Informal Tower Meeting
Louisa and Nick decided that regular meetings are required to discuss bell ringing issues during the year. We thought that they should take place approximately every other month, and that they should be open to anyone who cares about bell ringing at Linslade tower. This month’s meeting was held in the “Indian Ocean” restaurant on 24th June with Chris, Louisa, Janice, Lyndsey, Nick, Sammi, Natalie, Simon, Becca, Jenny, Anne, Jonathan, Lizzy, Caroline, Peter and Nicola. This is a summary of our discussion.
Painting the Frame. Mark has purchased some suitable paint and brushes, however the previously set date was inconvenient for several people. Some of the Leighton Buzzard band said they were happy to threaten the frame with a brush. It’s a big job, but in principle it sounds like we will have enough people as long as we can collectively agree on a date. We’re not going to be marked on our painting prowess, just on how red the metal bits are. Please can we get together to let Mark know the day that would be most convenient.
Ringing Simulator. Progress has been a bit slow, partly because we had intended to wait for the frame to be painted before adding the switches and wiring. It won’t be too troublesome though to replace any wiring that gets disturbed during the painting, so we’ll crack on. Mark’s donated PC is working well, and we now have a touch-screen display so that we don’t have to have a keyboard or mouse in the tower. Since we will have to climb the “ladder-of-doom” to silence the bells, it probably makes sense to put the PC in the clock room and run wires down to a wall-mounted display in the ringing room. We have wire and sensors now, and offers of help from Jonathan, Mark and Simon. The sensors will be attached to the frame with G-clamps, so won’t be a permanent fixture of the church fabric.
Future Practices. As promised Janice ran the fourth-Sunday evening practices to promote change ringing for the local band on 22nd May and 26th June. Janice is a very experienced Ringing Master for the Central Bucks Branch so we were not surprise that it was such a success, and we’d like this new monthly practice to continue. We also discussed the idea of having a new type of practice on the second Tuesday of every month for ringing a wide variety of plain-hunting methods. Louisa and Lyndsey are both compiling lists of methods they think would be fun to ring, and Simon was particularly enthusiastic about the idea. Simon said he would be happy to move his special practice to the third Tuesday of the month. Perhaps Louisa and Lyndsey would be the best at running the new practice.
BBQ. We have been struggling to fix the date for our forthcoming BBQ, although we’re all pleased it’s going to happen. There have been clashes with other Bedfordshire events, the dog show, holidays and hall bookings. Currently the best date for most people appears to be the afternoon of Sunday 14th August. Comments (and offers to help!) would be welcomed. At the previous meeting we had discussed how much we should charge, and decided that between £3 and £5 would be quite reasonable, just to cover costs. We also thought it would be a nice idea to extend the invitation to all members of the church congregation. Lyndsey will book the hall and carpark, cost out the food and arrange tickets to be sold to the band and congregation. She will be asking for help from the rest of the band.
Publicity and Recruitment. The tower open day was a success with interest in attending courses to learn to ring. Amanda from Linslade is our newest learner who has so far had three bell handling lessons on Saturday mornings with Lyndsey. Amanda is doing extremely well, and current progress suggests she may become a regular Sunday service ringer within the next couple of months. Louisa and Chris have kindly passed information to Natalie about updating the Linslade church web site with ringing information and Chris is happy to help if Natalie has any problems. Louisa confirmed she would find out how we could get notices at the church gates, and also in the church magazine. Lyndsey noted that a mobile “sandwich” notice board that can be positioned wherever we wish would cost around £300, and wouldn’t be updatable. An “A board” that we update ourselves would be a bit cheaper, but there were concerns that it might be stolen. A waterproof “Chalk A-Board” might be the cheapest and safest option for our needs. Jonathan said he has a way to laminate large-sized sheets so we could attach a notice on one side to make it a look like a sandwich board if we wish. Lyndsey will buy a board and chalks for the tower to use.
Ringing Courses. Jonathan has kindly offered to run a Stedman calling course for our two towers, a suitable date has still to be decided. Several people are interested in learning to call from Plain Bob Doubles upwards. Simon, Natalie and Lyndsey agreed that they would put something together. Association of Ringing Teachers’ courses are running on September 3rd at Leighton Buzzard to learn how teaching bell handling and 1st October in Marsworth to learn how to teach good foundation skills up to plain hunt. Please say if you are interested in attending either of these day courses, they are cheap and I expect your tower would refund the cost.
Ceiling bosses. This is a reference to the hole in the ceiling through which the bell rope passes. Several of our bosses have been installed the wrong way up and as a result a fairly new tenor sally was shredded and had to be replaced. Nick noticed that Cheddington tower has used a homemade board across the ceiling beams with a smoothed hole, and this has proved to be a much cheaper and very effective solution for us to consider. Nick will discuss with Mark the best course of action.
Tower logo. The suggestions for a new logo for the tower were well received, based around the yellow “Star” (aka “St. Barnabas”) thistle, with eight golden bells amongst the thistle spines and the words “SAINT BARANABAS LINSLADE CHURCH BELL RINGERS” arranged like a circular wheel around the outside. The designs will be pinned to the notice board for people to view and offer opinions. Lyndsey said she would investigate in principle how feasible and what the cost would be to add the logo to t-shirts, sweatshirts or hoodies.
Linslade Surprise Major. Simon has chosen an unnamed surprise method that we all liked. Simon and Nick will arrange a suitable date for a local band to ring the new method to a quarter peal, after which we will be allowed to call it Linslade Surprise Major, very exciting.
Jim’s Jug. Biggleswade have been the unchallenged holders of Jim’s Jug for many years, which is a challenge cup for ringing up and down on six bells. Bob and Mark have both said they would love to ring in a Linslade band to see if we can bring the trophy back into the Luton District. Bob has rung in many competitions in Devon where they include ringing up and down, so we will closely follow his guidance to learn how to do it like a pro!
New ropes. We have a couple of spare ropes, but we wear them out quite quickly. The general consensus was that we prefer the newer blue and yellow sallys to the original red white and blue. We’re happy with the quality from Mendip Ropes, so Nick will ask Jan if we could place a repeat order of four new ropes.
First aid course. Lyndsey said that Jackie Dilly at Dunstable will be running a first aid course specifically aimed at bell ringers. If you would like to attend the course then please contact Lyndsey so that we can arrange a suitable date.
Date of Next Meeting. Friday August 26th, venue and time TBC.
