2024 Westley Award for Church Bell Maintenance

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Published: Friday, 03 May 2024 22:34

Towers and bells in good condition will make the environment for ringing more pleasant, easier for ringers to develop their skills and, in particular help new recruits.

Are you relatively new to finding your way around bell installations? Perhaps you are gaining experience in what to check upstairs in a tower, what may be unusual and interesting, or in poor condition and likely to cause ringers difficulties while ringing? Hopefully, you are starting to make some improvements and share your experiences with others.

The Stewardship & Management Workgroup of the Central Council of Church Bell Ringers is launching the 2024 award for people who have recently become involved in belfry maintenance and improvement, developing their own skills and helping others to do so. The award will be made at the CCCBR AGM in Exeter in September 2024. The winner will receive £100, kindly donated by Westley Group, and a certificate. Full details and an application form will be on the CCCBR website here:

https://cccbr.org.uk/about/workgroups/stewardship-and-management/westley-award-2024/

The closing date for applications will be 12 noon on Friday 31st May 2024

AGM at Ringmer - 11 May 2024

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Published: Friday, 12 April 2024 20:33

I would like to invite all members to the 2024 Annual Meeting of our Association, which is to be held on Saturday, 11 th May, arranged by the Southern District. Details of what is happening are listed below.

Pre-meeting general ringing is available as follows;

1.00-2.00pm : Southover (Lewes) (10 bells)

1.45-2.30pm : Barcombe St Mary's (6 bells)

2.30-3.30pm : Ringmer St Mary the Virgin (8 bells) 

3.30-4.00pm Service at Ringmer

4.00 onwards Tea and Meeting in Ringmer Village hall 

Death of John Humphris (former ringer at Easebourne)

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Published: Wednesday, 03 April 2024 20:00

We are sorry to report that John Humphris died on 28 March 2024. He was a long time ringer at Easebourne, and a member of the Association for many years. With advancing age he was finding standing more and more difficult, and coming back after the pandemic break was just too much for him. He was 87 when he died.

What most ringers won’t know was that he was the holder of a Royal Horticultural Society Victoria Medal of Honour. At any one time there are only 63 such medal holders (the number of years of Queen Victoria’s reign) so holding one is an exceptional honour for a gardener. His was awarded in 2009. To put this into perspective, four were awarded in 2009 the other three being awarded to Charles Baring, 2nd Baron Howick of Glendale, Lady Christine Skelmersdale and Prince Charles. He was a professional gardener for much of his life, his last professional job being Head Gardener at Borde Hill. He was President of The Guild of Professional Gardeners, he was on at least one RHS committee, he was very active in encouraging young entrants into the profession by using his extensive connections to arrange training placements, and he was a longtime supporter and judge for the prison gardens competition run by the RHS. All that and he was a really nice and modest person.

Funeral details to follow.

Nigel Goodenough

New CCCBR Adviser on Complaints about bells

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Published: Tuesday, 02 April 2024 19:02

As we hope that you are aware, the CCCBR aims to help when there are complaints about the noise from bells. Robert Wood has responded to such enquiries for several years and has decided to stand down.

We therefore need to appoint someone to take over this role. The most relevant experience and knowledge will be of UK Environmental Health Legislation i.e. the framework under which complaints about bells are managed.

Would anyone interested in taking on this role, please contact me for further information about what it may involve.

Thank you
Alison Hodge <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
CCCBR Stewardship & Management Workgroup Leader (a voluntary position)