www.aylshamtower.org.uk

ST. MICHAEL'S GUILD OF RINGERS
AYLSHAM PARISH CHURCH, NORFOLK.

[This site was last updated on 7th FEBRUARY, 2010.]

Bell Ringing Times at Aylsham for February, 2010:
Sundays 09.20 to 10.00 h. General ringing before Morning Service
Tuesdays 19.30 to 21.00 h. General ringing practice
Quarter-peals will occasionally be attempted on Sunday mornings when ringing will start at 09.00 h. For latest information, please contact the Tower Secretary on 01263 732462.
Guild ringing at Erpingham:
Sun. 14th Feb. 08.30 to 09.30 h. Quarter peal

All ringers are most welcome to join our local band for any of our general ringing sessions. Lapsed ringers considering a return to the Exercise are particularly encouraged to come along at these times, which are always friendly and unpressurised occasions. Quarter-peal and Wedding ringing is by invitation, but competent ringers are always being sought for these events and should inform the Secretary if they would like to be involved. Non ringers wishing to learn should contact the Tower Captain, Daniel Phillips, on 01603 279406. Join a tradition dating back 400 years – become a bell ringer.

Our ringers’ Annual General Meeting each January prompts the Secretary to review the activities in our tower over the previous year. This is what I had to say at our most recent meeting about our ringing activities in the year 2009:-

Guild membership remained at 28 with the admission of two new members at the Annual General Meeting balanced by the failure of two former members to renew their subscriptions. This steady membership managed an increase in attendances both at Tuesday practices and at Sunday service ringing– the practices up by just over 2% with an average attendance of 11 ringers, and the services attended, on average, by 7 ringers, which is a most pleasing increase of well over 14%.

Sunday service and practice ringing apart, members met during the year to ring at 9 weddings. There were also five successful quarter-peal attempts at Aylsham, although three attempts in the early part of the year were doomed to failure. The first successful quarter-peal of the year was on Aug. 15th, and was rung as a tribute to Dr. Paul Cattermole, the Norwich Diocesan Association’s librarian and archivist. It was part of a countywide tribute on his birthday. The second was on Oct. 21st, marking Admiral Lord Nelson’s victory on the anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar. There followed a quarter on Remembrance Sunday, half-muffled, remembering those who had fallen in armed conflict through the generations. The fourth was on Dec.4th, to coincide with the switching-on of the town’s Christmas lights, and the last quarter-peal of our year was unplanned on a practice night on Dec.22nd and declared as an early welcome to Christmas. One more quarter-peal away from Aylsham but rung by Guild Members must be mentioned, for it was rung on Nov. 23rd, at Hevingham where our Tower Captain, Danny Phillips’ and his wife, Iris, were married in this same church fifty years ago.

We were pleased to welcome several groups of visitors to St. Michael’s during the year, two of which successfully rang full peals. On 25th July the Around Ringers scored a peal of Yorkshire Surprise Royal and for our Patronal Festival our friend David Brown drew together a band which rang a magnificent 5040 changes of Bristol Surprise Royal. Other visitors to our tower were members of the Clerical Guild of Ringers in April and the Hackney, Aldgate and Kilburn Ringers in May. Additionally, on two occasions, the Norwich Diocesan Association took advantage of our ten bells for practice sessions. Overall, in 2009, our tower was visited 1249 times to fulfil the many ringing activities taking place throughout the year – a very sizeable increase of 15.33% over the previous year.

It is generally agreed that there has been some modest progress in the quality and scope of our ringing during 2009. This is particularly evident now at our service ringing where the increase in numbers and the more secure skills of our Sunday band allow the regular inclusion of some elementary change ringing. Practice nights have continued to provide opportunities to consolidate these essential core methods, while many members have taken full advantage of these sessions to extend their personal ringing repertoire. In all our ringing endeavours we have been ably led, once more, by our Tower Captain, Danny Phillips, and his Deputy, Lawrence Smith, while routine belfry maintenance remains under the watchful eye of the Steeple Keeper, Peter Hodson.

In June, 20 members and friends took part in the Guild Outing, now a most popular annual event. This year we focussed on three towers in South Norfolk - Pulham Market, Blo’ Norton and East Harling. We also included an excursion over the border into West Suffolk to sample the recently refurbished and now extended ring into eight bells at Ixworth. Lunch was enjoyed by everyone at The White Hart in South Lopham, and the day ended with a vote of thanks to member David Hoare who, once again, had so thoroughly and efficiently arranged the visits.

Trafalgar Day in October was marked not only by the quarter-peal, to which reference has already been made, but by the Annual Guild Dinner, held at Simply 16 Restaurant in Aylsham Market Place and enjoyed by 16 members and friends.

At the beginning of December the Guild was represented at the Christmas Tree Festival held in our church. A splendidly decorated spruce, complete with bell-shaped baubles, ten miniature sallies and lists of change-ringing methods – the whole surmounted with a steeple complete with weather-cock – drew praise from many quarters and raised £50 in contributions to the N.D.A. Nolan Golden Education Fund Charity. For all this thanks are due to members Geraldine Shreeve and Hilary Shaw who spent many hours in church preparing our entry.

In conclusion, it is felt that 2009 can be regarded as a reasonably successful and progressive year in the life of the Guild. Members make an input to the general health of our organisation in many different ways, and I have already referred to the contribution from our officers. I believe that it is also apposite here to mention those ringers of all abilities who regularly and reliably turn up on Sunday mornings and Tuesday evenings so willingly to give their time and contribute, as best they may, their various ringing skills - some as teachers, some as learners, many as a mix of both, but all with the common purpose of maintaining and passing on a centuries old and unique tradition.

The continuing healthy ambience within our ringing chamber remains a pivotal source of encouragement for the development of our exercise in its many aspects. It is appropriate that, through our regular belfry prayers, we so frequently offer our thanks to the Almighty for the ringing skills he has enabled us to develop, and it is those same prayers that so frequently remind us that it is to His glory that we ring the bells of St. Michael’s.

I feel we can confidently look forward now to further progress in our ringing endeavours throughout the coming year.

Keith Shaw
Tower Secretary