Alvechurch Bells

Christmas Bells

2009-12-12T16:51:00.001Z

This contains the oldest (and wrongest) ringing joke in the book, but it was still entertaining.

Oldest ring of bells is rung again

2009-09-12T10:16:00.002+01:00

This caught my eye on the BBC website.

The world's oldest ring of bells, in Ipswich, has finally been restored and is being rung again. Follow the link for the full story and a listen to them.

The Archers

2008-08-17T16:02:00.000+01:00

If you have been following The Archers you'll have heard about the recent fortunes of Ambridge's ringing team. They recently won third place in a striking competition, so congratulations are due!

You may remember that a team from Alvechurch won a striking competition not too long ago. You may also be aware that the creator of The Archers was born in Alvechurch, and that Alvechurch is amongst the villages that fans speculate Ambridge is based on.

The combination of these facts makes me suspicious that someone from the writing team has been spying on our tower...

Read this.

2008-08-03T21:42:00.002+01:00

This article is well worth a read.

Running Total

2008-07-20T11:12:00.000+01:00

We've had a wonderful response to the sponsorship scheme, both in terms of interest, and in donations large and small. You can now see a running total on the bell fund website, which as of 17th July says that we're at £23,795. Not bad at all.

There is still a long way to go though, so if you've been considering a donation or sponsorship, please get in touch.

Sponsorship, table-top sale, and performing on a Sunday morning

2008-07-06T18:14:00.005+01:00

There has been a lot of interest in our sponsorship scheme already, so let us know soon if you're interested. Copies of our leaflet with details went out with this month's Grapevine magazine, but there are also copies in the village library, Parish Office, the church and the Ark. There's no excuse not to pick one up and have a look ;-)

The table-top sale in the Ark last month was a huge success, raising over £400. So thank you to everyone who helped out or came along and spent their money.

In other news, I hear that the team rang Grandsire Doubles for the morning service last Sunday, which is quite an achievement. That must be the first time it's been rung for a service at Alvechurch, rather than on a practice night when we're allowed to make mistakes! Well done all.

(Your Bell Fund Blogger has been a little slack lately due to other commitments. Apologies.)

Part the Second; Bell Sponsorship

2008-05-31T13:47:00.005+01:00

The details of our scheme to sponsor a bell, or another refurbished component, have been finalised at last. This is a unique and exciting opportunity to contribute to the refurbishment of the bells of St Laurence, Alvechurch. It's an opportunity to leave your mark on the village in a truly unique and long lasting way; whether you wish to donate in memory of a loved one or to mark the birth of your first grandchild.

You can download a copy of our brochure, including an application form here. Alternatively you will be able to view the brochure as a web page at the Bell Fund website shortly.

Part the First; Next Saturday

2008-05-31T13:43:00.006+01:00

Next Saturday (7th June) we'll be holding a table-top sale in The Ark. There will be tables with hand-made cards, plants, books, puzzles, bric-a-brac and of course refreshments and cake.

'Part the Second; Bell Sponsorship' will follow before the weekend is over.

Eggses

2008-05-18T20:08:00.004+01:00

We have had 129 tubes returned from our mini egg appeal, out of 168 which were given out. So far we have raised £503.68 which is not at all bad. As they say, the simple ideas are the best ones! Thank you to everyone who kindly ate their mini eggs and returned their tube full of change.

When I next update I'll be able to tell you about our sponsorship scheme, where you'll be able to sponsor one of our refurbished bells or one of the other components which we'll be restoring or replacing.

(Apologies for the prolonged absence, the Bell Fund Blog has been relocating. It's happily settled in its new home now, so with a bit of luck we'll be back to fortnightly updates.)

2008-03-24T19:29:00.003Z

On Easter Saturday our local MP, Julie Kirkbride, visited the tower to return her mini egg tube and to find out how the appeal is going. Colin, our tower captain, took Julie and her son Angus up into the bell chamber to show them some of the problems we need to repair.

Hopefully by the next time I post I'll be able to tell you how much the mini egg appeal raised.

North Worcestershire Striking Competition

2008-03-09T18:15:00.007Z

On Saturday 1st March a team from Alvechurch participated in and won the call change section of the North Worcestershire Striking Competition, held at St Giles, Rowley Regis. They rang 180 changes including Queens, Reverse Queens, Tittums & Whittington's taking approximately five and a half minutes. They collected a certificate and a wooden bell trophy for their trouble, and fully intend to defend their title next year.

The team were, from left to right, Pam Morley (second), Pippa Morley (treble), Mark Reacord (third), Penny Bradsell (fourth), Greg Hunt (conductor and fifth), and Colin Bennett (tenor).

Things to look forward to

2008-02-24T17:12:00.009Z

A couple of upcoming events, and something exciting to keep an eye out for;

The Gemini Choir will be returning to St Laurence at 7.30pm on April 26th to perform in aid of the bell fund. Tickets will be available around the village towards the end of February, and will cost £8.

We will be holding another table top sale in the Ark some time in June, more details will be available nearer the time.

In the coming weeks we will be distributing a snazzy brochure with details of how to go about sponsoring one of our refurbished bells, or one of the other components which we will be having to restore or replace. This will be a really exciting opportunity to have piece of history dedicated to you or to a loved one, and to help out with keeping the bells of Alvechurch ringing for centuries to come. I'll post more details when this is finalised, so keep an eye out.

Oh, and if you're really lucky, you might still be able to get hold of some of our mini eggs if you ask nicely.

So far so good

2008-02-10T12:41:00.003Z

The unofficial total now stands at approximately £15,000, which is a quarter of the way to our target. There's a long way still to go, but we're making good progress!

You can make a secure donation to the bell fund via PayPal using the button on this page of the bell fund website.

News from the tower - July 1972

2008-01-28T21:10:00.000Z

Two posts in hardly more than twenty-four hours? Well, yes, because I wanted to point you to this story on the bell fund website;

Click on the image to read an all too familiar story about the constant search for new ringers, from the July 1972 Parish Magazine.

Easter

2008-01-27T18:43:00.001Z

Yes, I know it's not even Shrove Tuesday yet, but here I am talking about Easter. We have a cunning plan this year, and you need to hear about it now.

Free chocolate. It's only sort of free, but never mind that.

If you happen to run into an Alvechurch ringer over the next month, make sure you ask them for some mini eggs. The chances are that you will have them thrust upon you, but if they seem to have forgotten, make sure you ask. Here's what happens next; you eat the eggs from the tube before you give up chocolate for Lent, during Lent you fill the tube with change - be it pennies, twenty pences or pound coins (they all fit!) - then once it's full hand it back to a bell ringer. Then we will put all your loose change towards the bell fund. Easy peasy.

The Mummers' Play

2008-01-13T17:38:00.000Z

The Alvechurch Mummers' Play raised a total of £250.23 on New Year's Day for the Bell Fund, for which we thank them sincerely. A couple of photos follow to give you a taste of what went on. More details and pictures, can be found here.

St George slaying the dragon.

The good people of Alvechurch descending on the Crown on New Year's Day.

'Tis the Season

2007-12-31T10:58:00.000Z

Christmas and New Year are a busy time for everyone, but particularly for bellringers. On top of all the usual shopping, organising, socialising, eating, drinking and making merry we have several extra ringing obligations to fulfil.

First of all there is Christmas itself. At Alvechurch we ring for midnight communion on Christmas Eve, from about 11pm to half past when the service starts. This is a lovely tradition, and I think all of us enjoy it. We often have more than a dozen ringers in the tower on Christmas Eve night, as people return to the village to visit family and celebrate Christmas here. There is at least one ringer who we can only be sure of seeing once a year, on Christmas Eve night. Even in the years when we were really struggling to find enough ringers for the rest of the year, on Christmas Eve we would have a tower full. This all makes for a wonderful atmosphere in the tower on Christmas Eve.

"And the bells were ringing out
For Christmas day"
- 'Fairytale of New York' by The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl

Our old tower captain would have us all round to his for a drink and a mince pie at about nine or ten o'clock on Christmas Eve. This was was a lovely get together for us once a year, and it served the very useful purpose of making sure that all the ringers were in one place and ready for the very short walk up the hill from his house when the time came. Bernard Smith, our old captain, died suddenly some years back, but I can't help feeling his Christmas Eve parties are a tradition he would like to see reinstated. I'm sure many of the ringers would agree!

We don't ring the new year in at midnight at Alvechurch, at least in part because many of our ringers have better places to be than a cold draughty bell tower for New Year. We do ring on New Years Day to celebrate though, usually sometime in the late morning. Then many of us head up to The Crown to watch the Alvechurch Mummers perform their 'traditional' Mummers Play at midday. This is an Alvechurch tradition which is perhaps best seen in person; any explanation I could offer would not do them justice, or make very much sense. This year they have generously promised the proceeds of their collection on the day to the Bell Fund, for which we thank them heartily.

Carol Singing

2007-12-24T08:52:00.000Z

On Saturday evening a brave team of our ringers ventured out into the cold to tour Alvechurch, stopping off at each of the four village pubs, singing carols. They pass on their thanks to the landlords of The Swan, The Red Lion, The Weighbridge & The Crown as well as all those kind enough to make donations. They raised over £100 towards the bell restoration appeal.

Method Ringing

2007-09-22T21:32:00.000+01:00

For the past year or so we've been attempting to learn method ringing. Method ringing is one way of changing the order that the bells are rung in, to create patterns. It basically involves learning a method, or set of rules, which tells you where your bell moves to in the sequence and when. Right now we're approaching this by trying to learn a method called Grandsire. We're learning Grandsire Doubles; Grandsire is the name of the method, the 'Doubles' just means that we're ringing the method on five bells with a sixth 'covering' or going bong at the end. Learning Grandsire is letting us learn the skills we need to move onto the more complex methods without throwing us head-first into anything too hard.

The majority of our current ringing at Alvechurch is change ringing. This involves changing the sequence of the bells with someone 'calling' the changes, or telling us what order to ring in. The sequences change much more slowly than in method ringing, which make it much easier and simpler, but inevitably less interesting both for those listening and for those ringing.

We're lucky at Alvechurch, we have a core of regular ringers, some of whom are more advanced than others, and a few visitors from other towers who regularly come and help out. Learning new things is much easier if you can put one or two learners in a team of ringers who know what they're doing. Putting in six people who are still not entirely sure of what they're doing often leads to things going wrong and us making quite a racket.

And if none of that made sense follow the links to Wikipedia, which goes into far more detail and (possibly) makes far more sense.

Wedding Bells

2007-09-07T09:26:00.000+01:00

As with most Saturdays over the summer months, today we have a wedding to ring for. We ring for around half an hour before the bride arrives, then for about fifteen or twenty minutes, depending on the length of the service, after the wedding whilst the guests mill around the churchyard and photos are taken if the weather permits.

Hearing the bells at a wedding is something special; something which many people associate closely with a traditional church wedding in the English country side. We need to raise our total of £60,000 to repair the bells and make sure that they can be rung for years to come; to ensure that the sound of the bells being rung out over the village to celebrate a wedding is something that future brides and grooms of Alvechurch have the opportunity to experience.

It isn't just ringing for Sunday services in the church, the bells are a part of weddings, they chime out the quarter hours and hours throughout the day, they ring in the new year and can be heard to celebrate special occasions like Christmas and Easter.

The bells are a vital part of the village, a part of village life, and one which we need to act to save.

That's what the bell fund is about, certainly to me. So watch this space for a less formal look at upcoming events, news about what we're up to and progress reports on how the fund is doing.