Guild Festival Venue ‗Destroyed by

Fire‘ From Linda Drummond-Harris: Those of you who attended the Guild Festival hosted by the Calne Branch in 2018 will remember the Social Centre at Bromham. Sadly, it was destroyed on June 14th when an old birds' nest under the eaves caught fire during repairs to a flat roof. The flames rapidly spread to the

roof. Crews from Melksham, Devizes, Calne,

Trowbridge and Westbury did their best to contain the blaze with the assistance of water carriers from Pewsey and Royal Wootton Bassett, but were unable to save any of the structure. It is a great blow to the village but plans are already being discussed to replace it so hopefully, by the time it is the Calne

Branch's turn to host the festival again we should have an even better building for our venue.

East Dorset‘s New ‘Dynamic Duo‘ From Cathy Neyland: The East Dorset Branch Summer Quarterly Meeting was held this year via

Zoom on Saturday 3rd July 2021. We had planned to

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Towers and Branches

have ringing, a service, and a picnic, but alas Coronavirus

restrictions were still in force so this was cancelled. Only a select 11 attended the virtual meeting (the tennis was on!), and as most of the Officer Reports had been sent out beforehand, the meeting only lasted a record 35

minutes. Ben Duke, the Chairman, welcomed everyone especially Robert Wellen (Guild

Master) . Debb ie Phipps [pictured above left] and Sue Bateman [pictured below left] were elected as joint Training

Officers. No new members were elected to the Guild, but two probationary members from Lytchett Matravers were

ratified. First Quarter Peal certificates were awarded to Ann Manning and Alec Cannings from Lytchett

Matravers. The Officers‘ Reports were taken as read: the Treasurer (Max Knight) explained that the main expenditure was for

the Branch Website [see above right] and donations to LEBRF, Young Ring-

ers and Ringing Room. [The afore-mentioned Debbie, with friends, had also earlier in the year rung her first Quarter Peal of

Grandsire Doubles on Ringing Room, so very well

done to her on that as well].

All the Fun of the Fayre at Bradford

on Avon

From Chris Bush: The Guild Saxilby, Wombel and Banners

were taken to Bradford-on-Avon‘s Summer Fayre on Saturday 3 July. Unfortunately we couldn‘t allow visitors to have a go on the bell because of proximity concerns, but we did

bring down handbells from the tower which garnered some interested ‗customers‘. Hopefully there might be some interest generated and possibly some new/returning ringers.

Channel Islands Move? From Robert Wellen (Guild Master): In June, as we were already half way through the year, I thought I

would just check with the Salisbury (and Winchester)

Diocesan Registry about the Channel Islands move.

No news yet on a definite date for

the Islands to move from the Winchester diocese to the Salisbury diocese. It is still planned to happen in 2021. I will keep

checking over the next few months. Everything is in place to welcome the Channel Islands ringers to the SDGR when the date is announced.

Safeguarding in YOUR Tower

From Alan Butler (Guild Safeguarding Officer): During lockdowns in the Safeguarding world ‗in person‘ training ceased and online training slowly came to fill the void, and I am aware that a few ringers have taken the opportunity to keep their training levels up to date.

(Thanks for letting me know!). The result is that the three yearly renewal for all those who undertook C1 at Fordington in 2017, or Yetminster in 2018, came and went, with the result that your training is now out of date and needs renewal. This can be done online, via the diocesan Safeguarding link, as no face to face sessions are planned for the Guild in the immediate future. See: www.salisbury.anglican.org/parishes/safeguarding/training along with the CCCBR website‘s Safeguarding pages. If you do renew, or indeed take up Safeguarding

awareness anew, just drop me an email for our records. National Church/ Salisbury Diocesan Safeguarding policies as to what level of Safeguarding awareness, and DBS, is mandatory for Tower Captains and Ringers Teachers to hold have been defined more clearly. Tower Captains: should have undertaken Basic, Foundation and Leadership Safeguarding training (three levels, renewable at the highest level achieved every three years). They should also hold a current DBS. Ringing Teachers: Basic and Foundation Safeguarding Training (two levels, renewable at the highest level achieved every three years). They also should hold a current DBS. The application for DBS can be initiated through me, or the Diocese of Salisbury Safeguarding website. The costs are covered by the diocese. Currently this is renewable every five years but will be changing to 3 years in 2022. Lockdown gave me time to compare Safeguarding course attendees with Tower Captains in the Guild Handbook. I am very aware that we as a Guild have a long way to go to meet even 25% compliance with what I have outlined above. What better opportunity as we return to our towers and ringing to see that we are not only compliant with Safeguarding requirements: for the safety of the leaders of our ringing bands but also for that of others, so that we know how to spot the signs and dangers, before matters get out of hand and act appropriately.

Well Worth a

Visit: the East

Dorset Branch

Website

https://

www.eastdorsetbranchbellringers.org/blog/

looking-back-at-spring-2021

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Obituaries

I heard a voice from heaven, saying unto me, Write, from henceforth blessed are the dead which die in the Lord: even so saith the Spirit; for they rest from their labours. (From

the service for the Burial of the Dead in the Book of Common Prayer).

Eddy Fry (HLM)

Reproduced from The Dorset Echo, Reporter, Bradley White: Eddy Fry passed away on Sat-urday, 20 March 2021 at the age of 87. Alongside his work with the Duchy of Cornwall to create Poundbury, Eddy was heavily i n vo l v ed i n t h e community-becoming president of Bridport Rotary Club in 1991. He was best known for his work with CG Fry and

Son Ltd, the building company founded by his father, Charles. Born in Litton Cheney and schooled in Bridport, Eddie completed an apprenticeship in bricklaying with a Dorchester building company in his youth. After completing his compulsory national service he then came back to join his father‘s building and undertaking firm. In 1959 they built their first house together at Litton Cheney, constructed for a chemist from Weymouth. In the same year, Eddy married his wife Sheila, who he had been introduced to by his sister Ruth. As the company grew, Eddy became increasingly involved in the running of the business, overseeing refurbishment work of many large houses in west Dorset, new buildings, and general repairs, eventually taking over the running of the company from his father in the late 1960s. Alongside his son, Philip, Eddy expanded the company in 1991 with award-winning developments in Abbotsbury and Broadwindsor. In 1992 CG Fry and Son began working with the Duchy of Cornwall, overseen by Prince Charles, for the first phase of the Poundbury development, designed to be an extension of Dorchester. The firm has since been responsible for building more than 1,000 new homes, offices and shops at Poundbury, which is

currently home to approximately 3,800 people. Eddy officially retired from the company once he reached his late 60s, but he never truly hung up his hard hat, always being on hand to provide guidance and advice. Eddy's son, Philip, said: ―My father was one of West Dorset‘s characters, he had a wonderful career and achieved a huge amount and has left a fantastic legacy. As well as being a great a family man, was also heavily involved with the community. He had many great friends and had a lot of fun supporting their charitable causes. He was a true west Dorset gentleman with great character and determination and was always willing to help and support people throughout his life. He will be fondly remembered by family, friends and colleagues‖. Eddy had a great love of bell ringing and was captain of the bell tower at St Mary‘s Church in Litton Cheney-as his was father before him. He had a long-time love of all sport, especially football, following Southampton and Yeovil Town in his later years. [Full report: https://www.dorsetecho.co.uk/news/19184926.eddy-fry-known-collaborating-prince-wales-poundbury-development-passes-away-aged-87/]. From Julian Piper: most of Eddy‘s ringing was at Litton and it was only in latter years that he moved back to Burton Bradstock (the first in the family since the 16th century!). And from Wendy Firrell: Eddy had a great love of bell ringing and was Tower Captain at Litton Cheney, following on from his father. In 2010 he and his wife moved

to Burton Bradstock where he continued to ring well into his 80s, despite being unable to lift his arms very far, having damaged both his shoulders after falling off a stool trying to put up curtains, and also falling down a

manhole on one of his many building sites. He encouraged alcohol to be consumed in the bell chamber at Christmas, New Year‘s Eve and at weddings–he installed drinks cabinets in the ringing chamber both at Litton Cheney and at Burton Bradstock, hand made in the C.G. Fry joinery shop. Over the years he taught many people to ring. A legend in the tower!

Bryan Derek Castle (HLM) (19th September 1937–13th June, 2021)

From Dorothy Blythe: Bryan was born in Yeovil and grew up in Torquay and first learned to ring there. He was one of the last school leavers to be called up for

National Service and served in Kenya. After leaving he studied meteorology and set out on a career path to be a weatherman. He told many stories about his time on weather ships tracking storms in the Atlantic. He bought a TR4 sports car and within a year had a crash which he was lucky to walk away from. Then in 1967 he met Hilary who was to become his wife. By now he was working on

dry land and was posted to Germany. On returning home he lived in Northleach and Stow on the Wold. Daniel was born in 1970 and Jo in 1974 and around this time he was posted to the Army Base at Larkhill to provide weather data for the Army‘s live fire exercises. This was when he discovered Marlborough and fell in love with the little cottage called Coldharbour. He threw himself into new interests, bellringing and canals. He was a ―larger than life‖ personality and had an immediate impact on those who met him. He was a Town Councillor and a Mayor of Marlborough. He supported among other things, The Rose of Hungerford, The Bruce Trust, Marlborough Link, Marlborough Brant Group, and Mencap. In 1985 he was posted to Bracknell and commuted each day so that his sons could stay at St John‘s School. After Hilary‘s death he moved to Town Mill, he never wanted to be alone and met three remarkable women, Thelma Feather who died in 2006, Gwyneth Bullock who died in 2012, and spent his last years with Hilary Corbett. We came to know all three as they always came to our Branch Meetings helping with teas, and joined our Branch Outings. When Bryan came to Marlborough in 1974 he joined St Mary‘s ringers at once. I think he had just been waiting to take up ringing. He has always been a very loyal member of church and tower and was for many years on the PCC. He is listed as Marlborough Branch Secretary from 1976 to 1982, his greatest contribution was visiting all the towers to meet the ringers, and getting everyone to support LEBRF. His really interesting Branch Secretary‘s Reports were noticeable because over the years they got longer and longer and he was deeply honoured to be made an HLM of the Guild. He could be counted on to ring regularly at St Mary‘s. He was Tower Correspondent for a time and once elected as Tower

Eddy on the Poundbury site in 1994. Picture: Philip Fry (from

The Dorset Echo).

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Obituaries

Chairman remained in the post until 2019/20 and because of Covid has not yet been replaced in this role. While Branch Secretary he organised a very successful Guild Festival in Marlborough Branch in 1981 and I thought it would be interesting to read this item from the Hon. Guild Secretary‘s Report (Judith Robertson): ―The whole day of

the Annual Festival in Marlborough on 9th May 1981 was ably organised by Bryan Castle‖. Dorothy wrote the following to the family before the funeral which was on 28 June: In normal times there would be quite a few bell ringers who would come to Bryan's funeral. I have had messages from many in the Salisbury Guild who will watch the live streaming. This morning we rang in memory of Bryan, he was a dedicated ringer at St Mary's until he had to stop for health reasons. Tomorrow David Chandler will toll a bell before the funeral and we will both be at the service. Thinking of you all at this sad time.

Brief Tributes From Kim Matthews: Dorothy Cherrett (ALM) (Bournemouth (St John)) died in March 2019. She had been unwell for several years, so hadn't been seen in the belfry for a while. Her son Colin is a ringer with us occasionally, but lives in London. From Pat Davidson and Neil Skelton: Alana Poulton (Great Wishford) died on 1st October 2020. She was a member up until fairly recently (Alana is listed as a member in both 2016 and 2017 Reports) when ill health forced her to retire. Hugh Smith (South Newton (Correspondent)) died on 27th December 2020. At a Salisbury Branch meeting held at Shrewton on 7th July 1944, ―The ringers of South Newton were elected as members‖. The names of George Smith (father) and his two sons Eustace and Hugh first appear in the Annual Report for 1943-44. Hugh is listed in 1945 and 1946 as being in His Majesty‘s Forces, however, in 1949–1950 only the names of George and Eustace appear and from 1951-1967 just George, but as an unattached member. George died in about 1968 and Eustace within the last few years. From Christopher Sykes and Bob Crighton: David Laker (Donhead St Andrew) died on 10 June, aged 83. There is no

record of him being elected a Guild member. He was at Donhead St Andrew for several years and taught some people to ring. He used to be a method ringer, but had to give up ringing due to arthritis in his hands/ wrist. He did ring occasionally at Donhead St Mary for short spells, such as for a wedding, but it was painful for him. He had a neat ringing style. He rang with us in the period probably between 1995 and the early 2000s, when he moved away. His funeral was at Fontmell Magna on 1 July 2021. He had specifically requested that he be brought into Church to the sound of Stedman, which luckily the band remembered!

Consider Each Other (As Well as Our Bells and the Bats!)

From David Close (Guild Health and Safety Officer): As most of the mandatory restrictions placed upon us at the start of the pandemic are now relaxed, it rests upon us all to take responsibility for our individual safety from Covid-19. No doubt there are wildly differing opinions as to how this should be interpreted, especially the return to ringing in many of our towers, and physically meeting with ringers. The need/ desirability for wearing a face covering whenever indoors is an issue that will remain throughout society for some time yet, but whatever ones individual opinion, we should all respect the choice of others. All bell installations need to be checked over before the bells are rung and the Central Council have prepared very descriptive guidance as to what should be looked for. No

doubt many church towers have been inhabited by all sorts of insects, birds and bats since the bells were last rung. To anybody undertaking an inspection, and it should not be alone, I would strongly suggest the wearing appropriate protective equipment, including disposable coverall, and face mask, if possible a ‗proper‘ FFP3 mask that filters out air being inhaled, not just a ‗simple‘ face covering. Be extremely wary of the possibility of bats, mindful that unless authorised with a Protected Species Licence from Natural England, no one should physically touch any bat, be it alive or dead. Please act safely and responsibly during this return to ringing.

https://cccbr.org.uk/coronavirus/

Page 34

‗The Back Page‘

Face to Face is the acknowledged Newsletter of the Salisbury Diocesan Guild of Ringers First published in 1975, the publication is now produced three times a year and circulated free to all affiliated

towers throughout the Guild, as well as going to various other bodies. On the Guild website: https://sdgr.org.uk/face-to-face/

Compiled and edited by Robert Wellen Tel: 01747 825131 E-mail: f2f@sdgr.org.uk Guild Hon Gen Sec: Vicki Rowse Tel: 01722 714877 E-mail: guild.secretary@sdgr.org.uk

Webmaster: Ian Mozley E-mail: webmaster@sdgr.org.uk Guild website: https://sdgr.org.uk/ Printed by https://www.helloprint.co.uk/

No copyright infringement is intended with the use of any text, images or graphics used in this publication.

Central Council Updates on our

own Guild website:

https://sdgr.org.uk/central-council-updates/

Covid and

Ringing—Your Questions NOT

Answered!

A press conference with the mythical and

non-existent Chief Medical Officer of the Guild. The following is advice

and guidance that SHOULD NOT BE FOLLOWED.

Next slide please...

Q. Can I carry on with social distancing from the rest of my band when restrictions are lifted?

A. Yes, or buy them each a deodorant.

Q. How many dodges do I have to do with someone before we have to form a bubble?

A. There is no set number, but for the present avoid touches of Norwich or in future methods like

Lincolnshire, Superlative or touches of Stedman.

Q. We are not going to be caught out again, so we are having our bells re-hung 2 metres apart,

although this will mean the tenor being rung from

outside. What do you think? A. Well, it will give a new meaning to an inside bell.

Q. There is a strong smell of ‗Musk‘ aftershave every time I go into the tower. The captain says its

the perfume test, but I‘m not sure? A. Sounds like a safeguarding issue.

Q. We are a family bubble of six bell ringers each of whom can ring double handed. Can we ring

Maximus? A. I don‘t know, can you?

Q. Our Steeple keeper has a novel suggestion for increased ventilation in the tower—loosen the

clappers. Would you recommend this?

A. Sounds like a health and safely issue.

Q. How long do I have to self-isolate after ringing with ringers from a red list Guild? A. At least 5040 consecutive days.

Q. My captain has told us the Rule of Six means ringing Minor as it is not the ‗Rule of Doubles with a

cover‘. Is that right? A. Don‘t ask me, I only ring on higher ringing

numbers (referred to as the ‗R‘ number).

Q. What‘s the difference between Long Covid and

Long Fifths? A. You can recover from Long Covid.

Calne Branch Meeting: ‗Let us go to

the House of the Lord’

From Jane Ridgwell:

Our planned meet-ing on Saturday 10 July 2021 at Yates-bury went ahead within the current restrictions. It was

such a joy, really

quite emotional, to get together again and to hear real

bells in place of electronic ones! We met at 3.30 and spent an hour ringing and socialising, then we had a short service in church, led by Revd Matt Earwicker,

followed by a picnic tea and another short burst of ringing. During the service we said Psalm 122 and were struck by the special poignancy of the words: ―I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go to the house of the Lord‖, after so many months away. Most of us had done a small amount of ringing for Sunday services, but this was a first visit to another church

for most. Yatesbury has five well behaved bells and they were just perfect for simple ringing–call changes, Grandsire Doubles and Stedman. It is a ground floor ring with a big door into the ringing room, so ventilation was not a problem. We had 20 members in attendance, including our Guild Master,

Robert Wellen, who was able to tell us that this was the first branch event, with members meeting in person in the whole Guild that he was aware of since March 2020. Three members even cycled to Yatesbury from Swindon! Valerie Goddard, the only local member was able to join us, she celebrates 75 years of SDGR membership this year as she was

made a member in 1946 at the first Guild meeting after the Second World War. It was a fine afternoon so we were able to spend most of the time outside in the del ight ful churchyard, surrounded by birdsong. A

particular joy was singing the familiar hymn Ring the bells and tell the story, outside in the churchyard. We look forward to more events in the remainder of

2021 and hope for a full programme in 2022.