www.aylshamtower.org.uk

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


[This site was last updated on 5th September, 2010.]

Bell Ringing Times at Aylsham for September, 2010:
Sundays 09.20 to 10.00 h. General ringing before Morning Service
Tuesdays 19.30 to 21.00 h. General ringing practice
Sat. 25th Sept.16.00 h. Wedding bells (organiser - Danny Phillips)
Sat. 2nd Oct.13.30 to 16.30 h. Full peal celebrating Michaelmas (organiser - Lawrence Smith)
Quarter-peals will occasionally be attempted on Sunday mornings when ringing will start at 08.50 h. For latest information, please contact the Tower Secretary on 01263 732462.

Other local ringing events:
Sat. 4th Sept.15.00 h. Wedding bells at Salle (organiser - Bernard Wells).
Sun. 12th Sept.08.30 to 09.30 h. Quarter peal at Erpingham (organiser - Lawrence Smith).
Wed. 15th Sept.14.00 to 15.00 h. Visiting ringers at Marsham.
Sat. 18th Sept.14.00 h. Wedding bells at Heydon (organiser - Lawrence Smith)

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.

Two warm summer months have passed since I last penned this column, and our tower has attracted the usual holidaying bell-ringers and visiting bands for the time of year. We have also added two pages to our quarter-peal record book, the first of which proclaims a successful event on 5th July, entailing 1260 changes of Oxford Treble Bob Minor, a method that has eluded us on at least three previous attempts. The victorious band included Theo Crowder on 1, Danny Phillips - 2, Beverley Mayne - 3, Keith Shaw - 4, Lawrence Smith - 5, and David Hoare (conductor) - 6. The second quarter, of Mixed Doubles was before Morning Service on 8th August, the band comprising David Bennett-1, Danny Phillips-2, David Hoare-3, Maureen Gardiner-4, Lawrence Smith (conductor)-5 and Jim Pannell-6.

As I have maintained in this column on previous occasions, there is more that a tenuous link between bell-ringing and music. This was clearly demonstrated on Sunday, 15th August, when our esteemed organist and choirmaster, Henry Macey, invited me to play the closing organ voluntary after Morning Service. The chosen hymns and anthem for the service were by that most notable early Victorian church musician and composer, Samuel Sebastian Wesley (1810-76), since the 200th anniversary of his birth had occurred the previous day. Besides being, one might say, a peripatetic cathedral organist (Wesley was variously at Hereford, Exeter, Winchester and Gloucester as well as Leeds Parish Church), he was a keen angler and spent much of his spare time exercising this passion on the banks of the River Tamar in Devon, quite possibly, the history books hint, to the detriment of his work. His love of the deep West Country led him to accept a commission to compose a piece of music for the newly installed carillon at Holsworthy Parish Church in North Devon. His chorale-like composition for the carillon obviously pleased him, for it was soon to be followed by a set of variations for organ on the original tune. Thus, it was Wesley’s Holsworthy Church Bells that it was appropriate for me, as a bell-ringer, to play after our service the other Sunday, and I am grateful to Harry for giving me this unusual opportunity to register my love of ringing and of organ music in this unique way. There is a video on YouTube, by the way, of an arrangement of this work performed on the organ of Alexandra Palace by that great recital organist, George Thalben-Ball. Just Google: holsworthy church bells by wesley.

Keith Shaw
Tower Secretary