The first weekend in February was a busy one for the Staplehurst Bellringers. It started on Friday 6th February when we welcomed around 40 Scouts, together with their parents, friends and leaders, to view our bells and hear a talk about bells and bell ringing. Some of the more adventurous even had a go at ringing – under strict supervision of course! Hopefully we may get a few recruits from among them.
The following day we enjoyed a belated “Christmas” meal at the King’s Head – with not a turkey or Christmas pudding in sight. Twenty ringers and their partners and friends enjoyed an evening of good food, good drink and excellent company, and we thank Sue Bassett for organising the event. Despite the excesses we were all up early the next day to ring for Sunday morning service and again on Sunday evening.
Later in the month we rang for the Ash Wednesday service, marking the beginning of Lent.
On Saturday 14th March we will be entering two bands in the Maidstone District Striking Contests at Ightham, one in the method competition and the other in the called changes competition. We have won both these competitions for the past two years and are hoping to make it a hat-trick this year. You will be able to read how we fared in the April Magazine.
At present we have no visiting bands scheduled for March, so we will only be ringing for our regular Tuesday practice and the normal Sunday Services. In common with most other churches we will not be practising on 31st March which is during Holy Week.