News from the belfry

8 bell competition band (L-R): Gill Richards, Hilary Child, Alan Bentley, Susan Smith, Rob Child, Kathy Bentley, Harry Blamire (C), Trish Hitchins

On Saturday 11 May, 9 Wimborne ringers took part in the Salisbury Guild 8 bell striking competition at Whitchurch Canonicorum. The competition formed part of the Guild festival and attracted teams from branches and towers all over the SDGR.

Over the past few weeks, 8 of the team has been practising the touch, trying out different ‘8s’ on practice nights to try and replicate the weight of the bells at Whitchurch. On the day, we rang a very respectable touch with no method mistakes, very few trips and at a confident, brisk pace.

The 9th Wimborne ringer, Max Knight, also took part in the competition, joining the Young Ringers team, ringing call changes for their test piece.

Despite best efforts, the Wimborne band just missed out on a top 3 position, with Salisbury branch coming overall first in the competition.

The competition was followed by open ringing at Lyme Regis, a service, then the Guild AGM, where Max was also recognised as a runner up in the Adult Ringer of the Year competition.

In the early summer of 2017, Max contacted the Wimborne Minster band, saying he’d like to learn to ring. He was given handling lessons prior to the Tuesday practices and most evenings stayed to the end of practice to listen to more advanced ringing. He quickly learnt to handle a bell safely and soon progressed to ringing rounds and call changes, initially on the front eight bells.

He is now able to ring rounds and call changes on up to 12 bells and to hunt the treble to touches of Grandsire on all numbers. He can ring some of the heavier bells and strikes them well, at the moment just in rounds, call changes and plain hunt.

Max has rung one quarter peal, Grandsire Triples on the treble and it is fully expected he will soon ring more; he is currently learning Grandsire triples inside. He regularly attends the Brownsea Island practice, which demands a certain level of dedication, where he is happy to help the less experienced to progress and in a similar vein he has attended some of the young ringers’ practices organised by Hilary Child, although he does not qualify for the national competition.

Max volunteered to join the East Dorset Branch committee at their last AGM and has enthusiastically contributed to their discussions. He is now deputy steeplekeeper at Wimborne Minster and uses his engineering background to good effect: in September he attended the Guild Belfry Maintenance and Steeplekeeping course. On the Wimborne Fair day in the summer he helped erect the Saxilby Simulator and then proceeded to demonstrate it to interested bystanders, mainly youngsters.

Max is among the most regular attenders on Sundays, both morning and evening as well as on practice nights, he is very enthusiastic and has already become a valuable member of the Minster band.

It is with much sadness that we lost Neil Garrard from the ringing team at the Minster on Saturday 20th April.

Neil came to Wimborne in 1975 when he was appointed Chief Planning Officer for the Borough of Poole following Local Government reorganisation. He and Mary quickly established themselves as key members of the Wimborne band as well as important figures in the ringing of the wider area, and Neil was a founder member of the Dorset County Association.

He taught his two daughters, Hilary and Alison, and later his grandchildren Matthew and Katie Child to ring and they have all continued to support ringing at the Minster.

In 2015, Neil was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease and was forced to stop ringing, but he maintained his interest in the tower activities and was able to attend our Shrove Tuesday Pancake Party this year.

The Easter peal was dedicated to his memory. Neil’s funeral was held at the Minster on Friday 3rd May 2019.

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Monday, 22 April 2019 | 5007 Stedman Cinques | 3h 27mins

1. Patricia M Hitchins, 2. Katie L Child, 3. Rosemary J Duke, 4. Felicity S Warwick, 5. Lucy S Warwick, 6. Graham A Duke, 7. John G Riley, 8. Matthew A Child, 9. David A Warwick (C), 10. Harry E Blamire, 11. Nigel R Woodruff, 12. Robert T Child

Rung by members of the Wimborne Minster Society of Change Ringers to celebrate Easter and also in thanksgiving for the life of Neil Garrard, ringer at Wimborne Minster since 1975. Neil was grandfather of Katie and Matthew, father-in-law of Robert, and taught Lucy, Matthew and Katie to ring. First of Stedman – 2. 100th peal – 10.

Following the devastating fire at Notre Dame, Paris on 15th April, the Archbishops of Canterbury & York and Prime Minister, Teresa May, asked for bells at churches and cathedrals across the UK to ring out in solidarity on Thursday 18th April (Maundy Thursday).

The ringers of Wimborne did their part and rang a half-muffled quarter peal of Grandsire Caters in the evening.

Details of the performance can be found here.

This year, the ringers at Wimborne Minster notched up a healthy number of ‘firsts’ for the Salisbury Guild Firsts week.

At the practice night, the following rang Little Grandsire Cinques for the first time:

Kathy Bentley, Harry Blamire, Katie Child, Robert Child, Robert Crighton, Lynne Crighton, Gill Curlett, Ben Duke, Rosemary Duke, Keith Fleming, Gill Richards, Trish Hitchins, Max Knight, John Riley, Susan Riley, David Warwick and Flick Warwick (17)

Also, Alan Bentley and John Riley called their first touches of Stedman Cinques and Flick Warwick called a touch of 8 – Spliced Surprise Major for the first time.

On a bright Saturday morning in mid-September 2018, seventeen members of the Wimborne Minster band of bellringers boarded a train at Kidderminster Station in Worcestershire for Bridgnorth. But this wasn’t just any train; this was a Severn Valley steam train, with proper wooden luggage racks, windows which could slide open (who needs health and safety anyway?) and billows of steam puffing out of the engine funnel. Needless to say, it was difficult to work out what this group of passengers found more exciting – the train ride, or the prospect of a day devoted to ringing.

The annual tower outing had begun the day before. While eight members of the group whiled away Friday afternoon ringing a peal of five-spliced Surprise Major at St Stephen’s, Barbourne, the others headed into Worcester city centre. A pleasant hour or two was spent looking around the cathedral and visiting a coffee shop (one of us even found the time to have a haircut), before heading to the 6cwt ring of 10 at Old St Martin’s. We were all very impressed by the array of brightly-coloured sallies and were grateful for the help of Paul Smith, a local ringer who, due to splitting his time between Worcester and Dorset, knew some of us already. After being reunited with the peal band, it was time for a ring at Wolverley (8) then dinner at the hotel followed by a spot of handbell ringing and an early night, to make sure that we’d be bright-eyed and ready to enjoy what we’d all been waiting for – the train!

And so we found ourselves at the station in Kidderminster on Saturday morning. Thanks to information from the Severn Valley Railway and some local ringers we’d managed to put together an itinerary where we would take the train to Bridgnorth and work our way back down the railway, ringing at four towers along the route; this meant we had a long train journey at the start of the day. For those of us who had come armed with a newspaper, this was a chance to get up to date on the crossword, and for the others there was plenty of entertainment in watching the animals in the safari park as the train passed by.

For the two towers in Bridgnorth we were joined by Alice Stanley, a ringer in the town who recently visited Wimborne and whose cousin (coincidentally) had learnt to ring at the Minster. After an hour at the lovely 8cwt ring of 8 at St Mary’s (where we managed to ring everything from call changes to Bristol Major), we stopped at one of the (19!) pubs in Bridgnorth for a spot of lunch. The staff had put on a wonderful buffet-style spread for us that was not unlike a ringers’ tea, although this one included freshly cooked chips which went down extremely well – perhaps they should become a staple at regular ringers’ teas! After ringing at the heavier (18cwt) 8 at St Leonard’s, we had to march quickly back to the station to catch our next train; being a couple of minutes late was definitely not an option on this outing!

On the journey south, we stopped in Bewdley to visit the 8 bells at St Anne’s which, due to the fact that the tower had been having an open day, were probably tired out already! This visit was followed by a trip to the ice cream shop by the river, another activity which really ought to become an entrenched bellringing tradition.

The forlornness felt by many of us at leaving the lovely steam train was cancelled out by the prospect of ringing on the 12 in Kidderminster that evening; although ringing on 8 during the day had been wonderful, it was nice to get back to what a lot of the group felt most comfortable doing. The bells were similar to ours in both weight and style and, even though it was our last tower of the day, the ringing at Kidderminster was some of the best we’d had all outing; a lovely end to the day before setting off on the long drive back to Dorset.

Thanks go to Hilary Child (the organiser), Severn Valley Railway and those local ringers who opened up/joined us on the day. Also, a mention goes to Harry Blamire, who was at the last minute unable to join us and was greatly missed. Several of us seem to have been nominated to organise next year’s outing, so we should probably make a start on that now!

The Salisbury Diocesan Guild 6 Bell striking competitions was held on Saturday 1 September at Zeals. The competition was ably judged by Christine and Peter Hill from Winchester. Happily, the Wimborne band came first in the competition, above other branch teams in the Guild.

From left to right: Rosemary Duke, Hilary Child, Rob Child, Judith Williamson (Guild President), David Warwick, Flick Warwick and Ben Duke.

Results:

• 1st Wimborne, Grandsire Doubles – 17 faults
• 2nd West Dorset Branch, Plain Bob Minor – 34 faults
• 3rd Downton, Stedman Doubles – 41 faults
• 4th Melksham, Grandsire Doubles – 44 faults
• 5th Bradford on Avon, Grandsire Doubles – 53 faults
• 6th Charminster, Plain Bob Doubles – 60 faults
• 7th Gillingham, Plain Bob Doubles – 74 faults
• 8th Sturminster Newton, Call Changes – 85 faults

Four members of the Wimborne Minster band (together with the son of a previous Minster ringer) joined forces with the Wimborne Minster Choral Society, the Bournemouth Sinfonietta Choir, the Wimborne Sinfonia and soloists to perform Chris Dowie’s Darkness to Light in the Minster on Saturday 7th July.

David Warwick, Sue Riley, Kathy Bentley, Gill Richards and Gavin Courtney (son of retired ringer, Liz Radford who sang in the Choral Society). Rob Child, another Minster ringer, played bassoon in the orchestra.

Darkness to Light was written in 1984 when the composer was Organist and Master of the Choristers at the Minster. It is an ambitious work combining soloists, choirs, narrators and an orchestra including twelve handbells which expresses a journey from doubt to belief through words from scripture and dramatic music.

The bells play an important role in that narrative. 2018 marks the 40th anniversary of the Wimborne Choral Society and it was an appropriate choice of work to celebrate the occasion, drawing together different elements of the Minster’s musical forces.

Photos courtesy of Alan Bentley.

David Warwick accepting the trophy, presented by Guild President, Judith Williamson.

On Saturday 12 May, the Wimborne band entered the SDGR 8-bell striking competition, held at Calne, Wiltshire.

Up against 7 other teams, Wimborne ringers put in a solid performance of the Plain Bob Triples test piece. The band managed to chalk up only 19 faults, landing them comfortably in first place.

The ringers can now enjoy a few months ‘off’ from practising for striking competitions…until the next one in September.

The 8-bell band, plus trophy, back in their home tower of Wimborne.

On Saturday 21 April, the Wimborne band entered the East Dorset Branch 6-bell striking competition at Worth Matravers.

Up against 7 other teams, Wimborne ringers rang a beautifully-struck 120 changes of Grandsire Doubles, earning favourable comments from the judges and bringing home the sizeable trophy for the second year running.

Ringers from the band will now be turning their attention to practising for the Salisbury Guild 8-bell striking competition, held at Calne on 12 May.