Around the beginning of October some fourteen of us met for three days to ring at towers in and around Birmingham – parts of the West Midlands that some of us had only ever before viewed on maps: Wood Green, Darlaston, Willenhall, Rowley Regis, Edgbaston, Moseley, Harborne, Smethwick, Netherton-Dudley, Halesowen and Brierley Hill…. Mostly, the rings were 8s with a couple of 10s with one 6. Altogether, we did fairly well with some reasonable surprise major, a lot of Stedman and Grandsire Triples, and on the 10s Grandsire, Stedman Caters and Little Bob – with one plain course of Bob Royal. That is a very speedy summary of our ringing! Once again we enjoyed, as we do, looking around some most interesting urban churches, quite a few of Victorian origins with sprawling graveyards. It was a happy social outing with pleasant lunches and two Indian Restaurant visits during our two evenings together. A highlight for the more courageous among us was joining the practice night at St Martin’s in the Bullring (below) where ringing on the 16 was an upbeat experience – along with Stedman Cinques and for at least one of our number, Bristol Max..
The photo above shows lunch at the ‘Village Moseley’ after having eaten and drunk. For our one full day of ringing we had the services of a large minibus. Most helpful. On the other hand when reliant on our ‘own’ transport and with some of us coming from more rural places, journeying between towers was a bit of nightmare when finding them and parking in the midst of traffic congestion. What did we do before Sat Nav and Dove Bells church postcodes….?
Grateful thanks to Tony Ellis, the Guild’s immediate Past President, for sorting out and obtaining the towers for us and making all the arrangements regarding travel and accommodation. It was very good to see for a part of the time Fr John Greatbatch joining us (member since 1990) and also Clive Thrower from Bakewell (member since 2003).