Tag Archives: Isle of Dogs

Isle of Dogs and Walworth bands benefit from Summer School

It was a real pleasure to help with the Middlesex CA and London DG Summer School today and Tuesday this week. Seventeen new ringers have been learning to handle, most of them from scratch, and now, on day 4, most of them are now handling a bell on their own. The group includes two new ringers from Isle of Dogs and two new ringers from Walworth

Taught in three groups of six or seven, each day each new ringer is getting about one and half hours of 1:1 rope time with an instructor on the six dumb-bells. We even had about a third of the pupils ringing rounds for the first time this afternoon on the simulators. The remainder of the time is spent ringing handbells and on other ringing related activities.

Tomorrow it’s more practice at bell control, including tidying up ringing up and down. Most of the new ringers should reach Level 1 of Learning the Ropes tomorrow. There is already talk of holding some regular follow up sessions to supplement teaching in their local towers, and we do hope that many will be able to reach Level 2 and Level 3 of Learning the Ropes by this time next year.

There is certainly an awful lot of enthusiasm and camaraderie amongst the students, and it would be really good to maintain this and produce some excellent ringers to strengthen local bands, not just at Isle of Dogs and Walworth, but also across London. The teachers are also gaining a lot from working together and picking up tips from each other, and seeing the pupils make such rapid progress is so rewarding.

Lily rings on Sunday for the first time, after starting eight weeks ago

Not only did Lily Tang come and help with the fun-day at Bermondsey on Saturday, but Lily rang for her first Sunday service at Greenwich on Sunday morning. Lily only had her first lesson at Greenwich eight weeks ago, but she rang the third to some very creditable rounds and simple call-changes on the front six.

This was the first time in many years that there had been ringing before the morning service at Greenwich, and it was good that four ringers who do not normally have the opportunity to ring on Sunday mornings came along.

Afterwards seven of us walked the short distance through the foot tunnel under the Thames to Isle of Dogs, where we were joined by Buky Rufai and Lily rang some more rounds and simple call-changes on eight.

To top that, in the evening Lily came to ring for the evening service at Deptford and rang some more rounds on eight. So ringing at three towers, two of which were new. That’s enthusiasm!

Lily is already developing a good handling style and although not perfect yet, she is striking her bell more or less in the right place much of the time. Something that will only improve with plenty of practice, like she had yesterday. We very much look forward to our next batch of new ringers at Bermondsey and Greenwich making similar progress.

New talent coming through

The Isle of Dogs quarter peal band (l to r) Emma, Roger, Andrew, Graham, Rod, Paul.

We have quite a few ringers working their way up the ladder, and it can be quite difficult arranging quarter peal attempts for them. However, as the first few become more experienced it becomes easier and easier, as you have a larger pool of ringers to draw on.

This weekend we had enough ringers to attempt four quarter peals, two on Saturday morning at Walworth, either side of an Ordination service, and then two simultaneous attempts on Sunday evening at Isle of Dogs at Rotherhithe.

The weekend got off with a hiccup as we lost the first attempt for Bob Doubles less than 100 changes from the end. This would have been Paul Harding’s first inside. After the service we went for Grandsire Triples, but this had to be cut short as the ordination service had over-run by about 45 minutes, and four of the band needed to get away to ring for a wedding at Isle of Dogs. But we did ring a very good touch of 336 changes – a quarter of a quarter!

The wedding at Isle of Dogs was also quite unexpected as the bride only rang us up at 8.30 that morning asking us if we could ring. There had been a mix up over the booking and we had not been asked, however she was really keen to have the bells rung for her big day. And if the bride goes to that trouble at 8.30 am on her wedding day what can you do? Fortunately, by the miracle of the internet and the number of ringers we have to call on, we were able to field a team of seven ringers ready to ring out at 2.00pm. The bride and the vicar were very  pleased indeed!

On Sunday Emma Roberts rang her first quarter by ringing the treble at Isle of Dogs to Bob Doubles very well indeed, and Melanie Powell rang her first quarter of Grandsire Doubles inside at Rotherhithe, at more or less the same time.

All things considered, quite a successful weekend, and we look forward to ringing more quarters more frequently from now on, especially as we had eighteen different ringers take part in the four attempts, and we have a number of other people waiting in the pipeline to progress and join in.  Exciting times.

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Luigi scores quarter on treble to reach level 3

By scoring a quarter of Doubles on the Treble for the evening service on 5th March at Christchurch, Isle of Dogs, Luigi Vicenti has completed Level 3 of ART’s ‘Learning the Ropes’ training scheme.

Level 3 takes ringers from call changes, building on kaleidoscope exercises through to ringing the treble and covering to methods. The level is passed when the ringer can do this sufficiently well to score two quarter peals at least one of which must be the treble to Doubles (or on higher numbers). The second can be ringing the tenor behind. Other activities include raising and lowering in peal.

Lugi and Guseppina started learning to ring in early 2013, as a result of the ‘Ring for Fitness’ publicity campaign initiated by the Churches Conservation Trust, in conjunction with the Ringing Foundation and Association of Ringing Teachers (ART). Their closest tower is St Mary Magdalene Woolwich, although the nearest with regular ringing is St Alfege, Greenwich. They have been regular visitors to the Tuesday practices at St James Bermondsey over the past four years.

We look forward to helping them complete the remaining two levels of Learning the Ropes, by which time they will be ringing Plain Bob and Grandsire inside to quarter peal standard. We also look forward to helping our other learners and visitors to achieve more passes over the coming months.

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Andrew reaches Level 5

By ringing inside to a quarter of Grandsire Doubles at Isle of Dogs, Andrew Booth has become the 28th person to achieve Level 5 of Learning the Ropes and qualifies for a prize under the ART Awards scheme.

The Association of Ringing Teachers is now moving out of its set up phase. Going forward the focus will be less on delivering ITTS courses and is shifting to supporting the 250+ and growing number of members who have gained Accreditation. Thanks to the generosity of various parties, the inaugural ART Awards will be presented at the Annual Conference at Loughborough Bell-foundry on Saturday 12th March 2016.

One of the Awards is for all those who have achieved Learning the Ropes Level 5, who will be invited to a centrally-organised weekend event: The Learning the Ropes Masterclass. This will be run in the second half of 2016 by a team of hand-picked, top flight ringers and will be designed to provide opportunities that are not normally available locally. Travel and accommodation will be arranged/paid for participants based in the mainland UK.

Andrew thanks all those who have helped him reach this milestone over the last couple of years and with twelve of our other ringers at various stages on the pathway, we hope that they too will qualify for similar awards over the next year or two. We look forward to celebrating their success.

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The band after the quarter, Andy, Mike, Morag, Drew, Bridget, Roger.

Roger