ON  BELLS  AND  THINGS ...........

 

1       Successful Peal Attempt

Following the “All Clear” from English Heritage on the state of St. Boniface church tower, the restriction in force for over thirty years has recently been lifted. As this restriction had limited any non-stop period of ringing to 44 minutes, permission was sought, and was given, for a full peal of 5088 changes of Yorkshire Surprise Major, composed by Arthur Craven, to be rung on the 12th, May. The peal, which lasted nearly three hours, was a belated birthday compliment to the Tower Captain, whose ancestors coincidentally came from the Craven district of Yorkshire. This peal was the 45th to be rung in the tower, the first being on the 22nd, June, 1895, and the previous last on the 19th, July, 1969.

2       Bunbury Ringers’ Outing

This took place on the afternoon of the 13th, May, when the Bunbury Ringers met up with some ringing friends at St. Helen’s Church at Witton (Northwich). There were 8 bells of very similar weight to those of Bunbury.

The second tower was  the ground floor ring of 6 bells at lower Peover, St. Oswald. These bells proved to be very tricky as new ropes had been fitted some two weeks previously and were still unstretched.

Knutsford, St. Mary the Virgin, was the third tower, where the anti-clockwise ring of 6 bells had recently been augmented to 8. The bells handled very nicely, but probably every one of us was caught out at some time when, old habits dying hard, we were caught off-guard looking the wrong way!

The fourth and last tower visited was Bowden, St. Mary the Virgin, where the local Tower Captain joined us to ring the very easy to handle and well behaved ring of 8 bells. These bells have recently been rehung and are now regarded by most ringers as the best ring of 8 bells in Cheshire.

A quick drive down the A556 and A49 brought us to The Alvanley Arms, where our now ravenous hunger and thirst were assuaged to good effect. Possibly a case of hunger and thirst after righteousness.

To sum up, a most enjoyable outing was had by all, and there were no accidents to mar the day.

 

J. Elsworth