Please find attached the poster for the next Winchester District Quarterly Meeting, which is to take place in Houghton – All Saints’ Parish Church (the District’s newest and lightest six) for the training session plus whatever post-meeting ringing anyone feels like, and the Village Hall for the tea and business meeting. Paperwork for the business meeting will follow in due course.
For this meeting we are rehearsing our skills in Cambridge and its sister methods – Primrose, Ipswich, Annable’s London, etc. This afternoon session will to some extent complement the Guild Education Day School a fortnight later.
If you’d like to come along, and wish to branch out from Cambridge, please let Jenny Watson know so that we can gauge the level of interest.
We have lots of weddings coming up over the next couple of months and I’m afraid can’t get enough ringers for all of them from local resources! Can anyone help please?
We are short of ringers as follows:-
4th August, St Marys Broughton, 1200 wedding, 1 ringers needed
25th August, St Marys Broughton,1500 wedding. 1 ringer needed.
25th August, St Andrews Mottisfont,1400 wedding, 2 ringers needed
22nd September, All Saints Houghton,1300 wedding, 2 ringers needed.
We have been asked to ring before and after all the weddings so pull off time is 30 minutes before the wedding times above.
If you are able to help please could you reply to Bob Gosse
It’s That Time of Year! Stuff happening all around us! The next Winchester District practice will be on Monday 20th November, 7.30 p.m., and it is at Houghton.
Posters attached, please display/distribute to your band members/put the word round.
Hope to see as many as possible of you there, to support the Houghton/Broughton band.
Ringers required. . 5 ringers required at Mottisfont and 5 ringers required at Broughton. Both weddings at 3.00 pm: £20 per rope: both weddings ringing before and afterwards.
The links above give an illustrated version of these notes.
1. Start from Houghton Village Hall, on the corner of Stevens Drove.
Turn right, and, after about 250 yards, having passed Chapel Close on the right, look on the left for the entrance to a property called Willow House. (5 mins)
2. Here is the gateway to the Clarendon Way, heading east. Shortly afterwards you will cross over the River Test.
3. The next landmark is the crossroads of the Clarendon and Test Ways (20 mins)
Turn left here: the Clarendon Way climbs, you want to keep on the level – the Test Way is along a former railway track.
Not long afterwards there is a fork in the path – keep right!
4. The next major landmark is the Marshcourt National Trust Car Park, on your right (40-50 minutes)
At this point, you can either continue until you come into Trafalgar Way, and carry on up to the White Hart roundabout and turn left into Stockbridge High Street (5 mins approx.)
Or, you can take the path to your left, skirting the northern boundary of the Common Marsh. After about 150 yards, the path crosses the Marshcourt River and heads north, directly towards Stockbridge High Street, along a well-defined path which brings you
out near to Lillie’s tea rooms. Start here …
From the roundabout at the east end of Stockbridge High Street St Peter’s Church is about 5 minutes’ walk, if you take the short-cut leading to Lillie’s that will probably save you about five minutes overall. If you take the walk at a fair clip it would take
about 1¼ to 1½ hours, longer if you wish to take it easy
To return to Houghton, you can either retrace your steps or continue along the High Street until you cross the Test, then turn left: that is about an hour’s walk. It is along the road, so not that great, but not absolutely awful, either. Most of the road is under
either a 30mph or a 40mph speed limit. If you do go this way you can call in at Houghton Lodge Gardens tea room; but be aware that their last orders are at 4.20 p.m.
A little further on is the Boot Inn where you will get tea/coffee at any time but they don’t have any cakes or buns
Here is the poster for the next quarterly meeting, coming up soon – Saturday week to be precise.
I’ll get the agenda and the minutes of the last meeting out tomorrow, and will test the various route possibilities within the next few days. It’s all to be found on OS Explorer no. 131.
Following the time-honoured format, we begin with a try-out on the interesting new ring of six at All Saints’, Houghton, then lunch (BYO) either inside or on the lawn outside the Village Hall in Houghton, where also there will be tea/coffee-making facilities and loos, and parking. Then we have a probably quite short business meeting, and walk to Stockbridge. There are three possible routes, the shortest of which is along the public highway. I am advised this is do-able but can be hairy owing to the presence of tractors, Chelsea or otherwise. There is a longer and more circuitous route to the west over the downs, or you can make your way to the public footpath along the old railway track to Stockbridge.
We ring at Stockbridge from 3.00 to 4.00, which will be a real treat. I attended the inaugural practice on the newly reinstalled six, and – apart from the hazard of the five going up wrong – they handle like a dream.
Depending what arrangements you make, there are options at Stockbridge, including Lillie’s tea rooms, open till 4.45; I have arranged for the King’s Somborne bells to be available from 5.30 onwards, tho’ to get afternoon tea in Stockbridge AND make it to King’s Somborne you will doubtless need to have transport sorted out – or you could walk to KS from Stockbridge and have a coffee/tea or a drink at the pub in King’s Somborne after ringing there.
Please find attached the poster for the next Winchester District Practice, Broughton, Monday Week – and my apologies for the shorter amount of notice than usual/than I prefer.
We’ve been successful in attracting good numbers at our recent District Practices, and the Broughton (ground floor) ring will be an interesting experience. The local band will very much appreciate your attendance.
PS. The next quarterly meeting will be on 12th August: the usual format, bring-your-own picnic and a relaxing stroll through the Hampshire countryside. Quite which bit of the Hampshire countryside is yet to be resolved, however. I have one route which is “in the bag” but not very suitable owing to a big wedding at one of the churches, and another possibility for which I await decisions from the tower reps. Wish me luck ….
Day Three of the Lilliputters Tour 2016 – Wednesday 3rd August
Towers visited on Day Three were Leckford, King’s Somborne, Houghton, Mottisfont, Farley Chamberlayne and Sparsholt. The theme of the day was wooden towers – and, as a bonus, they were all ground floor rings! However, this was made up for in the evening when we joined the Alton and Petersfield District Practice at Winchester Cathedral – a fair climb more than compensating for the lack of steps earlier in the day!
Leckford: A very pleasant 5 from a range of founders and dates. Ringing here is Stedman Doubles, with rare footage of Aaron ringing inside! 😉
King’s Somborne: An old-fashioned country ring of 6 in a large tower, overhauled and tuned in 2001 by Matthew Higby and Co. Featured ringing here is Bob Doubles (outside) and the almost-obligatory Grandsire Minor (inside!)
A picnic lunch at King’s Somborne was the ideal opportunity for general lunacy, with gymnastics, and a children’s play park providing much entertainment. We also had a competition to design a working “human bellframe”….. Guess which side won! 😉
Houghton: A shiny new six installed by Higby and Co a few months prior to our visit, replacing a long-unringable three. Two old Taylor bells are complimented with four new Higby trebles, and the two old tenors are retained as chiming bells. Ringing here was Bob Minor twice (outside, and double-handed inside!) and Bourne Surprise Minor.
Mottisfont: Five different dates and founders set up the “duffer” tower of the day. The treble rope falls dangerously close to the font and the tenor is rung off the tower steps just behind the door, which almost caused an accident a couple of times! Bob Doubles (outside) and some very respectable Erin (inside) – and no, Thomas and Connor didn’t have their fight in the end 😦
Farley Chamberlayne: A novel three, for the laughs! Tuned as the front three of a four, with ropes falling in a straight line and on a set of steps, these provided much amusement. Various 3-bell ringing extracts are included here.
Sparsholt: A nice little six to finish the day on, all from the Whitechapel foundry over various dates. Ringing here includes call changes, Grandisre Doubles, and a new method devised for the tour, named Kaleeb.
Winchester Cathedral: Once again, we were made very welcome by the Alton and Petersfield District for their practice on the ring of fourteen bells at Winchester. Ringing is mostly rounds and call changes on 12/14 from the ringing room, and in the belfry.
VERY SORRY! I am going to have to cancel the District Practice at Houghton which I told you all about yesterday, having received a further update on the bells. To cut to the chase, they MAY be in place in the tower, but we have no guarantee that they will be actually fettled and signed off by the twenty-third.
SO, we are hoping to arrange a similar event once we know the bells are good and ready to go, probably once they’ve been consecrated. I don’t have a date for this at my fingertips but I think it will be in May or June.
MEANWHILE if I can arrange a district practice elsewhere for April, I’ll let you all know.
Please find attached the poster for the next District practice, three weeks today. Unusually this is not being held on the band’s regular practice night, but on Saturday afternoon to serve as an open day for the people of Houghton and environs, including the partner parishes within the benefice to see and hear the bells in action. (As a rule, the practices will be held on Monday nights in rotation with those at Broughton, the near neighbour and one of the constituent parishes of the benefice).
On Saturday 24th October Eling ringers had their first Outing in quite a few years. Organised by yours truly, for the benefit of our newer ringers to give them experience ringing at different towers. A good day out apart from the weather!
The band filmed at Broughton, East Tytherley, Mottisfort, Nether Wallop,Stockbridge and West Tytherley
Sue Welch , a new Houghton ringer rang Plain Hunt Doubles for the first time on the treble at the Hursley beginners practice on Tuesday March. 1st.