Author Archives: andrewlarsen

Geek stuff – Flash new ways to link to the DRC website

For those who wish to link to the DRC website using social media or want to use a barcode on a document – this is for you !

Social media such as Twitter restrict a messgae to 140 characters – so a normal link to our website can take up a fair chunk of this. Those good folks at Bitly ( www.bitly.com ) provide a service where they designate a short URL and map this to the normal one.  In our case, bit.ly/tYsfJD maps to www.docklandsringers.co.uk.  So, if you are a tweeter, you can now say a bit more when you link to us.


Here is a QRcode for our site. It was produced by our good friends at Bitly and actually links to our site via our short code.  When producing documents such as posters, business cards, flyers etc, include this QRcode and people can link to us by scanning it with a smart phone ap such as Google Goggles.  If you wish to use  the QRCode, you can download it from this post by right clicking on the picture and ‘save image’, or copy it from the media library, or go to http://bit.ly/tYsfJD and hit the ‘copy’ box.

Good luck !

AGM and Striking Competition

All interested parties are cordially invited to our Annual General Meeting to be held at 4 p.m. on Sunday 20th November 2011

in the Parish Room at St Mary’s Church Rotherhithe

Preceding the meeting there will be a striking competition: members able to take part are to give their names to their respective tower captain as soon as possible. The striking competition will start at 2 and should be over by 3:30, so the AGM will then commence around 3:45.

The meeting will be followed by tea – (names for tea to me by email to moragtodd@gmail.com) – and then ringing for the 6.30 p.m. service.

Membership of the DRC is open to individuals over the age of 11 who are interested in the work of the Centre and also to associations (for instance, bands of ringers or PCCs). It will be possible to join at the meeting, if you are not already a member.

The agenda for the meeting is attached AGM Agenda November 2011.

Morag Todd, Secretary

 

Guildford Day out

L-R: Douglas James, David Giles, Andrew Clark, Andrew Larsen, Elizabeth Lemoine, Mike Todd, Sam Press, Trisha Shannon, Morag Todd, Chris Snelling, Alison Hammond, Chris Giddins

 

It was a small but select band of Docklands ringers who were available on the Saturday of the August Bank Holiday weekend…. but certainly enough to enjoy a day out organised by Chris Giddins to visit towers in the area where he learned to ring.

 

We eventually met at the first tower – after various phone calls to ascertain the whereabouts of the nearest car park (recommended  by Chris, who had given it the name the locals use, rather than the one on the signposts!) – and enjoyed the first ring of the day on the bells of Holy Trinity church, which had been Guildford Cathedral until the 1960s. These were not the easiest of bells on which to start the day!

 

It was only a short walk down the High Street to the next tower, but by this time the weather (well, what did we expect on a Bank Holiday weekend?) had changed from slightly dull to a torrential downpour, bouncing off the tarmac so that even though with the foresight to bring umbrellas got wet. St Mary’s is currently closed for major restoration work, but we were able to pick our way in through the scaffolding and through the cobwebby roof space to reach the ringing room. The first ring on a building site – and for some of us at least – the first on an anti-clockwise ring too.

Just before lunch we made our way down to the river, where Chris’s father met us – making up the 10 needed to ring all the bells at St Nicholas. Those of us on the ringing centre committees were interested to see the teaching aids available in this tower, which is the HQ of the Guildford ringing centre – while Chris reminisced through the records of the quarterpeals he rang years ago!

St Nicholas’ church being conveniently placed immediately opposite the White House pub, we didn’t have far to go for a substantial lunch before making our way out along the river to Shalford. For some of us this was a lovely walk by the water (fortunately no longer raining, and the paths not too muddy) and a chance to examine the wildlife – including some plants which intrigued us, and were later identified by Elizabeth as the invasive Himalayan Balsam.

 

 

Shalford’s tiny ringing room proved a little claustrophobic for some (Trish preferred to sit on the stairs!) … and Wonersh too was a little short of space for even our small band of ringers – but each tower offered an interesting ring of 8.

 

 

The last ring of the day was to be on the 6 at Bramley. We were lucky that the church was open to the public, as there was no-one there to let us in to the tower. We were however well entertained by Chris’s friend Chris Snelling, who made excellent use of the church’s grand piano whilst Chris Giddins applied himself to tracking down the keyholder, who finally appeared bearing not only the key, but also a supply of bottles of beer as an apology for his late arrival! We ended the day’s ringing there, though sadly the spider fell apart when we tried to replace the ropes on it…

 

Bramley was the end of our ringing, but not the end of our day, as Chris had invited us all back to his family home – and the weather was good enough for us to explore the garden whilst his sister put the finishing touches to an excellent supper, and those who were not driving back were able to enjoy the beer and wine!

 

Many thanks to Chris, six interesting towers, our pianist and caterers for an excellent Bank Holiday Saturday!

Article by Morag

 

Rotherhithe Open Day and “Taster Sessions”

The DRC have arranged for the bell tower at St Mary’s, Rotherhithe to be open for visitors on Saturday, September 17th 2011 between 10 to 12:30  and 2:30 to 5:00 as part of the Open House Weekend.  We plan to have sufficient ringers on hand to demonstrate some simple methods and also to view the bells.  Note that access to the ringing chamber and bell tower is up a narrow, spiral staircase.

An article has been published in the Southwark Cathedral “Bridge” (page 3) giving full details (courtesy of Elizabeth LeMoine)

The DRC are also organising two ‘taster’ events for people wanting to see what bell-ringing is all about on Saturday 24th September and Saturday 1st October both  from 10am  to  12 noon. We hope that some people seeing the bells might be interested to try their hand at ringing them.

For those that become hooked, these will be followed by a week of evening training sessions 3rd-7th October, after which new learners are invited to join our regular practices.  All are welcome to any of these sessions, which are free to attend.  For more information or to book a place contact Morag Todd moragtodd@gmail.com or you can call us (or leave a message) on 0845 680 4305.

For information and directions to St Mary’s, Rotherhithe, click here.

If you’d like to hear the sound of the bells at St Mary’s, click below

 

Bermondsey residents show support for the bells

Arriving at Bermondsey for service ringing today, we were delighted to see that some of the residents of Hicks House had expressed their enjoyment of the sound of the bells by putting up posters on their balconies.

This followed a ‘meet the neighbours exercise’ where several local residents had been invited into the church during a regular practice to discuss sound control, see the ringing room and bells, and have a try themselves.  We may make a regular event of this if it generates such a positive response !

Posters displayed on several balconies

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In turn, the bell ringers were impressed by the quality of the floral displays on the balconies – there is clearly a link between musical appreciation and gardening skills.

Close-up of a poster