Bell Ringing at All Saints
As usual, January was a rather quiet month for the Staplehurst ringers following the busy Christmas and New Year schedule, and February looks set to be the same.
We have no visiting bands of ringers expected during the month, so we will only be ringing on our normal Tuesday practice evening and for the regular Sunday Services.
Tower Secretary
The Staplehurst Bellringers hope you all had an enjoyable Christmas and wish you all the best for the New Year.
The early copy deadline for this issue means that this report was written before the start of the Christmas festivities, but by the time you read this we will be approaching the end of what is always a busy time for our ringers. The first event was on the evening of Tuesday 17th December when 22 of our ringers, along with partners and friends, enjoyed our Christmas meal at The King’s Head and a great time was had by all. In addition to the normal Sunday Services we will also hopefully have rung for the Service of Nine Lessons and Carols on Sunday 22nd December, the Christingle Service on Christmas Eve, for Midnight Mass and on Christmas Morning. We will also have enjoyed our traditional New Year’s Party, this year kindly hosted again by Sue and Chris Bassett, and will have “rung in” 2025.
We are hoping that the New Year brings with it the completion of the work on the turret and spirelet. At the time of writing the work looks to be on time with all the scaffolding down hopefully by late January. Thanks to further donations (including that from our ringers’ own fund) the church are now within sight of the sum required to complete the project.
Things quieten down a bit in the New Year, and during January we will just be ringing on our normal Tuesday practice evening and for the regular Sunday services.
Tower Secretary
On Tuesday 5th November we held our Tower AGM. Steve Bassett was elected as Tower Captain for the coming year in place of Adam Brady who wished to stand down due to other commitments, and Daniel Brady replaces Steve as Assistant Tower Captain. Steeplekeeper Chris Bassett, Treasurer Sallyann Barclay and Secretary Roy Barclay were all re-elected. We thank them all for their work over the past year. The ringers also unanimously agreed to make a donation towards the additional work required to the turret.
At the time of writing there is no further update on the turret and spirelet, but as mentioned last month we are currently not allowing visiting bands of ringers whilst the work is ongoing. However Christmas brings a number of extra services that we will be ringing for. In addition to the normal Sunday morning services we plan to ring for the Nine Lessons and Carols on the evening of Sunday 22nd December, the Christingle Service and Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve, and the Christmas Morning Service. We will be enjoying our New Year’s Eve Party before ringing in 2025 in the traditional way.
Finally the Staplehurst Bellringers would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Tower Secretary
Sunday 6th October was a joyful occasion, partly because it was Harvest Festival but particularly because we were able to ring Staplehurst bells once again. A platform has been installed below the spirelet to prevent debris falling down the stairway, thus allowing safe access to the tower. However this is just a short-term measure until the additional work required on the spirelet can be carried out, which cannot be done until the church can find the necessary additional funding.
We are therefore in a rapidly changing situation and ringing may have to be suspended again at short notice. Meanwhile ringing will be limited to just our practice night and Sunday services and no visiting bands will be allowed.
One event that will not be affected is our Tower AGM at which we will be electing our tower officers for the coming year. A report will appear in the December issue, along with (hopefully) an update on the turret situation.
Tower Secretary