The much-delayed Wimborne band outing took place on Saturday 6th January. The event had first been postponed by Covid and then by the death of Queen Elizabeth II in September 2022.
For those not familiar with ringing in Oxford it presents an opportunity to ring at a significant number of towers, many of which are of great historic or architectural interest and all within walking distance. A number of towers are part of the College buildings and some are existing or former city centre churches.
Our first tower was St Ebbe’s where the very light bells gave us some challenges. We then moved across the road to the completely different surroundings of Christ Church College where the bells are in one of the college towers but are rung for services at the Cathedral which is part of the same complex. These bells are a 12 of a similar weight to Wimborne but very much an old style ring in tuning and surroundings. We rang some successful touches of cinques and surprise maximus and enjoyed seeing some of the Harry Potter locations around the college on the way out.
After lunch we met up again at Magdalen College where the beautiful perpendicular tower contains a fine ring of 10 where we enjoyed more good ringing including some London Royal.
At Lincoln College the former church of All Saints is now the college library but the light ring of 8 remain and are available for ringing. We managed to just about fill the ringing chamber and everyone was able to say that they had rung in a library.
From here it was a short walk in the rain to St Mary Magdalene, a light 10 where amongst general ringing we managed two separate touches of caters, one by a ladies band and one by the gentlemen!
Our final tower was at Carfax which is all that remains of the former church – apparently demolished in the early 19th Century for traffic improvements. Although our energy was flagging we managed some good ringing on this surprisingly heavy six to conclude our day before stopping on the way home for a welcome pub supper.
Our thanks should go to Katie Child who organised the event for us using her local knowledge as an Oxford graduate and also to our escort from the Oxford Society who accompanied us throughout the day.
Article by Tim Martin, photos by Katie Child
Wimborne Minster Bell Ringers 