A Fun Web Site for the Bellringers in North West Suffolk

During this week a group of 26 ringers from the North West District and Beyond are having a ringing holiday in the Bath and Wells area of Somerset. We are ringing in the mornings at pre arranged churches and on some evenings joining with the local practice nights. A brief summary of each day will be uploaded everyday so watch this page!

SATURDAY 18TH JULY

Some of us have travelled down today and for Craig and I the day started at 4.30am. We wanted to visit Longleat today as we knew we needed more than an afternoon to visit.We arrived at the gates at 9.45am having had a good journey down leaving Bury St Edmunds at 5.15am with a stop at Newbury for coffee and Boscombe down to empty the coffee!

We opted to do the drive around the Safari and we were joined for a snack by some rather friendly deer........ 

We decided that this young man would not be quite so willing to share the feast though......... 

After such an early start a nice relaxing soak in the free on site hot spa was the order of the day.

Sunday 19th July

An early start to the day ringing at Midsomer Norton 8.45am start. A lovely 12 bell tower but sadly no ringers to ring them all. Eight is the maximum they tend to ring these days and then only rounds and call changes for the majority of the time. Moving on to Chilcompton for 9.45am was a little more interesting, ringing Cambridge major and Stedman for service ringing.

A return to Chilcompton in the afternoon saw 12 of the group meet up to ring at Matthew Higby's mini ring. Plain hunt on the ten proved to be a little elusive for some but we managed a credible course of Plain Bob Major and Grandsire Triples.

                                            Chilcompton

The weather could be better , a very mixed bag of sunshine and showers and blustery wind was all we got today but I have put a good word in for tomorrow so we will see what happens!

Monday 20th July

The day started with some tenative ringing at first as the group got used to ringing with each other again, but the newly restored 8 at Shepton Mallet were lovely bells that needed little effort from the more experienced of us to produce a lovely musical introit to the day. Moving on to Pilton another good eight were made even easier as we started to gel as a ringing team. Evercreech proved to be a little cosy in the ringing room but the ten ran round nicely.

In the afternoon some of the group took up an invitation to ring at Marston Bigot, mini ring  but a more leisurely time was spent by four of us at Lytes Cary Manor a NT Manor house dating back to the 14th Century once the home of the herbalist Henry Lyte.

A few of the group returned to Chilcompton to share in the practice night ringing. The local ringing standard here is very high and the Standard 8 are usually rung for most Sunday Services so it is no surprise that we felt obliged to have a go at Yorkshire and Cambridge Major. Some brave souls attempted Grandsire Cinques.

Tuesday 21st July

A day that started wet and miserable weatherwise and it continued to be wet with a few breaks in the cloud, but this did not detract from the enjoyment of ringing at three lovely towers in the city of Bath. Even though the early start was a bit hard for some, the effort was well worth it to ring the beautiful anticlockwise ten at Bath Abbey. We were able to go out on the transcept roof and get some pictures of the Roman baths and other landmarks. We had to finish by 10am so that the tower tours could start. These apparently are a valuable source of income for the Abbey.

With two more of our group joining us, and the loan of Cynthia Howe, the fact that it was raining mattered not. The standard of the ringing was very good at all three. The Abbey was followed by the 10 at Bathwick and an eight at Bath St Michaels. I can thoroughly reccommend the cafe there both for the coffee and the price!!!

The day was rounded off by some sunshine breaking through at last and  a good hour ringing at one of Somerset's finest peals of 8 at Chewton Mendip. Fantastic!

Wednesday 22nd July

Fortunately by the time people had arrived in Wells to start ringing at 9am, the cloudiness had disappeared from the sky and we were in for a lovely sunny day surpassed only by some of the ringing. Wells St Cuthbert's were a difficult 8 and everyone did very well to ring as well as they did, including young William Regan who had joined us for the day along with his Dad (Mark). Thanks to some additional help given by Chris Pickford and Stephen Bedford we were able to ring at Wells Cathedral without disgracing ourselves. The tenor proved a little tricky to set even by the most experienced but I was told later by one of the stewards of Bishops Palace that the ringing at the Cathedral sounded very nice. Ringing for the day finished at Croscombe where the bells were very loud both in and out but one of the local ringers who was out walking his dog said that we were ringing very well, so I dont think the locals in either Wells or Croscombe had real cause for complaint.

In our free afternoon, many of us stayed in Wells and went to find the famous swans at the Bishops Palace who reputedly ring the bell at the gatehouse when they are hungry. I was told though that the current swans had to be trained to ring the bell because the original ones died without passing their tricks on. So now when the swans are fed, someone rings the bell so that the swans know what they must do to get more!

Craig decided though that he would take pity on the pigeons and feed them with the remains of his ice cream cone. He is now known as pigeon man of Wells!

Thursday 23rd July

The day started with a lovely ring at Ditcheat. There is a good humoured debate between various ringing experts as to which is best between this and Chewton Mendip and I have to say that I personally prefer the latter simply for the lovely deep sonorous tone of the tenor but for handling Ditcheat were easier.

From there we went to Castle Cary an augmented Taylor 8 which had two bells added in 1929. The two that sat above the main frame were a little awkard but there was some cracking Double Norwich rung by our resident experts. Even the local ringer was impressed.

The last tower of the morning was Bruton and this was a lovely but challenging 25cwt 6, so we opted to ring mainly doubles. The treble was recast by Thomas Bilbie  but at 9cwt was not a light bell by any means!

The afternoon for three of us was spent at the Clarks Shopping Factory Outlet Village in Street, an absolute must have venue for retail therapy and was particularly good for bargains due to Sale Fever.

The obligatory group meal was held at the Somerset Wagon in Chilcompton, which came highly recommended by Matthew Higby. The landlord and his team did us proud and it was a lovely evening. As I write this I am beginning to wonder if I will get up in the morning in time for Winford!

Friday 24th July

Well I got up for Winford and so glad I did, we could have rung there all day, lovely bells recently rehung in 2007, and the locals were complaining that they couldn't hear the bells now because they were lower down in the tower. A popular place for peals now. Chew Magna were a different story, lovely sounding 8 but had to be rung at a sedate place. The holiday ringing finished at Chew Stoke which were a lovely easy six and the traditional end of holiday group photo was taken there.