Ringing World 5180 (6 August 2010)

Front Cover: Meldreth – first church to clock up 2,000 peals by Derek Sibson
May 28th 2010 saw another historic occasion take place at Meldreth with the ringing of the 2,000th peal in the tower. Not all the bells have had all 2,000 peals rung on them because 50 peals have been rung on a smaller number than eight bells, but that should be put right early next year. Indeed only 5, 6 and 8 have rung all 2,000 because the 4th and 7th were recast in 1967.

Heritage Lottery Fund Grant
The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) has awarded a grant of £457,500 to Grade 1 listed St Andrew’s Church in Epworth, North Lincolnshire, it has been announced. The money will see the church conserved and improved to provide a sustainable building and visitor centre for the community of Epworth and its many visitors.

From Across the Pond
A round-up of reports from towers in the North American Guild of Change Ringers
I would like you to (metaphorically) close your eyes for a moment, and try to imagine where you are. Ready? You are feeling the warm sun and breeze on your face, hearing the distinctive rustling of countless palm trees above you, smelling the salt tang of the sea, and listening to the familiar cascade of 8 light bells as they ring on a Sunday morning. Can anyone guess where you are? Well, I’ll tell you – you’re on Sullivan’s Island, just north of Charleston, South Carolina and you’re standing outside of Stella Maris, a Roman Catholic Church that is home to a 4cwt eight. Lucky you!

Letters
Selection - Pam Donovan
Ringing to get official health warning? - Peter Sotheran
A complaint - Anne Westman
A backward step - Trevor Cooper

Learning: what helps, what hinders
A Guide for Teachers 4 by Catherine Lewis
There is no doubt ringing is a challenging activity and, because of this, it can be stressful. Some forms of stress help progress. For instance, the adrenalin-releasing frisson of fear felt in competitive situations or when attempting something new for the first time can promote enhanced performances. There are, however, numerous ways in which “stress” is unhelpful, leading only to worry, dissatisfaction, even despair. The teacher who is aware of many of the commoner ways in which learners suffer stress can do much to alleviate the pressure and, thus, help the learning process. Both teachers and learners do well to realise experienced ringers can suffer irrational fears, just as novices do. A very capable, highly experienced ringer I know told me that he developed a phobia about letting go of the tailend. It was so bad he stopped ringing peals for around three years. Then he described it to someone else who promptly found he had the same problem while my friend was cured!

Junior ringers in Sussex
In Sussex special meetings for our junior ringers have in the past been mainly on an ad-hoc basis, with events only being arranged in areas where there is a group ringing together. The annual inter-divisional striking competitions have recently featured a junior’s section. Earlier this year however the committee of the Western Division decided to try and arrange an afternoon specifically for their junior members.

High flying BAC ringers
2010 marks the Centenary of the founding of the Bristol Aeroplane Company (BAC), which was set up in Filton just outside Bristol in Feb 1910 by the visionary George White. In those 100 years the company has evolved from cloth and wood ‘kites’ made in a tramshed, to the largest purpose built aircraft factory in the world by the 1930’s, to the major centre of UK Aerospace production it is today. Nationalisation, mergers, privatisation mean that it now made up of many companies including Airbus, Astrium, MBDA Rolls Royce, and BAE Systems but all can trace their proud heritage back to BAC. These companies have made many iconic products including aircraft from the Bristol Box Kite in 1910 to Concorde in 1969 and the Airbus A380 in 2005, guided missiles, satellites, cars and even prefabricated buildings! To this day aerospace remains a major part of Bristol with most people in the City knowing somebody who does, or has, worked ‘up the BAC’.

Tail Ends
You know how it is: you are sitting in a pub with ringers and conversation turns to Notable Peals I Have Rung. It becomes like an auction, with bids going higher and higher, although I have to withdraw from the game early on. I might do better if I started a series Notable Peals I Have Lost, for which I have more contenders.

Thought for the week
A Telling Sound
Some years ago The Times newspaper carried an article about a proposed new traffic management scheme for the M25 around London; to beat congestion the idea was to run traffic in the same direction on both carriages clockwise on Monday, Wednesdays and Fridays, anticlockwise on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays and both ways on Sundays. Needless to say the article was an “April Fool” spoof but cleverly written and as with other bits of officialdom evoked the initial reaction “They can’t be serious!”

Another twist in the Hanley tale
The advice of Stoke’s Planning Authority, along with the recommendation of English Heritage and the express wishes of the Bishop of Lichfield, was insufficient to persuade Stoke’s Planning Committee to allow the bells of St John’s Hanley to be removed from the tower and transferred to Stone. The new Planning Application was refused by five votes to four, despite the assertion from the applicant (me on behalf of the owners), from supporting recommendations, and from the Conservation Officers that if the bells stay in the tower they may never ring again.