On Saturday 6th July, four of our younger ringers enjoyed an exhausting but fantastic day in London for the Ringing World National Youth Competition (RWNYC).
The SDGR team, Go Bellistic! was placed joint 7th out of 13 teams in the 8-bell call changes competition at St Olave, Hart Street; Esther rang the 4th, Ben the 5th and James the tenor.
As well as ringing in the competition, everyone had a great time ringing at other churches in the City: St Dunstan in the West, St Vedast Foster Lane, St Magnus the Martyr, Christ Church Spitalfields and St Mary le Bow. The results ceremony was held in the magnificent surroundings of St Paul’s Cathedral, after a photo of all the groups was taken on the steps outside.
As we came out, the bells were being rung by the St Paul’s Cathedral Guild of Ringers – an awe-inspiring end to a memorable day.
All the competitors on the steps of St. Paul’s CathedralWimborne Ringer Lila appeared on the publicity banner for the dayThe Go Bellistic! Team
The Minster bell ringers took their skills to Devon for their annual outing on Saturday with ringing at six churches. An early start was made at St Nicholas Sidmouth where the ten melodious bells cast by the Taylor bellfoundry in 1972 were rung well. Following ringing the nearby cake shop offered a tasty allure.
The centrepiece of the day was Exeter Cathedral which like the Minster has twelve bells although Exeter’s are heavier providing a deeper tone, the largest bell, the tenor, weighing 72 cwt.
Visits followed to St Mark’s Exeter (10 bells), Ottery St Mary (8) one of its famous sons being Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Sidbury (8) and finally Axminster which has ten bells that are untypically loud in the ringing chamber.
Most of the 24 Minster ringers rounded off the day with dinner near Axminster and on Sunday morning were back in action on the Minster ropes for pre Eucharist ringing – and later for Evensong ringing.
Videos of ringing at Sidmouth and Axminster and in the ringing chamber at Exeter Cathedral.
A peal of 5009 Stedman Cinques was rung on Easter Monday by the Wimborne Minster Society of Church Bellringers. All the members taking part in the peal are regular Sunday service ringers at the Minster which demonstrates the current strength of the local band. The peal was enjoyed by those participating and, we hope by those listening outside. Bellboard records would indicate that three other peals of Stedman Cinques were rung on Easter Monday at St Paul’s Cathedral, Worcester Cathedral and Great St Mary’s Cambridge (10300 changes) so we were in illustrious company!
On Tuesday the 6th of February, James Cheshire scored his first Quarter Peal, ringing the Tenor to Grandsire Triples.
James decided to learn to ring because several of his friends were enthusiastic new recruits. After some 1-1 bell-handling lessons, he joined the Tuesday night practices in May 2023.
It wasn’t an auspicious start, as a cloud burst followed us all the way up the M3, but the sun was shining by the time we reached our first stop at Aston Clinton. Unfortunately the attempt at a peal of Cambridge Royal came to end after 40 minutes, though given the temperature and lack of air in the ringing chamber it might have been a blessing in disguise. But we did achieve a quarter peal of Cambridge Major before our lunch stop at The Oak, where they just managed to squeeze 10 of us in before the locals filled the restaurant. Note for future visits: one main course is enough to feed at least 2 people; good beer, whatever it was. We were joined by two Wingrave ringers, a friend of Alan and his son, Alan’s god-son, who stayed as reinforcements for the rest of the tour, giving welcome support.
The Heath Inn greeted us in the afternoon: tea for those who now joined us from Wimborne, a brisk walk along the Grand Union Canal for some, a short stroll to the Globe Inn for others. Some pleasant ringing at Great Brickhill (8) preceded dinner, after which it was an early retirement for those who had neither the stamina nor the skill for handbell ringing, though there weren’t many other guests around to appreciate the musical entertainment they were offered.
Ringing at Aston Clinton on Saturday morning
Saturday dawned bright and sunny, and after a modest breakfast we enjoyed the bells of Leighton Buzzard (12), Wingrave (8) and, again, Aston Clinton (still 10), surrounded the while in the ringing chamber walls by echoes of the ghosts of Bentley past.
All Saints Leighton Buzzard
The Oak again for lunch, followed by exciting cross country journeys to Wendover (8), where a striking competition between a ladies’ 8 and a men’s 8 was won hands(troke) down by the ladies; and Bledlow (8), where a practice for the Salisbury Guild 8-bell striking competition was severely hampered by the 6th being raised back way. But in case we were still hungry (or just plain giving in to temptation) the locals were offering tea and cakes aplenty.
Our final tower was High Wycombe (12), where a delay in finding a key enabled us to enjoy watching the various uses to which the churchyard could be put by the locals. Sadly no red kites but back to the M3 and safely home after an excellently organised tour, thanks to Alan and Kathy.
The Wimborne Band entered 3 teams into this year’s East Dorset Branch Striking competition.
Team X included 2 of our recent recruits (Ben on the treble, Ewan on the tenor) and rang Grandsire Doubles with only 24 faults. They achieved 4th place.
Team Y also rang Grandsire Doubles and were given 12 faults and good feedback, achieving 3rd place overall.
2nd Place was secured by the team from Blandford with only 7 faults.
Wimborne Z rang a very elegant 120 of Grandsire Doubles and were given only one fault overall, and won the competition.
On Saturday 8th July, ten young ringers from the Salisbury Guild took part in the Ringing World National Youth Contest (RWNYC) day in York, including Ben A, Esther and Lila from Wimborne. We had a great time, ringing at five towers including the magnificent 12 at York Minster. In the competition itself the team rang call changes on six bells. The band was:
Treble Conni (Dorchester branch)
2 Ben (Calne branch)
3 Oscar (Calne branch)
4 Ben (East Dorset branch)
5 Robert (Devizes branch) (C)
Tenor Pippa (East Dorset branch)
There were seventeen call changes teams and Go Bellistic! was placed joint 4th (with Young@Herts), behind Durham & Newcastle, Sussex Young Ringers and Kent Young Ringers. Our best ever result!
The other participants were Esther and Lila, Eddie from Wyke Regis and Abigail from Dorchester.
A big thank you to the Salisbury Guild and to all those ringers who have supported us financially, practically and with their best wishes.
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.
Wimborne Minster Bell Ringers 
