Category Archives: Portsmouth St Agatha
All Ringing at Portsmouth St Agatha is by arrangement
Portsmouth St. Agatha – Peal Ringers needed Tuesday and Easter Day
I am looking for ringers for peals on
- Tuesday 11th April 6.15 pm meet and
- Easter Day 12.30 pm start
We do not have a specialist treble ringer
200th Peal rung on the bells at Portsmouth St. Agatha
Winchester & Portsmouth Diocesan Guild
On Tuesday, 14 March 2017 in 2:31
Portsmouth, Hampshire
St Agatha
Tenor: 3–0–1 in F
5200 Double Norwich Court Bob Major
Composed by A G Reading
1 E C Gareth Higgs
2 Toby Arkless
3 Graham A Nobbs
4 James W G Twiney
5 Kathryne R Arkless
6 Paul T Young
7 Malcolm M Powell
8 Edward P D Colliss (C)
200th peal on the bells.
Lord Mayor of Portsmouth rings Tower Bells!
“Yes I did” said The Lord Mayor when asked if he’d enjoyed his tower bell ringing Taster Session!!
The Lord Mayor had met with bell ringers before and was keen to have a go at Tower Bell Ringing himself. He met up with a group of Portsmouth ringers at St. Agatha’s Church recently and was “Shown the ropes”.
He had noticed how challenging it can be, physically and mentally, and that young bell ringers get a good deal of fun out of the activity. When young ringers learn and then develop together, in a group, bell ringing is particularly exciting for them especially when they train for, and enter, competitions.
There are now teaching slots available in the Portsmouth area and The Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress – who both did very well in their training sessions – are kindly offering their support to match the demand of potential new ringers to the availability and location of local Bell Ringing Coaches.
Local young groups including scouting organisations, church groups, schools and the Duke of Edinburgh scheme would be ideal.
For further information, please see http://wpbells.org
or email the District Secretary, Lisa
Viv Nobbs
Public Relations Officer
Winchester and Portsmouth Diocesan Guild of Church Bell Ringers.
Tel: 07594 609 366
In Memory of Christopher Smithies (Bournemouth Sacred Heart)
The Funeral of Christopher Smithies on Tuesday at Sacred Heart Bournemouth, took the form of a Latin Mass sung by members of his family. Ringing beforehand was by the local band, afterwards all the (many) assembled ringers were able to take part in general ringing and then a Quarter Peal was rung.
Chris is mourned by ringers from three Guilds (Winchester and Portsmouth, Salisbury and St Agatha). His interests spread far beyond ringing and he will be much missed. A full obituary can be read here.
Peal and Quarters have been ring in Dorset and London. At the time of going to press these were reported as below. Click image to see more.
Practice St Agatha’s Portsmouth, Weds 4th May
There is a practice at the unconventional time of 7pm-8pm at St Agatha’s, Portsmouth, on Wednesday the 4th of May. Everyone is welcome; we have a learner focusing on rounds and call changes but are also keen to ring other things! It would be great if people would like to come and have a grab!
There is free parking just off the Cascades car park.
There is free parking just off the Cascades car park.
Many thanks,
Lizzie Hough
Steam Locomotive Commemorated by a peal
Early in 2010 whilst musing over a book about Great Western Railway locomotives a plan was hatched (In the pub, where else!!) to attempt to ring a series of methods named after the famous Castle Class Great Western Locomotives. The Castle Class was the work horse of the Great Western Railway from the 1920’s to the end of mainline steam in the 60’s and were regularly seen pulling passenger Locomotives across the County and down into Cornwall. 100 of the locomotives with names such as Launceston Castle, Ludlow Castle, Earl of St Germans and of course Isambard Kingdom Brunei bore engine numbers between 5000 and 5099, so the challenge was set not only to ring a new method to the name but a peal with the exact number of changes to match the engine number…. [read full article]
The method has only been pealed 5 times (never with the target 5029 changes!), the most recent one in W&P today:
Winchester & Portsmouth Diocesan Guild
Portsmouth, Hampshire
St Agatha
Wednesday, 16 March 2016 in 2hr 36m (3-0-1)
5024 No 5029 Nunney Castle Surprise Major
Composed by Robert D S Brown
1 E C Gareth Higgs (C)
2 Frank R Morton
3 Peter M Wilkinson
4 James W G Twiney
5 Colin J Butler
6 Malcolm M Powell
7 Martin J E Daniels
8 Edward P D Colliss
First Peal in 15 methods for 3 Catherington Ringers (Firsts Fortnight)
3 members of Catherington Band scored Firsts this week…
Winchester & Portsmouth Diocesan Guild
Portsmouth, Hampshire
St Agatha
Tuesday, 15 March 2016 in 2h 42 (3-0-1)
5152 Spliced Surprise Major (15m)
448 Ashtead, Bristol, Cambridge, Ipswich, Lincolnshire, Rutland, Uxbridge, Yorkshire, 224 Cassiobury, Cornwall, Cray, Lindum, London, Pudsey, Superlative, 146 com, atw
1 R Mark Esbester
2 Malcolm M Powell
3 Alison Hunt
4 Kathryne R Arkless
5 David Hohl
6 Thomas J A Bishop
7 Graham A Nobbs
8 Toby Arkless (C)
Most methods – 3, 5, 6
Circled the tower – 1
Reported by Toby Arkless
Minor Practice at Portsmouth St Agatha ‘s Weds 9th March
There’s another practice at Portsmouth St Agatha’s between 7pm and 8pm tomorrow (Wednesday) evening. Everyone is welcome. I’ve been informed that there may be roadworks, so there might not be access to the carpark. I imagine the rest of the Cascades carpark will still be accessible, or round the corner by the Catholic Cathedral.
Lizzie Hough
Tower Pages for Portsmouth District
Contact Malcolm Powell
Telephone: 023 9234 8587
Address: 3 Poynings Place, Portsmouth PO1 2PB
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