Here are the Christmas Ringing details (Hopefully). Be ready for adjustment emails to arrive should I get it wrong! If I don’t see you before – I hope you all have an amazing Christmas.
Please can I also have names for the AGM District meeting held in Alton on 12th January. We are hosting so need numbers for food.
Monday 24th December (Christmas Eve)
Crib Service ringing – 3:30pm – St Lawrence Church, Alton
Midnight Communion – 11:00pm – St Lawrence Church, Alton
Tuesday 25th December (Christmas Day)
NO All Saints Practice
09:00am Service ringing at Holyrood, Holybourne
10:00am Service Ringing at St Lawrence Alton
Thursday 27th December
No Practice at St Lawrence
Saturday 29th December
No Learners and Improvers
Alton 8 bell practice will go ahead 5:30pm till 7:30pm at St Lawrence
Sunday 30th December
No Service ringing
Monday 31st December (New Years Eve)
Ringing in the New Year – St Lawrence Church, Alton 10:30pm (TBC) Bring some nibbles and drinks and ring in the New Year at Midnight.
Tuesday 1st January (New Years Day)
No Practice at All Saints
Thursday 3rd January
7:30pm – 9:00pm Practice at St Lawrence as per normal.
Any questions please ask Matt or drop me an email.
Due to a 5pm wedding at Holybourne and a concert at St. Lawrence, it has become necessary to cancel the November 24th eight bell practice.
As everyone will be busy between Christmas and New Year we have decided to restart the Alton, St. Lawrence monthly eight bell practices again on January 26th.
Don’t forget there is an 8 bell practice at Alton, St. Lawrence this Saturday (June 30th) from 5.30 to 7.30pm. A perfect opportunity to catch up on those methods that you may not always have enough ringers for in your home tower.
Several of the Alton ringers, and other regular attendees, will be away this weekend so Roger has volunteered to run it. He’d love to see you there.
Matt has asked me to let you know that tomorrow’s 8 bell practice at Alton St Lawrence will start at 6pm rather than 5.30, its still running till 7.30 though.
New year’s Eve ringing.We will have the usual get together in the tower (St Lawrence) and then ring from 11.15pm till 12.30am approx to see the New Year in.
This is a general practice open to ringers of all abilities.
Whilst it is great to see many learners wanting to make progress at these practices, it is important that there are plenty of more experienced ringers there too. So please come if you can, it benefits us all.
Many of you would have met Paul Windels III a regular visitor to Alton from New York. We have over the years been joined by Paul and his family on many occasions. Some of us even visited Paul in New York at Trinity and attempted a Peal of Stedman caters and scored a quarter of Plain Bob Caters.
Paul passed away on his way to ringing practice at Kent.
The Alton Bell ringers will miss Paul and we send our condolences to Cathy, Mary Catherine and Paul Jr.
Winchester & Portsmouth Diocesan Guild
Alton, Hampshire
St Lawrence
Saturday, 17 June 2017 in 45 (18–1–20 in E)
1264Plain Bob Major
1David M Hughes
2Kaylee South
3Judy Sparling
4Liz South
5Jessica Hornsby
6Michael J Novell
7Matthew D Watts
8Andrew P Sparling (C)
Rung during Regency Week in memory of Paul Windels III (annual visitor from New York and a Jane Austin enthusiast). With thanks to Revd Andrew Micklefield who led us in prayers.
The four students were at all different levels and by the end of the morning the students were all ringing Stedman Doubles 120 and all ringing together.
The students came from Alton, Basingstoke and Bishopstoke.
This amazing progression was achieved by some fantastic helpers who travelled from Alton, Basingstoke, Overton, Sherfield-on-Loddon and Kingsclere.
Thank you to everyone for making today such a success.
The ringers at Alton, St.Lawrence are very pleased to announce that, although the scaffolding may still be up, there is no longer an RSJ through the bell chamber and that practices will start again on Thursday 30th March at 7.30pm. They would love to see you if you would like to join them.
Wednesday practices are also resuming at Hawkley from 7.45pm, but Roger Barber suggests that you contact him beforehand if you’re thinking of going, just to be on the safe side.
Just to let you know that, due to renovation works on the church necessitating the temporary installation of an RSJ under the bells, there will be no ringing at Alton, St.Lawrence until further notice. There will instead be two practices a week at Alton, All Saint’s. 7.30 to 9.00pm on Tuesday as normal and now 7.30 to 9.00pm on Thursday as well.
The idea had been talked about for some time, it now became reality.
On Saturday 4th June 2016 the St Lawrence Learners and Improvers Practice went on tour.
We started at 9.30am at St Mary, Liss where we joined the local weekly practice.Liss has a nice light ring of 8 (12-1-26) so everyone was able to have a go without feeling that any bell would be too heavy for them.This was one of the aims of the day as towers were selected that had easy access and all bells could be rung by all ringers.We spent an hour at Liss and were treated to tea and coffee by the local band before we moved on.
binsted Holy Cross Photograph by Chris Kippin
Next stop was the 6 bell tower (12-3-17) at Holy Cross, Binsted from 11.00am till 12 noon.Here we had two unexpected additions to the group.Whilst we were ringing the two gardeners, who were tending the churchyard, had been fascinated by what we were doing and asked if they could have a go.We gave them a quick briefing as to how things worked and then let them try their had at ringing.They both enjoyed the experience and indicated that they might like to learn more, unfortunately they are not local but we did point them in the direction of their local churches, so maybe we will see them again somewhere in the future.
Our third tower was Our Lady of Warnford another 6 bell ring (12-2-10) from 12.30pm till 1.30pm.Another of the stated aims of this tour was that we would only do basic ringing i.e. Rounds, Call Changes, Plain Hunt, Plain Bob and Grandsire.However, we did allow our team of loyal helpers a little bit of fun by ending this session before lunch with some Norwich Surprise Minor.
Lunch was taken at The George and Falcon in Warnford, a very leisurely affair, thanks to Judy Sparling who organised us all to pre-order.
After lunch we moved on toSt Mary, Selborne a manageable 8 (8-3-8) with everyone having a go.We were here form 3pm till 4pm.
Holybourne. Photo by David Forder
We rounded the day off with a nice light ring of 8 (6-3-16) at The Church of the Holy Rood, Holybourne from 4.30pm till 5.30pm. At this last tower we set up the District Bookstall to give all the learners the opportunity to buy books to help consolidate their knowledge and we took a fewphotos.
Everyone said how much they had enjoyed the day, so it looks like we may be doing it again.I would like to give special thanks to Matt Watts for organising the event and booking the towers, to Judy Sparling for organising us all at lunch and for providing the bookstall, to Liz South for providing us with chocolates and strawberries throughout the day, to Rene Bailey for providing much needed Kit-Kats and Twix Bars at Holybourne and to all the helpers.Finally a big thank you to all the learners and improvers who turned up, without you the event would not have happened.
After all the excitement of the day we went for a beer and a curry.Everyone one was invited but it ended up with about 15 of us.
I think the day could be summed up by saying: “Good ringing, good food, good friends and a great day out!”
Thanks to Mike Novell for the article and Madeline King for the photo of the band.
A very happy group toured local Alton & Petersfield churches. A& P members were invited to ring for all or part of the day. Thanks to Matt Watts for ably arranging the day on behalf of St. Lawrence bell ringers, Alton. Madeline
All welcome, as always at St Lawrence. The day will be geared towards “Learners and Improvers” and I would love to see any members from any tower. It has been organised with the district in mind, replaces our towers coach outing this year. Matt
St Lawrence Alton
“Learners & Improvers on Tour”
Outing Saturday June 4th 2016
Please join us for as much or for as little of the day As you can. All abilities welcome.
Liss
St Mary
GU33 7AQ
12-1-16
8 Bells
9.30am
To
10.30am
Binsted
Holy Cross
GU34 4NX
12-3-17
6 Bells
11am
To
12pm
Warnford
Our Lady
SO32 3LA
12-2-10
Bells
12.30pm
To
1.30pm
Selborne
St Mary
GU34 3JQ
8-3-8
8 Bells
3pm
To
4pm
Holyborne
Holy Rood
GU34 4HH
6-3-16
8 Bells
4.30pm
To
5.30pm
With the chance of an end of Tour Curry. Let me Know if you are interested!
