Please see below a list of the District Practices for this year
Category Archives: Basingstoke District
CANCELLED – Basingstoke District Practice at Yateley – Saturday 21st March 2020 – 4:30pm – 6pm
Given current Government advice – this month’s Basingstoke District Practice at Yateley is cancelled.
Basingstoke District Practice at Eversley – 15th February 2020 – 11am – 12:30pm
The next Basingstoke District practice will take place at Eversley (6 bells, 5cwt tenor) on Saturday 15th February 2020 from 11am until 12:30pm.
As always all levels and abilities will be catered for and rounds, call changes, Plain Bob and Grandsire will be rung and a brief meeting for the election of any new members will be held.
Basingstoke District Practice at Crondall – Saturday 16th November – 7-8:30 pm
The last Basingstoke District Practice of the year will take place just outside the District at Crondall (8 bells, 14cwt tenor) on Saturday 16th November from 7pm until 8:30pm. As always all levels and abilities will be catered for.
Hope to see many of you there.
Joseph
Basingstoke District Practice at Newnham – Saturday 19th October – 3:30pm to 5pm
The next Basingstoke District Practice will be at Newnham (5 bells, 5cwt tenor) on Saturday 19th Octobet from 3:30 pm to 5pm. As always all levels and abilities will be catered for.
There is currently a road closure on Newnham Road shortly after the Newnham clubroom. Anyone approaching from the Hook or Odiham direction is advised to approach either via Rotherwick or to take the Crown Lane turning from the A30 just down the hill from the Basingstoke Country Hotel which will take you to the church
Hope to see many of you there.
Joseph
Basingstoke District Outing to Alton – Saturday 21st September
This month’s Basingstoke District event is an outing to Alton. We will be ringing at All Saints Alton (6 bells, 6cwt tenor) from 11:15am – 12:15pm followed by a break for lunch (please make your own arrangements).
Following lunch we will ring at St. Lawrence Alton (8 bells, 18cwt tenor) from 2:30pm – 3:30pm.
As always ringers of all abilities are very welcome.
Joseph
Basingstoke District Practice and Belfry Maintenance Session at Bramley – Saturday 17th August – 7pm – 9pm
The next Basingstoke District Practice will take place at Bramley (8 bells, 12cwt tenor). The first hour of the practice (7pm -8pm) will however focus on belfry maintenance and will take place in amongst the bells themselves – if you are keen to be involved in this please come suitably attired and be aware that there is a ladder to climb. Normal ringing will then follow in the second hour (8pm-9pm) and as usual all levels will be catered for.
Look forward to seeing many of you there.
Joseph.
Basingstoke District Practice at Wootton St. Lawrence – Saturday 20th July – 10:30am – 12:00pm
The next Basingstoke District Practice will be held at Wootton St. Lawrence (6 bells 7cwt tenor) from 10:30am until 12pm. As usual ringers of all abilities are very welcome.
Hope to see many there.
Joseph
Contact Michael Church
Basingstoke District Practice at Winchester Cathedral – Sunday 16th June – 2:00pm to 3:30pm
The next Basingstoke District Practice will be slightly different from normal as we will be ringing at Winchester Cathedral prior to Evensong. Please let Nici – the District Secretary know if you are coming as the Cathedral need a list of names of those attending.
If you are coming we will be meeting at the West door at 2pm as it isn’t certain which entrance will be in use at the time.
Hope to see plenty of you there.
Joseph
Basingstoke District Practice at Silchester – Saturday 18th May – 2:30pm – 4pm
The next Basingstoke District Practice will take place on Saturday 18th May from 2:30pm to 4pm at Silchester (5 bells – 6.5cwt). As always all levels of abilities will be catered for including rounds and call changes, Plain Bob and Grandsire.
Hope to see you there.
Joseph
Basingstoke District Practice at Deane – Saturday 13th April – 10:30 AM
The next Basingstoke District Practice will be at Deane on Saturday 13th April from 10:30am until 12pm.
If you are going, please park on the road outside the gate to the church; parking is not permitted on the drive or the small church parking area.
Joseph
Contact Joseph Sharp
Email: Use form
New Years Day Practice at Rotherwick
Due to a fair amount of interest, there will be a practice night at Rotherwick on Tuesday – New Years Day. Do come along 7.30 – 9.00 with a trip to The Leather Bottle after! In the unlikely event that not enough turn up, the Leather Bottle visit might be earlier – so if you are coming get there early!
Congratulations to Matthew Dancy – First Peal!
Huge congratulations to Matthew Dancy on ringing his first peal at Selborne today. Matthew only turned 14 last month and has been learning to ring at All Saints, Basingstoke, Newnham and more recently at Bishopstoke. In the peal where his Mum, Margaret and Grandpa, Ian making Matthew the third generation of the family to ring. Grandma Ann was on hand too for band photos but declined to ring in the attempt.
Matthew rang really well throughout and only gave a hint of a teenage smile as the peal cane round. Let’s see if he can beat Grandpa Ian’s total of over 3300 – a little way to go!


Tommy’s Travels in the Basingstoke District – Saturday 1st September 2018
Remembrance is often difficult without direct memories or those passed on through family. Men who died in war were young and so are a dead-end on their family tree diagram. Many were never fathers, grandfathers or great grandfathers with photos and prized possessions passed through the family to keep them alive in the hearts of future generations. Memories of them 100 years on are now faded in the family histories.
Taking Tommy on his travels made these brave soldiers more alive to us, as ringers we had an insight into a small aspect of their lives. We know the hard work, dedication, attention to detail and reliability needed to be part of a group of ringers; how team work is essential and that we are an extended family.
Five towers in our district lost ringers. At each tower we had open ringing on tower bells or handbells followed by a silence to remember and then tolling of the tenor for the age of the ringer.
Our tour started at Yateley where we remembered Lance Sergeant Charles Albert Butler, aged 21. Ringing included rounds, rounds and call changes Grandsire and Plain Bob triples. The Yateley Society put on a display on the village green just outside the church which encouraged the general public to come and find out about ringing and see the ringers in action.
Stratfield Saye is a lovely little church on the Stratfield Estate. No ringing is allowed on the bells as the tower is now too weak. However, the vicar took us up to see the bells and we were able to sound each individual bell with a hammer (an ‘interesting’ tuning of a ring of 5 bells).
Five ringers were lost from this church: Lance Corporal Joseph Binge (20); Private Thomas William Binge(22);Private Albert George Broadhurst (24); Sapper Charles Kersley (30) and Private John Robert Series ( age unknown so we tolled the tenor 26 times).
Standing where our lost Tommies would have stood in the ringing room looking at the same oak bracing beams, brick walls and circle of five ropes was a poignant moment. Probably this was the whole band that had perished and that these men had possibly all worked on the estate or in the village.
At the chancel crossing we rang handbells ,mainly rounds with each person having a single bell.
The vicars’ young grandson, as well as Mary Oliver who rang at St Michael’s in Basingstoke many years ago also joined in.
The churchyard has mature trees that certainly would have been growing 100 years ago giving us a further connection to the past. We all sat together between these trees and ate a picnic, then tolled the tenor handbell for each of lost from the ringing family.
Next stop was Bramley. Here the stone work of the tower window had disintegrated and so no ringing of the tower bells was allowed as masonry falling onto the ringers was a real possibility. Some Bramley ringers joined us and we rang handbells in memory of Private Alec William Symonds (21). Interestingly the plaque in the church ranked him as Corporal.
Deane is a tiny village to the west of Basingstoke. The church has structural problems so ringing is generally restricted to special occasions and individual pieces of ringing are limited to about ten minutes in duration. The order of the bells in some changes makes them a little tricky to strike at times as tower movement makes some of the bells drop.
Two ringers from the same family were lost from this band. I was given the privilege of tolling the tenor for the life of Private Alfred Kirby aged 25 (about the same age as my youngest, Greg, is now and who is also a ringer) . Also remembered was Private Frank Kirby (34)
Our last visit of the day was to Dummer to remember Rifleman Royston Bishop(24)
We had some lovely ringing on the 5 bells. We were very grateful to members of the Dummer band who provided us with much needed refreshments.
The clear statue of Tommy travelled with us those and stood amongst us at each tower and gave us an echo of our lost members.
Lynne Jordan
Photos provided by Graham Sargent and Gary Marsh.
Videos provided by Gary Marsh.
Basingstoke District WW1 day of ringing and remembering – Tommy on Tour – Saturday 1st September 2018
Please be reminded and invited to a day of marking the loss of local bellringers in the First World War across churches in the Basingstoke District of our W&P Guild. Please take the time to view the itinerary and note that some churches will be participating through handbell ringing.
Whether a handbell ringer, full circle or both, your presence at any or all of the churches will be greatly valued, not least by your fellow ringers, but by all in the Guild as we continue to work towards a fitting remembrance of our fallen.
The day starts in Yateley and this below from the Yateley Society describes some hows and whys.
“Basingstoke District Bell Ringers will be ringing the bells at St Peter’s Yateley on Saturday 1st September at 10.45 to 11.30 to remember bellringer Lance Sgt Charles Albert Butler who was killed 14th Apr 1918. He was the son of the bailiff of Yateley Manor. Two other sons served in WW1 but survived.
The Guild of bellringers has a project to remember the lives of the bellringers who lost their lives in WW1. Their tour next Saturday will ring at 5 different towers where the Winchester Diocese lost bell ringers. The ringers will first visit Yateley then they will go on to Stratfield Saye, which lost 5 bell ringers, Bramley, Deane and Dummer.
Yateley Society members will join with the local branch of the British Legion and Yateley Town Council to explain to local shoppers why the bells are ringing, who they are ringing for, and where he lived.
Look out for the Society’s gazebo on the Green outside the Dog & Partridge. Peter Tipton, author of ‘Yateley in the Great War’ will have his laptop there to find the WW1 relatives of local people.
Most residents of present-day Yateley were not born here so are unlikely to have had relations living in Yateley in WW1. But by finding their own relatives and building their LifeStory on IWM’s permanent digital memorial local people will be able to remember their own family members during the bellringing remembering Charles Butler of Yateley. Relatives we might might find on #LivesOfWW1 are not restricted to the British Isles. There are 7.6 million names on the IWM memorial from all over the old Empire. The men from India and Pakistan who served in Indian Regiments are included, as are the men who served with the Chinese Labour battalions.
The Society will also have a small display about Sgt Butler and the Yateley Bellringers before and after WW1. ‘Yateley in the Great War’, recently published by Pen & Sword Books, will also be available for those who have not yet purchased a copy.”
See poster here for more details of this event.
Guild Education -Plain Hunt and Trebling to Doubles Methods – Sat 13th Oct – Church Oakley
The Education Committee’s first course for this Autumn is Plain Hunting and Trebling to Doubles Methods, which will take place on Saturday 13 October 2018, based at Church Oakley.
A poster and application form (both Word and pdf versions) are below. As always – any queries, please let me know.
Many thanks.
Visitors Tour Isle of Wight
A group from the Basingstoke area, led by Vice-Master Pete Jordan, toured the Island last Saturday and spent the day ringing at six of our towers.
Among those rung were Freshwater, Brighstone and Godshill .
Final ring of the day was Ryde with its heavy 26.2cwt. I found them all gaining sustenance for the last tower of the day eating fish and chips on the church lawn!
The group set sail from Cowes as the sun was setting. I hope you all enjoyed your day ‘overseas’.
May District Practice
The May Basingstoke District Practice is at Wolverton on Saturday May 19th at 6.00 – 7.30 pm. Wolverton is a delightful 8cwt 6 with bells that ring themselves! And ..to the pub after to quench the thirst and for a social! Do join us.
Basingstoke District Practice 14th April
Saturday 14th April – St Martin’s, Ellisfield, RG25 2QR.
11.00 am – 2 mile walk from church
12.00 pm – Lunch at The Fox, Ellisfield, RG25 2QW.
2.30 – 4.00 pm District practice on these delightful 6 cwt 5
Everything rung from calls & round changes to usual doubles methods.
All welcome to join in, the day is broken up so you can join in for whatever part you wish! How good it that!
Basingstoke District Monthly Practice Saturday 17th March 3.30 pm
Saturday 17th March 3.30 pm – 5.00 pm – District Practice at Herriard on these lovely, easy to ring bells. Those of all standards are welcome, ringing Calls and Round Changes, Plain Bob, Grandsire and even Cambridge. Retiring to a local pub after. Come along, you know you want to! RG25 2PH
Message of Thanks from Viv Nobbs
Viv has posted her thanks for the help and support over the sad weeks following the death at 96 of her Mum, Irene.
I repeat here, for those of you who know Viv and Graham through ringing, her comments for those of you not on Facebook:
‘We had tremendous support from many friends on Monday at Mum’s funeral. Thanks to you all.
The service was marvellous as far as we were concerned – Mum would have been very humble to know that serving Police Officers – quite a number – were there to honour her by forming a guard of honour and then six of the group being pall bearers.
It certainly helped family members to have so many folk there to share the sad occasion. x x
This to my fellow ringers:
Thanks everyone for the ringing tributes for Mum throughout Monday. The ringing at Newport and at Ryde was wonderful. Thanks to David Weir, Darren Westmore and John Stock working together and going that extra mile to achieve the very best for Mum and our family. Once again, we’ve seen the ringing family providing valuable support, umprompted, just when it’s needed. Exceptional !! Thank you all.’
Here also is the quarter tribute we rang on Monday evening:
Winchester & Portsmouth Diocesan Guild
Basingstoke District Practice Sat 18th Nov. 3.30 at Crondall.
Basingstoke District Practice Saturday 18th Nov. 1530 – 1700 at Crondall.
One space available at Stedman Doubles Practice (10.30am 11th Nov)
Helpers Needed for Stedman Doubles Practice – Nov 11th, 10.30, at Herriard
Basingstoke District Outing Saturday 16th September
The Basingstoke District outing is in the area to the south of Stockbridge on Saturday 16th September.
The itinerary is as follows:-
10.15-11.00: All Saints, Houghton 6 – 2cwt SO20 6LJ
11.15-12.00: St Andrew’s, Mottisfont 5 – 6cwt SO51 0LL
Lunch at The Hatchet Inn, Sherfield English
14.00-15.00: Clock House Bells, Awbridge 10 – 3cwt SO51 0HN
15.30-16.15: St Mary’s, Broughton 6 – 11cwt SO20 8AA
If you wish to join the group please email Nici
We will be sending a pre-order, so please could you let me have your lunch choices by MONDAY 11TH SEPTEMBER http://www.hatchetinn.com/menu.htm.
Report from Cambridge Surprise Minor Practice – Saturday 26th August
Saint Mary the Virgin, Micheldever held a Stedman and Erin doubles practice on Saturday 8 July 2017. The training day was brilliant. Great support from local ringers and an opportunity to meet new people and have some extended quality rope time. Personally this session really helped me consolidate my Stedman learning resulting in me completing a touch of Stedman and completing a plain course of Erin which was a first for me.
On the day I met Deb Baker, and we decided to arrange a training day for Cambridge Surprise Minor. Debs arranged the bells and I looked to gather a team of helpers.
Last Saturday 26th August (bank holiday weekend) two students and nine helpers from across the district undertook Cambridge Surprise Minor simulator practice at Crondall. Initially the students took turns ringing the method before we advanced to having two students in at the same time. The practice culminated in Debs and me ringing three plain courses together, which was a challenge but completed with some guidance on the second and third courses. It was a brilliant three hour practice with the students walking away with much more knowledge and experience than they had started with and I think the helpers had a good time too.
For a bit of fun the practice finished with a round of quacking ducks on the simulator. If you’ve never tried it you should, it was very funny!
Finally thanks goes to Crondall, for the use of the tower. A big thank you to all the helpers for making this practice such a great success and thanks goes to Roy LeMarechal, who kindly acted as tower captain and structured the practice on the day.
Rebecca Webb
Quarter Peal at St Michael’s, Basingstoke, Commemorating 3 fallen soldiers
Winchester & Portsmouth Diocesan Guild
Basingstoke, Hampshire
St Michael
Sunday, 20 August 2017 (14–1–10 in F)
1260 Grandsire Triples
1 Peter Rowe
2 Alison Smith
3 Maggie Ellis
4 Angela Athawes
5 Tom Blomley
6 Lynne Jordan
7 Greg Jordan (C)
8 Jon Soar
Rung to commemorate the lives of the following, who gave their lives in WWI:
Sergeant Herbert John Irving, 3375 11th Bn Australian Infantry A.I.F. died 7 May 1917 aged 24. Born at Basingstoke.
Gunner George Charles Dimes, 87665, 188th Heavy Bty. Royal Garrison Artillery, died 5 May 1917 aged 26.
Ordinary Telegraphist Gordon Thomas Sansom, J/32712 H.M.S. “Derwent”, died 2 May 1917 aged 17.
A W&P WWI quarter