Category: Monthly Reports

Although no Parish Magazine was published in August the report written for that issue nevertheless appeared on this site.  What follows is the Bellringers’ Report – September 2015 as published in the September Parish Magazine in its entirety and therefore contains some duplication of the August report as published on this site.

As reported in the July Magazine, at the beginning of June four of our ringers joined with other ringers from the Weald area on the ultimate bell ringing holiday – to Scotland.  With the Church of Scotland being Presbyterian in nature those churches with bells are few and far between since Presbyterians do not generally have bells in their churches.  Consequently there are less than twenty rings of bells in the whole of Scotland, which is just over half the number in our own Maidstone District alone!  The ten day trip necessitated some intricate planning, for which we are grateful to Chris Bassett and Tim Munt, the latter of whom is a regular visitor to our practices.  It also meant lots of driving – around 800 miles in addition to the journey from Kent and back.

On Saturday 8th August we were pleased to be able to ring for the wedding of local ringer Stephen Bassett to Becky Mahoney, daughter of Staplehurst chorister Chris. Many of Stephen’s family are ringers, including of course his mum Sue and dad Chris, his bothers David and Michael and also his uncle and aunt and cousins.  Indeed at one stage before the wedding all ten of our bells were being rung by members of his family.  Added to that many ringing friends who were present and you have one wedding where there definitely wasn’t a problem in finding enough people to ring!  Following the wedding a three hour peal was rung to celebrate the event.

 The following week, on Saturday 15th August, our ringers were again out in force at the annual District Ringers’ Barbeque at Marden.

Looking forward, we will be ringing for a 1pm wedding on Saturday 5th September.  Then on Saturday 19th September the Kent County Association of ringers will be holding a training day at Staplehurst from 9.15am until 6pm.  But don’t worry – the practical sessions will take place on our simulator so there will be no sound outside the church during the day! [note: event now cancelled due to lack of support].  Otherwise we will just be ringing on our normal Tuesday practice evening and for the regular Sunday Services. 

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Please note that there was no Parish Magazine in August due to the indisposition of the graphic designer.  The report below is what was originally written for the August issue and will be combined with the September issue if and when published.

As reported in last month’s Magazine, at the beginning of June four of our ringers joined with other ringers from the Weald area on the ultimate bell ringing holiday – to Scotland. With the Church of Scotland being Presbyterian in nature those churches with bells are few and far between since Presbyterians do not generally have bells in their churches. Consequently there are less than twenty rings of bells in the whole of Scotland, which is just over half the number in our own Maidstone District alone! The ten day trip necessitated some intricate planning, for which we are grateful to Chris Bassett and Tim Munt, the latter of whom is a regular visitor to our practices. It also meant lots of driving – around 800 miles in addition to the journey from Kent and back.

Looking ahead, August is normally a quiet month with many people away on holiday. Not so for our ringers this year. There is a wedding requiring bells on Saturday 1st August and then the following week on Saturday 8th August we will be ringing for the wedding of local ringer Stephen Bassett and Becky Mahoney. Following the wedding we will be attempting a peal (around three hours’ continuous ringing) to celebrate the event.

Then, on Saturday 15th August, our ringers are likely to be out in force at the annual District Ringers’ Barbeque at Marden.

We do not currently have any visiting bands of ringers scheduled to ring our bells in August, so apart from the weddings mentioned above we will just be ringing on our normal Tuesday practice evening and for the regular Sunday Services.

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At the beginning of June several of our ringers joined with other ringers from the Weald area on a bell ringing holiday to Scotland. We will not be back until after the deadline for this issue of the Magazine, but we hope to include a report in the August issue. Other than this, little of note has happened in bell ringing circles during late May and early June, so this month’s report is necessarily a short one.

We have no weddings requiring bells during July, nor do we currently have any visiting bands of ringers scheduled to ring our bells. We will therefore just be ringing on our normal Tuesday practice evening and for the regular Sunday Services during July.

However, looking forward to next month we will be ringing for the wedding of Stephen Bassett and Becky Mahoney on Saturday 8th August. Steve is a member of our own band and we are therefore proposing to attempt a peal (around three hours’ continuous ringing) following the wedding to celebrate the event.

We reported in last month’s magazine that our ringers were attempting a three hour peal on Saturday 18^th April, and we are pleased to be able to report that the attempt was successful. This was the 100^th such peal since the original bells were installed in 1885 and, as far as we are aware, the first ever by a band of Staplehurst’s own ringers, so congratulations to all those involved.

On Bank Holiday Monday 4th May twenty of our ringers and friends enjoyed their annual outing, during which we rang at six churches around the Dorking area of Surrey and enjoyed a lovely pub lunch.

Friday 8th May marked the 75th anniversary of VE Day and, in common with churches throughout the country, we rang to commemorate the event. During May we also rang for the Ascension Day High Mass.

Perhaps surprisingly, we have no weddings requiring bells during June, nor do we currently have any visiting bands of ringers scheduled to ring our bells. We will therefore just be ringing on our normal Tuesday practice evening and for the regular Sunday Services during June.

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