A Fun Web Site for the Bellringers in North West Suffolk

15 April

Thu, 15 Apr 2010 22:01:00 +0000

Total QPs so far .... 19!! A cheeky quarter was slipped in at Rougham tonight where 6 turned up for practice, so, might as well ring a quarter!! Plain Bob Royal was scored at Bury, perhaps not the most sparkling quarter but a very good effort for a band with only a few experienced 10-bell ringers in it, and Alex conducting his first on 10 as well. And at Buxhall, another quarter in the bag.

14 April

Wed, 14 Apr 2010 20:12:00 +0000

Exhausted! A great day out today in the farthest reaches of our District - the Mildenhall Deanery. It was all looking lovely too in the spring sunshine. We rang our first quarter at Eriswell and were just coming into rounds when the band meant to be ringing at Lakenheath gatecrashed for a grab - sadly their quarter was scuppered by a funeral taking place at the Methodist Church there. It was on to the pub which was agreed to to be excellent - The Plough at Icklingham - where we re jigged the rest of the day to allow everyone to ring. Steve Munford was summoned early from Bury, the Brandon band was dispatched promptly but despite our best efforts we could not get into Lakenheath. However after taking their dog for a VERY long walk, Chris & Briony got to ring a good quarter at Mildenhall. The worst bit of the day was the tortuous journey from Lakenheath back to Bardwell for the final quarter. There we rang some PB Triples conducted by Alex, and sometimes Louis but mostly Alex ha ha!! Alison from Buxhall did really well with three quarters bagged today and it was also very nice to have Steve out ringing with us and managing a very good quarter at Brandon. Well done everybody, just a few days more to go.....

13 April

Tue, 13 Apr 2010 10:07:00 +0000

Quarter Peal Week is off to a flying start, with plenty of input from our younger ringers which is great!:D All the successes are wonderful but don't tell the whole story. Several other quarters have been attempted but sadly lost - one at Stowmarket and one at Elveden last night lost just minutes from the end! All these represent every bit as much effort and commitment from ringers and conductors as the successful ones. Tomorrow we have a day out in the Mildenhall Deanery but we have had to re-arrange the qp scheduled at Thetford because the Town Council which owns the building has found asbestos there. There's a page on this website about the QP Week and also one on the Guild website too so keep up with what's happening and who's ringing what and where!! And if you can, keep plugging the H4H sponsorship!

11 April

Sun, 11 Apr 2010 16:43:00 +0000

I think it would be fair to say that today our District is basking in the aftermath of a highly successful day yesterday when we hosted the 2010 Guild AGM at Ixworth. It was a great effort by so many people - top teamwork! - but I must pay tribute to the Dream Team of Maurice and Anita - even though they won't be reading this - who really worked hard so modestly and 'behind the scenes'. Well done NW!!!

Ringing wise we are just about to start a busy week with hopefully lots of quarter peals around the District. I am sorry I may not have been so well organised as in previous years but I hope this will not mean that we don't have a really successful and enjoyable week. It's only Sunday afternoon, and already we have notched up 5 - possibly 6 if the guest band from the NE won't mind us counting the lovely quarter of Stedman rung at Bardwell yesterday....

So far we must congratulate Sally Veal of Great Barton who rang in a quarter at Gt Barton, conducted by Alex. I'm not sure if this was a first for her but I do know that she has only been back ringing for a year or so after a gap of quite a few years, so well done Sally. It's nice too that some towers which aren't often rung have had their bells sounding out - Stowlangtoft and Badwell Ash today and tomorrow Ampton.

And this year we are also trying to raise money for Help For Heroes and have tried to get parishes where quarters are being rung to raise some money for this important charity. There have been some donations on the Just Giving page - see fundraiser page on this site for details - and in addition we have raised £85 at Bardwell and the same amount for the quarter at Euston which was rung by the usual Sunday service band before service this morning. I know money has been raised at Rougham and that the Buxhall and Finborough bands have also been raising money too. Even if people don't give any money, but just stop and think just for a minute then we will have done a good job.

I do hope all parts of our District will be represented in this effort and please do use this website to tell us what you are doing - or just email or call. I would like to send a complete report up to the Ringing World at the end of the week so please send everything to me, including RW donations if you have collected them.

Have a great week!!

22 February

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 08:53:00 +0000

What a fantastic week for our District! Well done EVERYONE, not just the peal ringers but all of you who have taken part in the many quarter peals and also those others of you who regularly attend practices with commitment to make sure that as many people as possible get the chance to progress.

I'm incredibly proud of the achievements of the week and it's also very heartening that everyone has entered into the spirit of Peal Week and supported our Guild and its excellent Ringing Master, Richy.

It was great to see Claire Monk yesterday at a quarter at Walsham where Richard george rang his first inside. Claire's got a new job managing a micro brewery in Nottingham I think (not sure), so I'm thinking a ringing trip round there including a brewery visit might be interesting???!!! Well done on the job Claire.

And at Hopton good progress is being made with the dismantling well underway ready for the bell hangers arriving on March 9. Can anyone help with transporting the bells up to Nottingham? Please get in touch with Steve or Ruth if you have any bright ideas.

It would be nice to get a few more members on this site. It only takes a minute to sign up. I'm sure more than 15 people read this!! I hope so anyway!!

17 February

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 10:37:00 +0000

Last time I congratulated Alison Evans on her first quarter - now I am congratulating her on her first peal! She has been learning to ring at Buxhall and has made fantastic progress. She rang the treble to a peal of doubles conducted by Lesley, with a band made up of NW district members, most of whom are not regular peal ringers. It was a first inside for Carl Wilby, another new member who regularly rings with us at Bardwell on Sundays, and first for the Suffolk Guild for Dr Abby!! Massive well done to everyone.

And while we are on this theme, it's another massive 'well done' to Alex who rang inside to a 6 method peal at Great Barton on Monday, and again, with an all NW District band. I am feeling very proud of our members who have great enthusiasm and willingness to take part.

It was lovely to ring as usual at Redgrave on Sunday for Albert's 95th birthday. A photo was taken of the band with Albert, and hopefully it will soon be on these pages (hint hint).

We had a good District practice at Bardwell on Saturday using the simulator to ring lots of plain bob - from doubles to major - so hopefully something for everyone. Don't forget we are repeating this practice next month (13th) at Bacton (so doubles/minor only) but please note the start time of 3pm.

2 February

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 22:02:00 +0000

Another good practice at Ixworth and great to have Sue, Steve and Barry along. There was a bit of talk about the forthcoming Dedication service on Sunday April 18th at 3pm. I know it's only a week after the Guild AGM which will also be held at Ixworth (on 10 April), but that's just the way things have worked out, and I hope it won't put anyone off coming to Ixworth two weeks running! We'd love lots of people to be there and feel it's a small way of saying thank you to the many people who have helped so much over the past few years.

I am hoping I will soon be hearing from people about quarters being organised for QP Week! Coming up sooner is Guild Peal Week and good luck to everyone taking part. If you'd like to have a go, or help out in any way, it's not too late to contact Richy who I know would be glad to hear from you.

I'm thrilled to see Alison Evans has now rung her first qp inside and Kate Herd has done her first quarter of triples - well done to both of you!

Work is till underway at Bardwell but I am hoping that soon we can start to get into a habit of regular practices on Wednesdays - not every Wednesday, but hopefully at least once a fortnight. Watch this space for more details. It's so boring having to wait for new ropes when we were promised them ages ago. Anyway, it's just as well we haven't got them as they would be smothered in lime plaster and wash by now most probably.....

26 January

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 22:52:00 +0000

A good practice at Ixworth tonight. I think after a year with 8 bells we are finally getting used to them!! Although we don't have a strong band or indeed that many ringers, it is rare for us not to ring on the 8. It would be lovely for more of our district ringers to come and visit from time to time...we could really do with a few extras! It's a friendly practice and there's always a box of chocs on the go.

Our next District practice is Plain Bob Doubles at Bardwell using the simulator - please come and make the most of this opportunity!! (with tea and cake!)

Well done to Clive Dunbavin for conducting a peal of Lincolnshire Surprise Royal at the Norman Tower on Jan 16th. Let's hope there will be lots more in the coming year.

The Hopton project will be starting in earnest in the next few weeks. Please please support the team there if you possibly can. If you have a little bit of time to spare they would love to hear from you. If lots of people do a little bit then a few don't have to do a lot!

Happy New Year

Tue, 12 Jan 2010 14:08:00 +0000

oh dear I haven't blogged for a while. Anyway despite the weather things have got off to a good start in our District, with the young uns enthusiastically ringing quarters when the rest of us are too wimpish to drive out in the ice and snow. No doubt they will put in an excellent performance at the Striking Competition at Pakenham in June!

Thanks to everyone who came to our meeting on Saturday. There was some nice ringing on the lovely cathedral bells. If you enjoyed it why not visit their practice one night? (Tuesdays 7.30 - 9pm). We produced our programme for the coming year which I think is on this website. Hopefully there's something for you but if you need any extra help or have any suggestions why not send me an email? The next event is a Plain Bob practice at Bardwell where I will introduce you to the joys of our simulator. there will be cups of tea and delicious cakes so put that in your diary! And helpers too please!

We welcomed the midweek ringers to Bardwell this morning and they seemed to be favourably impressed and certainly made a good job of everything they rang. It's a friendly and informal group who meet every month to visit different parts of Suffolk, and ringers of all levels are made very welcome. Their events are always on the What's On.

Well it looks like the snow is thawing so no excuses to get out and about and keep our various practices going. We all need each other! Happy New Year Everyone!!

29 November

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 22:18:00 +0000

A very busy few weeks lately, particularly the last few days what with my very own l'il chap's big birthday on the 26th...well done Louis, not just on all your own personal ringing achievements but for being so encouraging to the rest of us. I am sure our collective progress as a district has a lot to do with having you around. OK, enough of that. Well done to Alex who is continuing to go from strength to strength, conducting a quarter of mixed doubles this afternoon at Gt Barton. We had a nice quarter of PB Major at Ixworth this afternoon with visitors Ann & David Webb from Loddon taking part. I was pleased to have them ring with us as they were very helpful to me way back when I first made my application to the Heritage Lottery Fund. I had a go at conducting this one - successfully I might add! - despite hyperventilating to a worrying degree beforehand. A nice peal was rung at Walsham yesterday afternoon to mark the retirement of the vicar there - well done, especially to those stalwarts who had also rung in the peal at Bury in the morning!! (Some of them did look a bit worse for wear when they descended the tower steps!!) It is nice to see Lesley's new ringers Kate and Alison doing well too, with quarters being rung this weekend at Buxhall and Finborough. And over at Wickham Skeith the band of improvers are making good progress with new methods and touches of the old favourites - well done all.:D

15 November

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 19:20:00 +0000

I've got a feeling this may be a long one as I havent written anything for ages. We had a brilliant trip out to Essex yesterday - our annual District Outing. The weather was foul but it didn't stop us enjoying the lovely bells at Toppesfield, Wethersfield, Finchingfield, Steeple Bumpstead and Helions Bumpstead. We all had a good laugh when we realised the chap who unlocked for us at SB was one of the judges from our Guild Striking Competition!! Mandy has to be congratulated on her excellent choice of towers and impeccable organisation - as usual. The pub at lunchtime - the Red Lion in Steeple Bumpstead was excellent too. It was a small crowd but we rang well together - everything from rounds and call changes to Yorkshire and Cambridge. Looking forward to next year already..... where are we going I wonder? Any suggestions???

It's been a busy few weeks ringing wise in the District with Remembrance Day seeing all the old muffles besing dusted down - and in the case of Ixworth, the new ones (made by Big Wilf) being given their first outing - successfully.

Well done to Alex again - this time for a first of Oxford TB at Great Barton, and to Carl Munford for whom that was a first as well and to Becky for getting her new job!!

All the Remembrance Day ringing has made me think it would be nice to continue to let our communities know that we ring to honour and remember the brave people of our Armed Forces. Therefore I have proposed that we try and get the quarter peals rung for our QP WEEK next year (11 - 18 April ) sponsored by parishes in aid of the Help For Heroes charity. There'll be more details about this on the website coming soon and we will be able to give final details at the Quarterly Meeting on 9 January at the Norman Tower.

This morning at Bardwell we had TEN PEOPLE!!! All locals apart from Cynth Howell, who was visiting Jill Morgan, but even so, it was a good turn out!!

1 November

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 20:17:00 +0000

Unfortuantely the peal of Bristol didn't go ahead because a member of the band was taken ill, so good luck for next time - hopefully it will be soon!

It's been a busy weekend of ringing. Special congratulations to Alex Tatlow on conducting his first quarter peal today - Grandsire Doubles at Great Barton. We rang a good quarter of Grandsire Triples at Ixworth on Saturday evening, and this morning I found myself ringing the much-maligned Shipping Forecast Singles for service at Euston! It just goes to show how handy it is to have these methods up your sleeve just in case it's a low turn out!! It was good fun I must admit though I don't think I would want to ring a quarter peal of it! i'm amazed they didn't lose count of how many times they's been round!!!

28 October

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 22:33:00 +0000

It's a big day tomorrow for Gordon and Janet - a peal of Bristol atthe Folly! Good luck, I know you can do it. With it being half term Louis took the opportunity yesterday to do something he'd been wanting to do for a ages - a 3 bell quarter! WHY?? Anyway he enjoyed it , along with Alex and Tom, so well done guys. We had a go at Stedman at Bardwell afterwards but failed, although it was deemed by all to be good practice.

12 October

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 21:01:00 +0000

It's been a busy weekend with the our Annual meeting on saturday - see Mandy's report. We went for a peal at pakenham in the morning to mark the retirement of the vicar Revd Ian Hooper but sadly it went a bit awry so we ended up ringing a nice brisk quarter of Annable's London and Norwich instead. Talking of peals, the Folly has been busy recently with lots of peals - one of Yorkshire rung on Friday.

I must thank everyone who contributed to the event at Ixworth in the afternoon and evening - lots of people got involved and it was great to see you all. Especially nice to see Richard and Peter from wattisfield, and I will reiterate what I said at the meeting - it's lovely that our new enthusiasts in the north east corner of the district are so wiling to get out and about and ring at lots of different towers. An example to us all....

On Sunday Alex Tatlow rang his first qp inside - Grandsire and Plain Bob, well done Alex. Logistics were rather complicated that day so I apologise to my fellow ringers for a no-show at the Norman Tower in the afternoon. There was a slight communication problem! Anyway sorry about that and well done anyway on ringing a quarter of Plain Bob Major.

On Wednesday this week the funeral will be held of Lord Euston, son of the Duke of Grafton, at Euston Church when the bells will be rung half muffled.

4 October

Sun, 04 Oct 2009 21:43:00 +0000

I keep adding comments but my blog never seems to get updated! Is it my computer? i have had a really brilliant evening at the Dedication of our bells at Bardwell. Thanks to everyone who came and supported tonight,:D or who supported us along the way. I cannot believe how much help I have had from all the lovely ringers in our Guild. Thank you everyone!!!!

23 September

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 20:35:00 +0000

I've been down the Norman Tower a couple of times while the Ixworth tower steps were being repaired. it's nice to see everyone there again and especially nice going to the pub afterwards.

After the summer lull, ringing is getting going again and it's good to see all the quarters being rung and also to hear about all the different practcies going on in different parts of the district. I hear that Rickinghall practice is going from strength to strength. Please think about going along there one Saturday morning to help out if you can. You can contact Chris and Briony Davies through me if you want to know more. It's Harvest festival season so plenty of ringing is going on for those services. Albert Driver rang for his 81st Harvest festival at Redgrave on Sunday!!! It was also really good to ring for the North Lopham service on Sunday evening. The brilliant thing about ringing there is how much the ringers are appreciated. By the way they are badly in need of ropes so if anyone's got some semi decent ropes hanging around going spare why not think about giving them to N Lopham?

6 September

Sun, 06 Sep 2009 21:53:00 +0000

It seems like we haven't done much ringing in August. I did post some blogs but they didn't make it onto the website for some reason. Everything'sbeen pretty quiet round here this summer. Even Dr Abby seems to have had the summer off solving people's problems. We had a good practice at Elveden last week and there also seems to have been quite a few weddings this year which have kept everyone busy. I'd be interested to know the going rate for weddings in our district. Because of the restoration at Ixworth, we put our fee up to £12 for 'after' and £15 for 'before and after'. Comments.....?

We tried running some afternoon ringing for our younger members during the summer holidays which was moderately successful. We really need someone who's prepared to take that on and organise some events to keep our younger members interested.

Talking of events, I hope you'll all come to the ADM at Ixworth on October 10th. Everyone is welcome, ringers and non ringers alike.

Some new members at Wattisfield have been busy keeping the bells in good order there. Thank you and well done to them. it's not easy when there is no band and no regular ringing.

17 August

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 21:36:00 +0000

We rang 8 for the Sunday service at Bardwell this Sunday! It was great - 8 local ringers!! Thanks to Alistair, Danny, Edith, Louis, Jan, Nick and David!!

Ringing in the summer holidays seems to tail off a bit but I hope we will all get back into the swing of things in September with our usual practice at Elveden on the 1st wednesday of september (2nd I think).

August 9

Sun, 09 Aug 2009 16:06:00 +0000

Having been away for a week it was back to full on ringing with a wedding at Bardwell on Friday, a peal at Rougham on Saturday and a visit to Bardwell by SPAB (Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings) this afternoon to see our old bellframe.

The peal at Rougham will be remembered for an uncontrollable attack of hysteria after Maurice very kindly enquired after Janet's cat. It came under control for most of the peal I'm glad to say, though I had a slight wobble in the Cambridge section when my mind wandered in the wrong direction.

I'm thrilled to hear that Philippa Weyers of the Norman Tower has exerted her steely determination yet again to ring her first quarter. Well done Philippa!! And I see that Pete Davidson of Wickham Skeith has rung his first quarter of Minor, well done Pete.

2 August

Sun, 02 Aug 2009 17:54:00 +0000

We had a chance to give the new bells at Bardwell an airing this afternoon, with a visit to Suffolk by Mark Regan and his family. I still feel it's all so unfinished with so many things left to do, 'make do' ropes and the simulator still to set up - not to mention a bit of apprehension as the bells rang out in a village where they have not really been heard for decades, so I was a bit nervous to start off with, but it was a great afternoon, finished off with delicious choc cake from Dr Abby. She's an all-rounder!