Dear all, please see Helen’s latest update.

Well, that was a bit cold! Hopefully it didn’t cause any harm to anyone, limiting damage to some rather cold hands in the tower. Maybe you were able to take a snowy picture of your tower for seasonal use. 

Bells on Sunday

Next Sunday, 19^th March, sees Bells on Sunday featuring Stoke Albany, in the Kettering branch. The program broadcasts at 05.43 and repeats on Monday at 00.45. Assuming that might be a bit early or late for you it will also be available on the BBC Sounds App or on their website after the broadcast: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001k7n9

Guild news

April sees the Spring Meeting. Hoping that it looks like Spring by the time we get to 22^nd April. This opportunity to ring and meet friends includes the 6 bell striking contest for the Weaver shield. If your tower or group wishes to enter a team, entries should be with Simon Dixon (master@pdg.org.uk) by the 15^th April. Should you want to read them, the rules and past winners can be found here: https://pdg.org.uk/events/competitions

There will be ringing at Mears Ashby from 2pm, then the contest will start at Orlingbury at 3 pm. The tea will be in the village hall, about 5 minutes stroll from the church. The results and meeting will follow and there will be evening ringing at Orlingbury. 

The GMC meeting last weekend was busy and lots of work was done by those involved (and I’ve had a lot of minutes to write!). The meeting agreed that the current Recruitment & Training committee structure was not entirely effective due to the breadth of remit and the different skills required to cover this. It was agreed that this should have 2 dedicated sub-committees with separate areas of focus. 

1. Recruitment and initial Training
2. Training

If you or anyone else wishes to join, be involved in or support either committee, please express interest to the Master, Simon Dixon, master@pdg.org.uk. There is as much a place for those with organisational skill as those who can teach or train on these committee. There is no need to be on a branch committee or tower captain; just to be interested or have something to offer on the topic. 

Ringing for the Coronation

There has been ongoing publicity for ringing in the last few weeks. Items have appeared in the Express https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1743033/Britain-bell-ringers-every-bell-in-Britain-ring-out-The-Kings-Coronation and Daily Mail https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11824315/Campaign-seeks-Britains-38-000-church-bells-ringing-Kings-coronation.html  (surprisingly good, this one. Not sure how the pre-practice pint might translate into quality of ringing). 

The latest guidance to churches from the CofE is now available here:

https://www.churchofengland.org/coronation/churches

If you download the Information pack you can find a short paragraph about ringing on page 14. It says that: 

Guidance for bell ringers
It is suggested that Churches and Bell Ringers may wish to consider ringing, where possible, before and/or after the Coronation service to locally gather and mark the Anointing and Crowning of the King at a practicable time (with the agreement of the Parochial Church Council). It is suggested that if you have the facility, a quarter peal would be appropriate, or whatever can be managed with the
resource available.
Bell Ringers may also wish to consider how they could offer ‘taster’ sessions and training as part of your local community gathering or Big Help Out, with the appropriate risk assessments undertaken.

The Guild would add that ringing should be organised to fit in with other local activities and that getting in touch with your church/village to see what they have planned would be advisable. There are plans for events from the 6^th to the 8^th and fitting in with local arrangement would always be preferred. 

CCCBR news

The president’s latest blog is available here: https://cccbr.org.uk/2023/03/10/presidents-blog-76/

Registration for Heritage Open Days is now open. https://cccbr.org.uk/2023/03/04/heritage-open-days-2023/

The CCCBR has published an online information source on running a tower. This can be found here: https://runningatower.cccbr.org.uk/ It can be printed, either in part or full, for in-tower reference. 

Dates for the Diary

Guild Spring Meeting Saturday 22^nd April. 14:00 Open Ringing at Mears Ashby, 15:00 Contest at Orlingbury.

Guild 10 bell practice Saturday 13^th May 10:30 Towcester

Rutland Branch 8 bell Practice Thursday 16^th March 7:30 Uppingham

Wellingborough Surprise Practice Saturday 18^th March 10:30 Wilby

Wellingborough Branch Practice Saturday 18^th March 7:00 Earls Barton

Daventry Branch Practice Saturday 18^th March 3:00 Braunston including service and tea, Welton 6:30

Northampton Branch Practice Saturday 18^th March 7:00 West Hunsbury

Towcester Branch Practice Saturday 25^th March 10:30 Cosgrove

Rutland Branch Progress event Saturday 25^th February 1:30 Preston. Focus Rounds & Call changes

Kettering Joint practice with Thrapston Saturday 25^th March 2:00 pm Cranford St John, 3:15 Islip

Peterborough Afternoon Social – ringing with tea and cake 4:00 Stanground (tbc)

Rutland Branch Progress event Saturday 1^st April 1:30 Edith Weston. Focus Rounds & Call changes

Guilsborough Branch Practice Saturday 1^st April 3:00 Scaldwell 6:00 Walgrave

Peterborough 8 bell practice Friday 7^th April 7:30 Castor

Rutland Branch 6 bell practice Wednesday 12^th April 7:30 Braunston. Focus Surprise

Wellingborough Surprise Practice Saturday 15^th April 10:30 Ecton

Wellingborough Branch Practice Saturday 15^th April 7:00 Bozeat

Daventry Branch Practice Saturday 15^th April 3:00 Weedon Bec including service, tea & meeting

Culworth Branch Practice Saturday 15^th April 7:30 Chipping Warden

Hopefully Spring will have sprung by the time you hear from me next. 

Thanks

Helen

Helen Allton

Secretary: Peterborough Diocesan Guild of Church Bellringers

Facebook: www.facebook.com/PDGCBR

Website: www.pdg.org.uk

e-mail: secretary@pdg.org.uk

Telephone: 01832 735 266

We are planning a social afternoon ringing minor methods on 26 March, 4pm (BST). Venue to be confirmed but hopefully St John the Baptist, Stanground. We will ring for an hour and a half and there will be tea and cake! The tower has a ground floor ring and plenty of room for socialising. I have arranged for some experienced ringers to come to support those with less experience. 50p donation towards the tower.

It would be a good idea to know how many people are planning to attend so we can have enough cake and if you would like to come and have a specific method you would like to ring please let me know so I can warn potential conductors.

Email contact: jrcalamity@icloud.com

We look forward to seeing you.

Jane

Assistant Ringing Master

This Friday 3rd March the branch practice will be at St John’s Peterborough, at 1930hrs. Please note the CHANGE OF USUAL VENUE. This is not a permanent change of venue just a different opportunity for this month.

Please come for a taster of 8 bell ringing on the heavier St John’s bells.

There will be Bob Major available and the special method will be Lessness. If you have been practising Cambridge we will plan to ring this too.

See you on Friday

James

Dear all, Diana Street has again organised a ringing event for the afternoon of Sunday 17 September, with the added bonus of a Cream Tea at the Johnson Farm in Old Hurst.

All are welcome. She has provided the following information:

12:15 (as bells down) – 1pm    Hemingford Abbots 6  14 cwt in G#      (toilet in kitchen area)

1:15 to 2pm                              Hemingford Grey    8  11-2-12 in G#     (toilet in kitchen area)

 2:15 to 3pm  await confirm     St. Ives                     8  12-0-4 in G    (Portaloo inside South Porch)

3:30pm  Johnson’s Farm Old Hurst (off A141) Church St, Huntingdon PE28 3AF

We will leave a donation at each tower, so £3 each should cover this, please give it on the day.|

Details of how to pre-order from the cream tea menu will be available a bit nearer the time. Diana did have to check their home-made scones (scone and tea = cream tea) out before she made the booking!!

Both ringing and non-ringing family members and friends are welcome to join us for afternoon tea at Johnson’s Farm at Old Hurst – we may have a function room to ourselves.

For non-ringers there is the added bonus of the Farm, with its animals, birds and ‘safe distance’ crocodiles to look round for a £3 adult entry fee, including a children’s play park (please have sensible footwear, for the fields part, if there has been any rain), while the rest of us ring!

This Fridayweek is the first Friday of the month so I will look forward to seeing you at the branch practice.

1930hrs at Castor as usual.

If you are a surprise ringer please look at Superlative. If you need Bob major you will be most welcome.

See you there

James

Dear all, at the Branch AGM on Saturday, the Guild presented a paper on possible configurations of Branches across the Peterborough Guild of Bell Ringers. This paper, called Rethinking the Branches, can be found on the downloads page for the AGM, follow this link https://petbells.org.uk/downloads/.

The Branch Committee will be holding a meeting to discuss the document on 26 February. Nick Elks and I will then be attending a Guild Management Committee meeting on Saturday 4 March, which will discuss the way forward.

If you have any views on the matter which you would like us to take into account, please let Nick, nick.elks@gmail.com or me, chairman@peterborough.pdg.org.uk know by Saturday 25 February.

Best wishes,

Hilary

Dear all, a final reminder that I need to know if you plan to attend the Peterborough Branch AGM by Saturday 14 January please, through this link – Branch Events Organiser. Thank you to all those who have already responded confirming attendance, or given their apologies.

The agenda for the AGM and the Minutes of the 2022 meeting, plus other documents for discussion at the meeting, can be found on https://petbells.org.uk/downloads/

Best wishes,

Hilary

Subs rates are still at £7 for adults and £3.50 for students. Over the past year I have also converted some folk over to FLM (Full Life Members) if they have requested it and they have reached the age of 75. Some members still prefer to support the Branch/Guild but the choice is yours.

The easiest way for most people to pay is to make a payment an online payment, as folk have been doing during the pandemic.

Account Name: Peterborough Branch of Bellringers (name will be truncated due to character limitation by your Bank)

Sort Code: 77 72 37

Account #: 11096468

I will be at the AGM at St Mary’s on 20th Jan and alternatively can give me a cheque or cash payment (correct amount preferred). Any arrears for 2023 happily received too.

Any queries please get in touch.

Andrew Christie

Branch Treasurer

Please see the attached accounts that have now been signed off by our examiner. I will share a summary at the Branch AGM at Barnack on 21st January.

Andrew Christie

Branch Treasurer

Dear all, a Happy New Year to everyone.

A reminder that I need to know if you plan to attend the Peterborough Branch AGM by Saturday 14 January please, through this link – Branch Events Organiser. Thank you to all those who have already responded confirming attendance, or given their apologies.

The agenda for the AGM and the Minutes of the 2022 meeting can be found on https://petbells.org.uk/downloads/

In addition, there are now three additional documents on the download. These are documents that the Guild Executive would appreciate the opportunity to raise at the AGM, so you may want to read them before the meeting. They will also feature as topics for branch committee meetings and will be further discussed at the Guild’s GMC meeting in March. 

The Guild appreciates that some branches are struggling and believes that it would be better to take a Guild wide approach, rather than deal with the same issue in different branches over a longer timeframe. This is not going to be a quick process and the Guild Executive anticipates that there will be lots of view and opinions across the different branches. This is just the start of the discussion process. 

The proposed programme is as follows:

14.00 Ringing

14.45 Service

15.30 AGM followed by Tea

16.30 Ringing until 17.30

There will be a number of vacancies on the Branch Committee for 2023, so if you are interested in being nominated, please let me know through this link – Branch Events Organiser.