#4 & #5 clappers loaded for Loughborough

Gamlingay ringers 2013 outing to Surrey

Thirteen ringers visited some of the towers in Surrey where John & Cass used to ring 40 years ago. Peter Ostley opened up for us at St Andrew, Cobham, with a beautifully behaved 9cwt ground floor ring of 8.

Cobham tower

Our next stop was St Giles, Ashtead, set in a lovely rural plot at the end of a short entrance drive. Sarah Huck met us here. The pretty ringing room with padded bench is up a few steps and the wrought iron balcony overlooks the nave of the church. A nice set of polished handbells hangs in a glass case. The 12cwt ring of 8 were appreciated by all.




Lunch at Cheam was next on the agenda. There was a reasonably priced pay & display car park next to the church and within easy walking distance of local hostelries.

Ye Olde Red Lion in Cheam Village met our requirements without any booking. As it was a sunny day we sat at the benches in the garden and enjoyed an excellent very reasonably priced meal.

After lunch it was only a short walk to St Dunstan, Cheam to ring on the 9cwt ring of 6, where Peter ? was waiting to let us in. A few surprises here as Iain was looking after this tower!

We had our group photo taken here but unfortunatelt Sally had to leave before this was taken to get dolled up for a dinner party in the evening.

The 2013 outing members (less Sally)

Next off to St Martin of Tours, Epsom, for the highlight of the day. We had half an hour to kill before we could ring due to a choir practice so we went into the town for a welcome cup of tea, and because someone told the owner that it was Iain's birthday we were given complimentary pancakes! We promised to ring the church bells for her in 10 minutes.
Ros Hallett let us into the tower with a lovely 16cwt ring of 10. Adam led up all 10 for a very nice raise from a band, for some of whom it was their first experience on 10 bells. Call changes, plain hunt on 9 and grandsire caters all went well on these well behaved and easy to ring bells, (sorry Sally you missed a treat).

St Martin of Tours, Epsom

Judging by the comments afterwards everyone had an enjoyable day. Any volunteers for next year?

Gamlingay wedding ringing update 2013

Date              Wedding Start Time     Names
15 June              1:00pm             Spavins & Day
 6 July                12:30pm           Walker & Newman
 3 August           1:00pm             Leak & Follenfant
14 Sept              2:00pm             Hawkes & Orchiston

        

Congratulations to Becky Loudon

Congratulations to Becky who rang two quarter peals of Plain Bob Doubles on 1st April 2013.
She rand one on the tenor at Bassingbourn and one on the 3rd at Litlington.

Graphite powder as a slider lubricant

I took these measurements before and after adding graphite powder to the treble slider.

Tenor clapper repair

I spotted the tenor clapper pin working its way out last week (shown above) so it was clapper out of the bell for investigation.
The pin is held in place by a 5mm diameter roll pin. But in this case the roll pin had fractured allowing the gudgeon pin to work out. Luckily I spotted it in time or it could have caused a lot of damage.
After removing the broken roll pin bits a new pin was fitted and the clapper replaced in time for practice night.
I will check them more often now.

Ely D.A. Tower Maintenance Workshop

On the bell frame at Stretham.

Tom Ridgman points out to the workshop participants the things to look for.

Workshop members inspecting the bells at Haddenham.

Hunts District ringers annual dinner 2013

Andrew, Amanda and Cass chat after the meal at the George Hotel, Huntingdon.

Daniel's first ringing lesson

Daniel (aged 7) had his first pulls on the 2nd on Thursday and a further go on the treble yesterday and mastered the tying of the rope knot.

Tripadvisor recommendation

I was just looking at a Tripadvsor review of Taylard House B&B below and saw this comment about our bell ringing on a Sunday morning ...... what a nice lady!

Welcome to Florence Elizabeth Hardy

We are pleased to announce the arrival of Amanda and Andrew's new baby girl, Florence,
on Saturday 19th January 2013 and a quarter peal was rung to celebrate the occasion. Mother and baby are both doing well.

Florence Elizabeth Hardy (9lbs)

Ely Diocesan Association

Gamlingay, Cambs.

St Mary the Virgin

Sunday, 27 January 2013 (16cwt)

1260 Grandsire Doubles

1 Becky Loudon

2 Diana Mackley

3 John A Boocock

4 Phil Loudon

5 Iain Hayden (C)

6 Andrew B Smith

Rung for Evensong and to celebrate the birth of Florence Elizabeth

Hardy on Sat. 19th January 2013.

First quarter-peal of Grandsire: 4

Gamlingay 2013 Wedding Ringing

Gamlingay Wedding Ringing times 2013 (subject to confirmation).

Date                                 Ringing times
  6 April                            3.00 - 3.30pm
15 June                            1.30 - 2.00pm
  6 July                             1.30 - 2.00pm
  3 August                         1.30 - 2.00pm

Gamlingay bells adjusted oddstruckness

After several hours work with shims and twiddle pins the following results were obtained.

Gamlingay bells oddstruckness measurement

The above oddstruckness measurements were made by Tom Ridgman last night using his electronic oddstruckness meter. The measurements are in milliseconds. A positive figure indicates the bell is slow at handstroke and a negative figure indicates the bell is quick at handstroke.
What is significant here is the difference between consecutive bells. Differences of 20ms are discernable to the ear.

First peal on Gamlingay bells since augmenting to 8 in 2001

Ely Diocesan Association

Gamlingay, Cambridgeshire

St Mary the Virgin

Saturday, 7 July 2012 in 3h06 (16)

5056 Plain Bob Major

Composed: John R Pritchard

1 Amanda Hardy

  2 Jane K A Hough

  3 J Richard Hough

4 Cass Boocock

  5 Andrew B Smith

   6 John A Boocock

   7 Richard C Smith

          8 Peter J Waterfield (C)

First peal - 1 & 5.

First on 8 - 4.

100th peal - 7.

First peal on the bells since restoration and augmentation to 8.

To mark the arrival of The Olympic Flame in the City of Cambridge
later today.

Peal Band Photograph  Clockwise from front right in order of ringing.

Off now for some 8-bell ringing back in Yorkshire.
First Ian and Joan's home tower of Giggleswick where a new tenor clapper had been installed since John & Cass visited last year.

Ringing was followed by a group photo.

Into the Yorkshire Dales National Park now to ring at Kirkby Maham, where Gamlingay's old treble forms the 4th of a 17.5 cwt 8 rehung by Eayre & Smith. New visitors are amazed by the glass fronted balcony.

Kirkby Malham

And so off along the track to a well earned Granny Boo's fish and chip dinner at the Victoria Inn next door.

Ringing at Thornton in Craven with Ian

A light lunch followed and then we were off to Thorton in Craven for
more 6-bell ringing.

Thornton in Craven church

We then made a slight excursion over the border

into Lancashire to ring at Gisburn.

Gisburn church

Gamlingay ringers 2012 weekend in Yorkshire

We joined the Guiseley ringers for their Friday practice night. They were pleased to see us as they had not rung up their back two bells for a practice night for some time!

Guiseley church

The following morning, after a full English breakfast our first tower was Addingham, in lovely parkland surroundings. Here we met up with Richard, Joan and Alan for the first ring of the day.

  Addingham church

The next port of call was Silsden where parking in the pay-and-dispay opposite was good value at 30p/hr. Here we were joined by Ian Boocock from Giggleswick.

Silsden church

The ringing room had it own entrance at the base of the tower but was a little cramped to allow shelter for all from the inclement weather. It was here that Cass nearly fell through a partition into the church.

The Ely Diocese 8 bell striking competition shield currently hanging in our ringing room.

Two of our ringers were members of the Huntingdon District band who won the shield at Bluntisham last year.

Good practice last night with a number of different methods attempted including Norwich, Stedman triples, Stedman doubles, Cambridge and (for the less accomplished i.e. me!) Grandsire triples and Bob triples. Thanks to everyone who attended.