December 2010

Great News! We have been granted the funding for a new set of bell ropes and the order has been placed. Thank you! Hopefully these will be with us in the Autumn.

Not such great news is the fact that we are still waiting for our 4 new tail ends. Despite being told when we placed the order in October that they would be with us “in weeks”, and then that they would definitely be with us by Christmas, we still haven’t got them. According to the manufacturers “snow and ‘flu” have contributed to the delay. I can understand how ‘flu can affect rope making, snow I have more difficulty with! Anyway, we continue to ring and, fingers crossed, the worst worn-out ropes will last until the new tail ends arrive.

As always, December was particularly busy up in the tower. Christmas sees us ringing for three services on Christmas Eve as well as Christmas morning in addition to our usual Sunday ringing. This year we were struck down with a lot of illness and there was a lot of “last minute” change of ringers. I was very pleased, and extremely appreciative of our dedicated band of ringers, that we still managed to ring all 8 bells for every service.

One of last year’s learners, Edward Clark (aged 13), rang his first Quarter Peal on Christmas Eve at a few hours notice! This was his first attempt at a Quarter Peal and he rang it excellently. Well done Ed!

We welcomed members of the youth groups “Juice” and “Refresh” up to the tower during the month. We showed them the bells and let them all have a go at ringing a bell. Sadly I don’t think any of them want to take up bell-ringing but it was fun having them – even if I had forgotten how noisy children can be!

So here we are - January. New year, new resolutions, new challenges, new aims but one constant: every Wednesday night and twice on Sundays a Band of Swanage Ringers will climb the 50 steps up to the tower and ring our wonderful peal of 8 bells.