Mid Devon Tower Talk April - May 2022
Branch six bell practice – Coffinswell
Norwich Surprise was the method of the month here and we managed to ring it several times including a touch. We met on Her Majesty the Queen's 96th birthday and our secretary (Nigel Birt) had come armed with a touch of 96 changes of Little Bob which he called twice. Altogether a useful practice.
Mini Ring Outing
This was a new venture for the branch and attracted a good turnout. We started at the Bowerdon Peal at Buckfastleigh. The first problem was "find the farm". Once we had negotiated the narrow lanes and found parking spaces the next issue was learning to ring bells many times smaller than we are used to. This took a little time but all seemed to relish the challenge. Many thanks to Paul Hext for the warm welcome.
Next on the Agenda was the part of the proceedings that seemed to be the most popular – the Cream Tea! The Grange at Buckfast Abbey was the venue and the outside terrace was filled with the chatter of ringers catching up with each other. We had allowed plenty of time for this!
There was then a small change of plan and the next ring were not really mini bells. Rattery are a ring of 5 (quite rare in Devon) and they take a bit of getting used to. However, good use was made of them, and the ringing included a very good touch of Stedman Doubles.
The final ring of the day was Kings Ting Tong. What a superb place to end the day! The bells go well and are housed in a pleasant room above the garage, surrounded by Ian's collection of beer bottles. Outside this is a veranda. An ideal spot to enjoy the sun on a very pleasant spring evening. We even found that the bells knew Cambridge! By now the practice at Bowerdon was reaping rewards as most people found these bells very much to their liking and several people did not want to go home!
Very many thanks to all who made us welcome and to branch members for enthusiastic support. Looks like this may well be worth a repeat!
Thanks To Jeanette Thompson, Janet Ritterman and Nigel Birt for the Photos
https://photos.app.goo.gl/KtangCuY7esQcdTo7
A Lockdown project
During lockdown several attempts were made to maintain our skills and enthusiasm whilst we were unable to ring as usual. These included Ringingroom and the use of programs such as Abel. The sale of simulator handbells rocketed as well. Mike Tompsett decided to concentrate on improving his handbell skills and concentrated on higher numbers from Major upwards. A trip to Lundy at the end of lockdown with some very experienced handbell ringers gave him the chance to put his new skills to the test and a quarter peal of Cambridge Major was the result. Since then, regular online ringingroom practices have resulted in quarter peals in the standard eight surprise major methods. The goal was achieved with London Surprise Major
https://bb.ringingworld.co.uk/view.php?id=1514577
Many congratulations to him. Handbell change ringing is a very different skill from tower bell ringing and couple that with the many difficulties of online ringing and this makes a fantastic achievement – what next, Mike? (8 spliced??)
Branch Eight Bell Practice Teignmouth St Michael
We are always assured of a warm welcome at Teignmouth and this was definitely the case this time. Just before lockdown the branch celebrations of our centenary were started with a peal of Cambridge Surprise Major at St Michael's. The Teignmouth ringers felt that it was important to celebrate this and instigated the purchase of a peal board. The practice at Teignmouth was an ideal opportunity to dedicate the new board.
Rev Carol Green welcomed the ringers and, after a short talk and prayers dedicated the new peal board. This board had prompted the Guild to update its logo and this is a prominent feature of the new board. All were full of praise for the design of the board and were unanimous that it will make a fine addition to St Michael's tower.
At our practice at Coffinswell we had the chance to ring a well struck 120 of Plain Bob Doubles allowing Katie Law (Bovey Tracey) to gain her Guild Certificate. The gathering before ringing at Teignmouth was an ideal opportunity to present it and this was duly done by Branch Ringing Master, Martin Mansley. Congratulations, Katie.
Up in the tower we soon had the bells up and ringing to a variety of methods including Bob Triples (several times!), touches of Grandsire and Stedman Triples and a half course of Yorkshire Surprise Major. Altogether a very successful practice and we offer our grateful thanks to the Teignmouth ringers for their warm welcome.
Photos at https://photos.app.goo.gl/XRbh82SfXhfnaCLH9 Photos curtesy of Nigel Birt
News from Kingskerswell
Thanks to Philip Stevens for-
As is the tradition, on Good Friday, Kingskerswell bells were rung half muffled prior to the service and again while the three crosses were paraded around the village. The procession and the bells can be seen and heard on Facebook. Here is the link to the video:-https://www.facebook.com/106678921001432/videos/395349742159006
News from Dawlish
Thanks to Lynne Hughes for -
Hannah Pullen passed her Learning the Ropes level 1 (bell handling) and was presented with her certificate. Her Mum, Ria, is hot on her heels!
Amrik Tumani has joined us having started at Altarnun, and was already registered on the Learning the Ropes scheme from there. a first for us to acquire someone already on it, and we can pick up where he left off. He has nearly completed level 2 (ringing with others), with just the Kaleidoscope exercises to do. Then it will be on to Level 3 (change ringing). Anne Heywood, Kevin Feaviour and John Stern are also working on this structured approach.
Dawlish will be ringing on Friday 3rd June for the Platinum Jubilee, and we've come up with the idea of 70 minutes for 70 years, to include everyone. We had a practice and posed for a photo to send to the local paper for pre-publicity.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/wvEknigreHsdr35R8
New branch initiative
At our recent branch committee meeting there was a discussion about our plans for recruitment. It was felt that a good place to publicise ringing was at the Brixham Steam Rally held on the first weekend in August. Preliminary enquiries had been made and the response was very encouraging. The Frank Mack ring has been booked and we are going ahead to plan our stand. The most important thing now is to find willing helpers from the branch or further afield to help man the stand. The dates are Friday 5th, Saturday 6th and Sunday 7th August 2022. We hope to have a rota so that it does not fall too heavily on those who volunteer. The Rally attracts large crowds so it could be an ideal place to advertise what we do and look for new recruits. Please let me know if you can help, even for a short time This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.