News
Social evening
Instead of practising at St Peter's on February 26th, Town Centre ringers will be having a social evening at the Queen Adelaide public house in Manor Road, Kingsthorpe, Northampton. During the evening, which will begin at 7pm, there will be an opportunity to play table skittles and food will be available.
Peal at St Giles
Ten members of the Ancient Society of College Youths rang 5040 Cambridge Surprise Royal at St Giles on Saturday January 25th. Ringers from many parts of the country took part, including Northampton ringer, Jennie Higson. The peal took 3 hours and 22 minutes to complete and was conducted by Roy Le Marechal from Bishopstoke in Hampshire.
Starting as we mean to go!
We've had a successful start to the year with the first, first Sunday quarter being scored. Helen Hayward thought it was her first quarter for 19 years, it turns out she rang one in 2012 but had forgotten that one, too much celebrating at New Year?!
The practices so far this month have been of a good standard with virtually everything at St Giles' being well struck from rounds and call changes to Stedman Caters. I'm sure we can build on this throughout the year, especially if we do some more of the striking and listening exercises which I know everyone enjoys!!
Today we excelled at service ringing with all 10 being rung at St Giles in the morning, followed by a trip to the coffee shop, and all 10 being rung at All Saints in the evening, lets hope this continues too.
Dates for your diaries: Wednesday 29th January practice at Towcester 7-9pm (followed by pub); Wednesday 26th February social night; Saturday 26th April ITTS module 1 course in Northampton; 6th September Ringing Roadshow at Newbury Racecourse.
Past, Present and Future.
Lots of things have been accomplished by the Town Centre ringers in 2013, one of the most important of these is that we now go to the pub after the two 10 bell practices! In July we started ringing quarter peals on the first Sunday of the month and have successfully rung one each month since then, some have been to consolidate methods and others have been firsts including: Shirley Jones and Marian Johnson ringing their first Quarter peal; Greg Jordan ringing his first on 10; Giles Willson ringing his first of Surprise Major. Well done all! We had targeted practices during August to focus on striking and listening, bell handling and ringing up and down, these are ongoing for 2014!
So 2014!
We are going to continue the first Sunday quarter peals, the January one is organised for this weekend.
We are also going to start ringing 5th Sunday quarter peals at St Giles at the request of Graham Paul. Let me know if you have anything you want to ring, or if you want to have a go at calling a quarter at either All Saints or St Giles.
We are going to be visiting some new towers to get experience of ringing on different bells, starting with Towcester on the fifth Wednesday in January.
We all have short term and long term goals to aim for, if you can't remember what they are they are listed in my 'folder of joy'.
We have a social event booked for the 4th Wednesday in February, this unfortunately means no St Peter's practice in February which I know lots of people are very unconcerned about!
We need to make a concerted effort to bake cakes to bring along on our birthdays. If anyone needs to practice this I'll be happy to taste test for you!
We will be ringing a local band peal at some point during the year for all the old peop....I mean people with significant birthdays and anniversaries during the year.
We aim to have more targeted practices at some point during the year, let me know if there is anything you want to spend time sorting out (preferably ringing related!).
We are going to have an ITTS module 1 course for all those who already teach ringing and for those that want to learn how. Let me know if you are interested in taking part in this.
New Years ringing resolutions, if you don't have one, don't worry, I have suggestions that I will distribute at the next practice :-)
Bring it on!
Fifth Wednesday practice in January 2014
On 29th January the Town Centre practices move out of Northampton for the first time. Jennie Higson has made arrangements for the Church of St Lawrence in Towcester to be visited and for ringing to take place on the twelve bells in the west tower. In 1989 the old peal of six bells was removed and replaced by a peal of eight transferred from Christ Church, Todmorden, with four trebles bells added to complete the peal of twelve. The bells "go" very well and their sound is famous in ringing circles. It is hoped that all Town Centre ringers will make a special effort to attend this practice. Anyone needing a lift from Northampton should contact Bridget Paul or Colin Sampson.
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