The Champions Defend Their Title

On 11th April 2010 the pretty church at Over Stowey was the venue for this year's 'Striking Competition' for the Bridgwater branch of bellringers. It was a beautiful spring afternoon and several teams from the area gathered in the churchyard to chat and catch up with each other.

This year's team comprised of Margaret and Richard Lee, Keith Lane, Hasu Watson, Vivienne Hamilton and our newest member, Steve Holman. For our performance piece we rang 'Bob Doubles'. Despite a few minor errors, the judge complimented our ringing. We were given a couple of recommendations to work on as a team and our fellow ringers were told that if St.Mary's enter again next year, we would provide even stiffer competition. Sadly, we didn't manage to retain the title; however, we enjoyed participating and reinforcing our team spirit.

When all the teams had rung and the competition was over, Rev. Hilary Watkins led the service (making it the second time within a year that we had been in her company). This was followed by afternoon tea in the village hall. During the meeting that concluded the day, Steve Holman was proposed as a member of the Bath and Wells Bellringers. Welcome aboard Steve!

Vivienne Hamilton

Tower Captain Report 2009

'Are we there yet?' Asked Hasu as we left Bridgwater altogether on our way to our heat of the final of the Association Striking Competition which was held at Lympsham, a challenging anti clockwise ring near Weston Super Mare.  The judge said we were nervous which helped him to place us last.  We decided to celebrate by having an ice cream at Burnham on Sea which rounded off a very enjoyable afternoon.

In September five members went on the Branch outing to Abergavenny, ringing in various towers and an enjoyable day was had by all.

During the year Richard organised us to clear and clean out the clock room,  also we hosted two coffee mornings for Church Funds, opened the tower on Carnival Day, and enjoyed a Christmas Meal at the Tudor Restaurant.

Our ringing activities included Julia's ordination,  8 Weddings one where we were asked to join in singing, Light up a Life, the Town Carol Service and at Chilton Trinity for the benefice service.

John Long has become and member of the Association and Steve Holman will become a member at the next meeting in April and Tony, our newest recruit, is making good progress.

We welcome Kate and David Cameron, who have moved to Othery from Dorking, who support us and enable us to progress our method ringing.  During the year we have welcomed many visiting ringers who have been on holiday heard the bells and decided joined us.

Keith Petersen, who was our Assistant Tower Captain and Steeple Keeper at the beginning of the year, has decided to take time out and since moved to Taunton, but he has told me that he will come back to visit us from time to time.

I know you are all waiting to see what targets I am going to set, while they are the same as last year with one exception

1    To ring Plain Hunt on 7 bells

2    To recruit more members to our art of bellringing

3    To attend  8 bells practices both here and at other towers

I would like to thank the other committee members Keith and Richard for their support, enthusiasm and commitment in driving the tower forward in getting a simulator, which is being installed on March 30th  and arranging for the Bath and Wells Association of Change Ringers Library to be housed  here in the clockroom.

Finally I would like to thank you all for your continued support, companionship, sense of fun and keeping the art of bellringing here at St Marys. an enjoyable experience, long by it continue.

Margaret

Tower News March 2010; The Library

'Does any one have room to accommodate the association library?' asked the secretary to the Bath and Wells Diocesean Association of Change Ringers (the association) during the AGM held at Chilcompton on Easter Monday 2009.  My ears pricked up and I whispered to Margaret that this could come to St Mary's clock room if no alternative is suggested.  Then started a chain of meetings and inquiries between the association, the vicar, the church wardens and, of course, the ringers to establish the suitability of the room to bring the library here.  Well here we are 9 months later and the project is complete.  With the help of the ringers the clock room has been completely cleared, of items which could not be found a home elsewhere, deep cleaned and carpeted.  The clock room, I believe, has enhanced the church and the books now have a permanent home.  The library is not available to the public but is administered by David Bromwich on request from members of the association.  A memorable moment happened one Saturday morning, when clearing the heavier items by rope from the nave roof, I was suitably dressed in hard hat and hi-vis jacket when I caught the eye of churchwarden Richard Hampson who from a distance suspected we were removing lead from the roof in broad daylight.  Many thanks to all parties concerned especially the ringers who did most of the work work.

Richard Lee

Tower Captain Report 2008


'We could not decide whether Team C were nervous or just ringing steady' said John Dunstone, the judge of the branch striking competition, 'due to Team B being a scratch band, the winners are Team C – St Mary's Bridgwater'  What a prefect way to end our year of ringing where we have seen us achieve all three goals I set at the last AGM.

These were

1    Ringing all 8 bells on a Sunday morning by St Mary's Ringers.  This was achieved on quite a few occasions.

2    Ringing the handbells at the Town Carol Service.  We rang while coffee and mince pies were being served after the service.  A special mention to Viv who guided us and kept us in line.

3    Enter the Branch Striking Competition.  I do believe we are still smiling about our win.

Other highlights were Pauline becoming a member of the association and I hope that on July 4th John and Emma will be able to join.

Ringing a quarter peal to mark the graduation of Midas Gordon Farleigh

On the social side we hosted two Coffee Mornings and introduced many people to a Beetle Drive  , these were all in aid of Church Funds, had a delicious lunch at Keith and Pat's, and an enjoyable Christmas Meal at the Tudor Restaurant.  We have also cleared out the clock room and I'm sure Richard will tell us more about this in his report.

During the year we have rung for 15 Weddings, Light a Life service, Town Carol Service, St George's Day and opened the tower for Carnival Day.

This year we hope to install a Bell Simulator which will aid the teaching of new learners and have it linked to the tower computer so that we will all be able to learn new bell methods.

The targets for this year are

1    To ring Plain Hunt on 7 bells

2    To recruit more members to our art of bellringing

3    To experience ringing in another Church

I would like to thank you all for your support, fellowship and sense of fun and I  look forward  to  another enjoyable year of happy ringing.

Margaret

St. Mary’s Ringers Win The Trophy

Much to the delight of all concerned, Margaret Lee beamed like a Cheshire cat as she proudly accepted the winner’s trophy on behalf of the team.

Entering the Bridgwater branch ‘Striking Competition’ was one of our targets for 2008/2009. We have known for a while that when things go right for us our striking is even, rhythmical and as good as anyone else in the district. Therefore, putting ourselves forward for this annual event was a little more nerve-racking than usual.

So, on Saturday 18th April 2009, we gathered at Holford church, (A most charming church with a warm feel to it).  Each team had the chance to have two minutes practise before launching into their performance piece. Our team of six ringers was made up by;
Treble – Vivienne Hamilton,
2nd – Keith Lane,
3rd – Margaret Lee,
4th – Keith Petersen,
5th – Richard Lee,
Tenor – Hasu Watson.

As we set the bells and had our customary ‘group hug’, we knew we had done well.

When all the teams had rung we attended the service. It was a wonderful feeling to participate in worship with fellow ringers.  The sermon was morale boosting as all the ringers were thanked for their dedicated and loyal service to the churches they ring for. Also, the hymns were uplifting as bellringers always sing with gusto and, although our singing may not be as tuneful as our ringing, it was certainly heartfelt.

After a lovely afternoon tea (Ringers do like their food!), the quarterly meeting was held. When the winners of the competition were announced the noise from St. Mary’s was joyous! In addition to this, we were proud to be there to hear Pauline Light nominated and accepted as a member of the Bath and Wells Diocesan of Change Ringers.

The ringers of St. Mary’s church are steadily growing in numbers. We are dedicated to keeping the art of ringing alive at St. Mary’s and we enjoy the friendship and fellowship our pastime gives us. We welcome anyone who would like to join us - come and give it a go; we meet on Mondays at 7.30pm – just ring the doorbell by the tower door or speak to one of us when you see us. The more experienced ringers ring from 8.45am for the Sunday Service so you could catch us then.

Please think of us on Saturday 20th June when we take part in the Association Striking Finals.


Vivienne Hamilton

Tower Captain Report 2007

When I look back on the year I think ‘what have we done?’ on paper it seems very little but even though we have lost ringers I hope we have sown the seed which we come into fruition in later years

What a roller coaster ride 2007 turned out to be.

We started on a high with eight promising recruits and through illness, and reasons like ’it not the thing for me’ and the realisation that ringing the bells for Sunday morning means getting up early we were back to square one. Andrew, Pauline and John have now joined us and hope it will not be too long before they will be ringing for Sunday Services. I must not forget to mention our newest recruit Emma who is progressing well after only been with us a few weeks.

Our practise nights have been devoted to teaching our learners but I am grateful to our visitors, namely the Goodman family who enable us to progress with our method ringing even if I do ask you to ring a method that even Keith L had never heard of!

At Viv’s suggestion we blew the dust off the handbells to ring for the Town Carol Service, unfortunately this did not come together on the night but it did on a Sunday morning when we surprised Hasu by ringing Happy Birthday.

On the social side we hosted two Coffee Mornings for the Church. We help celebrate Keith and Pat’s 70th birthdays, introduced Andrew to the mystery of barn dances, had a very enjoyable Christmas Meal at the Tudor Restaurant for which I would like to thank Richard for organising it.

During the year we have rung for 14 Weddings , to mark the opening of the Blake350, Light a Life service, Town Carol Service and opened the tower for Carnival Day.

I look forward to 2008 in achieving our targets of

1 Entering a team in the Striking Competition

2 To ring all 8 bells on a Sunday morning - by St Mary’s Ringers

3 Ring Handbells at the Town Carol Service

I would like to thank my fellow ringers, Keith, Keith, Hasu, Viv and Richard for their help, support, sense of fellowship and fun.

Thank you very much

Margaret

Tower Captain Report 2006

What a year 2006 proved to be.

The Website was launched in April and we have had some interesting comment left in our guest book including an ex ringer who was taught by Keith Lane and is still ringing in London. I would like to thank Barry Lee for his time and ongoing support in getting us posted on the world wide web.

We continue to attract new ringers to the Tower at the moment our band of recruits are Alison, Jake, Anna, Charlotte, Rawnie, Diane, Kim and Kelly. They are all making good progress, so much in fact that Kelly and Jake now ring with on Sunday mornings.
Dawn attended the Plain Hunt training course and turned out to be the star of the day. Hasu, Viv, Keith L, Keith P and Richard continue to be great support and their patience in ringing rounds or call changes instead of progressing their knowledge in ringing methods is to be commended. I feel I should point out that both Richard and Keith P have taken to teaching bell handling very well.
Because of the situations we find ourselves in we did not manage to ring a quarter peal for the Quarter Peal Fortnight in September. We were pleased that Keith L is now able to ring with us again on Sunday mornings.
With all this in mind we have still rung for all the Sunday morning services, The Town Carol Service, Light up a Life Service and three weddings, so we have achieved a lot.

On the social side, we held two Coffee Mornings raising money for the Church, spend a very enjoyable afternoon playing cricket on the beach at Berrow, having a cream tea at Keith and Pat Lane's and not forgetting our Mexican Christmas Meal. I would like to thank Richard for organising this.

I will only touch on the work that has been done in the belfry because I'm sure Keith will tell us more in his report but I would like to thank him for what he has done over the past year which include arranging for Kelly and Peter to help him clean the bellframe after pigeons had found their way into the belfry.

I think the highlights of the year for me were

Seeing three of our ringers being confirmed at St Francis,
Ringing eight bells on Sunday morning by all St Mary's ringers.
Opening the Tower on Carnival Day when you always meet some interesting people and they sometimes show an interest in ringing and hopefully we have sown the seed.
And finally we as a team, organised the Branch Outing to North Devon, it was a very enjoyable day. Di and Susan served Tea and Coffee, Hasu and Kelly for the raffle, Keith and Viv did a quiz so the ringers did not fall asleep on the way home, and, special mention if I may to thank Richard who, on the hottest day in September, organised the coach and directions for our Polish driver and his Polish satnav!

I would like to thank you all for your support, companionship, and sense of fun, I also look forward to another enjoyable year of happy ringing.
Margaret Lee