Ringing news

Another page turns in the life of the tower, as Christmas is rapidly followed by the AGM and Tower Dinner.

Nigel Herriott stood down after two years hard work as foreman, a post he took up when he had been less than a year in the parish. Stewart Gibson has now taken on the job and we look forward to supporting him as we face new challenges. We now have many young people setting out on their ringing careers, and we would like them to contribute more actively to tower fe. At the same time, we are continually challenged by the need to improve the quality of our ringing, something easily said but harder to achieve.

The Annual dinner was marked in true style by ringing a peal of Cambridge Surprise Major in the morning. Three hours ringing can be quite an ordeal when you are roasted by the church heating for the first hour and frozen for the remaining two when it switches off. Few would attempt to don an extra sweater while on the end of a bell rope.

The dinner was at the Warren Inn, in cozy but not cramped surroundings. It is our custom to invite one of the clergy or a warden as guest of honour, and this year we were delighted to welcome Colin James. After the foreman’s light hearted summary of the year’s events, Colin, responding for the guests, began his ‘sermon’, which ended in style by quoting from a seemingly endless string of malapropisms, all of which he assured us were true.

The third speaker is normally chosen at random as a sort of booby prize. This year, true to our wish to involve the young folk, Claire Amner’s name had been drawn. Showing considerable resource, she marshalled all of the under 20s for a joint performance, first an animated reading from Roald Dahl’s interpretation of Little Red Riding Hood and then a mass rendering of ‘Big John’ with words adapted to t the local scene. I was relieved that most of the references were mildly complementary!

John Harrison (Feb 1993)