This was the first time the bells had been rung since lockdown started back in March 2020 | Treble Quentin Howell 2nd Quentin Howell 3rd Xavier Howell 4th Helen Howell Tenor Mike Miller |
The bells were rung at midday on April 10th 2021 for ten minutes half muffled to commemorate the life of HRH Prince Phillip who passed away yesterday aged 99. The country had been asked to mark the occasion with ninety nine tolls or ringing but as we had a large family bubble we were able to ring in a COVID safe manner, missing the fifth out. A bell in each of the parish churches rang out today to mark the anniversary of the first COVID lockddown and to commemorate those who have lost their lives due to the pandemic. Thanks to Sharon at Over Whitacre, Roy at Shustoke, Mike at Nether Whitacre and Steve at Lea Marston for ringing at 12.01 just after midday.
![]() Regretfully for our band, Dick Dale has passed away on Friday 13th Novemeber in his 90th year, after a short period in George Elliot hospital. Dick has been a member of our band since the installation of the bells in 1977 but had learnt at Shustoke beforehand. He was actively ringing with the band right up till the beginning of lockdown and celebrated his 90th birthday in August. His funeral will be on Tues 1st December with a simple graveside burial. Mourners are asked to socially distance line the road between his home and the church entrance only. The ringers all celebrated Dicks 90th birthday with a socially distanced party. Originally planned to be on the lawn of his house an illness hiccup forced us to be creative. Each ringer was delivered a piece of cake and a scone baked by Helen and Sharon respectively along with a card to remind them to toast Dick. We hope that Dick enjoyed his cake, scone, card and present and had a lovely day. Shame we could not celebrate and ring the bells too.
In line with advice all further ringing is suspended till further notice.
After being badly bent for some time the third bell has now got a brand new stay. Our recent batch of learners have are not really responsible at all as it has been bendy for a while now. However the new one is fitted with thanks to Steve Mike and Quentin
Once again we rang half muffled with no issues with them coming off. A full church enjoyed the lovely tone of the bells. We had some visitors and Xavier rang being one of our "Ringing Remembers" students from 2018
About thirty of us met in the church car park to join a 1981 Leyland Leopard bus for a proper coach based outing to celebrate a birthday. We travelled to Meriden where the birthday boy had rung an all under eighteen quarter peal and managed to get the bus up the country lane approach. Next was Ryton which had last been rung as a six but was now an eight. Lunch at a great pub in Hillmorton (Stag and Pheasant) then squeezed the bus under the low railway bridge to ring at the church. Good ringing here with memories of Tony Pickering (ex RAF hurricane pilot). Onward to a very vertical ladder entrance at Claybrooke which finished with a very good touch of Stedman Triples and finally repeating the end of the very first outing of Whitacre tower organised by the birthday boy's father way back in 1979. Mancetter back then was a ground floor ring and very hard work now transformed into a upstairs ringing chamber but still very heavy! Not helped by the third and fourth being put up wrong but many found these quite a challenge. However we did managed a super course of stedman doubles at a suitable stately pace on these half muffled bells. The coach then dropped us home having kept us warm and dry during the day. It was lovely to have some many join us to celebrate. Failed attempt at a quarter peal to celebrate the 45th wedding anniversary of David and Hazel Herschell parents of one of our ringers. Sadly not to be today but did result in several very well struck courses of Stedman doubles before time ran out to complete the quarter after two false starts and errors forced it to a stop. Quite a lot of the seven courses rung were nicely struck which made the loss a real shame.
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