Carol Services and DRC Christmas Party

Christmas day falling on a Wednesday meant that most of the churches we ring at scheduled their carol services for the Sunday evening.  They mostly decided to ring at the same time too. Andrew Clark counted up the available ringers and scheduled ringing at Stepney, Bermondsey, and Rotherhithe which are the churches we regularly ring for service on Sunday mornings. Other years, the carol services have been spread around and we have managed to ring at more of them. This was Eva and Richard’s first carol services, so well done to them.

The weeks leading up to Xmas are usually very busy for DRC ringers and we were happy to ring for other special services at Limehouse, carol service at St George in the East, and Christingle service at Rotherhithe. Christmas Day finds many of our ringers out of London visiting family, but we were able to muster six to ring very nicely at Stepney.

The DRC party was scheduled to start at the Angel ( a regular end point for Bermondsey Tuesday practices) after the Sunday carol services. Trisha was able to get the upstairs room for us and arranged for them to provide food  supplemented by fine dessert efforts from Sarah, Elizabeth and Linda.

Andrew L informing the group how many rounds he has bought since the last DRC Xmas party.

Andrew L informing the group how many rounds he has bought since the last DRC Xmas party.

Jonathan is making steady progress through the two cases of bottled Sam Smiths beer that the landlord got specially for him.  I believe it reaches its sell by date in a few months, so any assistance will be appreciated.

Alison having a crafty nap during a quiet moment

Alison having a crafty nap during a quiet moment

Bg thanks to Gill for organising it this year.

AGM Minutes added to DRC website

The site has been updated to add the AGM minutes and webmaster report from the recent meeting. Thanks to Gill and Morag for producing them.

The documents are stored in the members’ area so you will need to log on to access it. If you’ve forgotten your password, you can request a new one from the logon screen.

 

How Eva came to ring at Stepney on Remembrance Sunday

Towers are fun. Bell ringing is fun. And beautiful.

The bells of Stepney (St. Dunstan and All Saints Church, that is) amazed me on that late August morning, when Julian took us on a tour of the tower. Before that time I had only seen the architectural and historical beauty of the church. Such tours are rare and available to few tourists, so I jumped at the opportunity – not anticipating where it would take me. I was soon hooked and started to attend the regular ringing practices.

The more I learn the stronger is the bond between me and the bells and, of course, the ringers.

A few weeks ago I had the chance to experience something even more amazing than “chiming of a few tonnes of metal” and this was the annual half-muffled ringing on Remembrance Sunday. On Saturday I joined Elizabeth, Ed and Julian, who went up the tower to put on the muffles.

Halloween still lingering in the air and the masquerade potential of the muffle too difficult to resist, Ed and I had fun “calling some changes” of personality. (Ed declining to appear with me here, but believe me, he did look funny.)

 

Eva modelling the muffles for Remembrance Sunday at Stepney

This irreverent bit of fun was followed by a dash of worry: Julian questioning not the propriety of playing dress-up with muffles, but whether the muffles were on the correct side of the clappers. Ringing the bells up – starting with the tenor, since its “new” clapper needs to be flipped over anyway – and turning them over a few times confirmed all was well and gave a sneak preview of the magnificent concert to come on Sunday morning.

Audio of half-muffled bells on Remembrance Sunday 2013 recorded outside of St Dunstans, Stepney

That morning dawned on us with beautiful sunshine and a fantastic, clear blue sky. Grandsire Triples and call changes filled the air. Then, as a final tribute to all those who lost their lives in the wars and never came home – all those ringers who never returned to their home towers – at Elizabeth’s suggestion the bells stood silent one by one ending with the tenor’s graceful and lonely chime to bless all souls.

Video of the half-muffled tenor being rung up on Remembrance Sunday 2013

Video of Elizabeth, Ed, and Julian ringing up the 3,5 and 7 bells on Remembrance Sunday

Note from webmaster – all of these videos, and others, are available at the Docklandsringers YouTube channel. Click on icon at bottom of right hand sidebar

Greg goes peripatetic in Texas

There are five towers in Texas that contain English change ringing bells, three in Houston and one each in Abilene and Dallas.  In my recent trip to Texas I was able to include trips to Abilene and Dallas.

 

Abilene has practices on a Tuesday night and I drove for three hours through a horrendous rain storm to attend the practice there (the rain held off until I’d finished the practice and then started up again in full force for my return journey!).    The tower of All Saints (Church of the Heavenly Rest) in Abilene contains 6 bells (tenor 6-1-5), and a regular group of ringers run by Robert Partin (Tower Captain).   It had a very nice spirit and they made me extremely welcome.  They’ve done most of the routine bell maintenance themselves and have an amazing set of stays for each bell.  One stay was broken by a learner when I was there and Len, Robert’s assistant, nipped up the tower and replaced it in just a few minutes.  The handling of the bells was quite tricky because the ropes are rather long and very thin, and so get tangled round the hands if you’re not careful.   We rang rounds and call changes and then I and one of the learners climbed right up above the bells with the storm beginning to brew again.  Len was all for us opening the top hatch and going out onto the roof itself but we resisted his enthusiastic urgings!

 

Greg in Abilene

St James’s Episcopal Church in Dallas has a practice on Wednesdays and occasional Saturdays.  Because I was based between Fort Worth and Dallas I was able to go to Dallas three times – two practices and a Sunday ring.  Dallas also has 6 bells (4-2-12) and the Tower Captain, Linda Rankin, is a Cumberland Youth.   There are 3 regular ringers with her, including a complete beginner, who is already ringing cover and starting to do call changes, so is coming on immensely fast.  Again, I was made very welcome and had some very good sessions in the pub with this lovely band.   On the last practice I was introduced to Stedman Single, which was interesting!  I really hope to go back there one day and highly recommend it to anyone visiting Texas.

 

Greg in Dallas

Gregory Rose (Stepney and Foster Lane)

DRC Striking Competition and AGM

On Sunday 24th November the Docklands Ringing Centre held its annual striking competition and AGM.

This year the event was held at Stepney. Rhiannon and Dominic Meredith kindly agreed to judge the competition. They even agreed to sit in a cold car while they were judging.

Team 1 was Bermondsey call changes, team 2 Stepney call changes, team 3 Bermondsey method, and team 4 Stepney method.

Following the ringing an amazing tea was prepared by Gill and her team.  The judges then came in from the cold were given a cup of tea to warm up and a few minutes to get through a some sandwiches before they delivered the results.

Once again, although the results were close, Stepney were awarded both the cup and saucer. Elizabeth picked up the saucer for the rounds and call changes team:

Dom awards the saucer

Chris then picked up the cup for the method team:

Chris pics up the cup

The DRC then held its annual AGM. None of the officers changed, but Greg was voted onto the committee in place of Tom Pinnock.

Thanks to our judges, Gill and her team and everyone who made it such a successful afternoon.