Well, of course you know by now what bellringers do to celebrate something. No, the pub might come afterwards, but we try to ring something a bit special. Our first bit of special ringing on the eve of the institution was a peal (you’ll remember that means at least 5,000 unique changes of non-stop ringing).
We had three ringers of our own who could take part so we needed another five, one of whom would need to ‘conduct’ the peal. This involves making ‘calls’ which affect the order of the bells. Apart from learning where to make these calls and ringing their own bell, the conductor also tries to keep people in the right place if they get slightly lost on their path amongst the other bells. For our conductor we were lucky to be able to recruit David who is tower captain at Bishop’s Waltham. The other ringers were Jim from Hambledon (making 6 ringers from the deanery), Mark from Catherington, Sarah from Portsmouth Cathedral, and Gareth from West Meon. We rang 5184 changes in a method called Bristol Surprise Major.
5184 Bristol Surprise Major
Composed by: Graham M Bradshaw
1 Betty J Daysh
2 E C Gareth Higgs
3 Sarah E Hutchinson
4 Andrew F Case
5 R Mark Esbester
6 Richard A Case
7 James W G Twiney
8 David M Goss (C)
Rung to welcome Bruce on the eve of his institution and induction and also remembering Geoff Morrell on the anniversary of his death.
But that wasn’t enough because we also wanted to ring something a bit special before the actual service. This time just a ‘quarter peal’. We had two more of our own ringers this time, but were grateful to the Colliss family for completing the band and providing the conductor.
1260 Grandsire Triples
1 John P Colliss
2 Richard A Case
3 Charlotte K Colliss
4 Betty J Daysh
5 Neale V Fray
6 Paul Repper
7 Edward P D Colliss (Cond)
8 Andrew F Case
So welcome Bruce, Caroline, Joseph and Daniel. We hope you enjoyed our ringing.
Andrew Case
