All Quiet on the Ringing Front
Surrey Northern District Remembers
With all the events planned for the centenary of the Armistice on the 11 November 2018, it was agreed to hold an event slightly ahead of then to remember the ringers who died in the First World War. It was also aimed at celebrating Surrey’s contribution to recruit 1,400 new ringers across the UK in 2018 – the number of ringers known to have died in the conflict.
Some of Surrey’s recent ringing recruits with Alan Regin
The ART award winning training centre at Barnes was the obvious choice, especially with the presence there of Trisha Hawkins who helped with the organisation of the event and demonstrated her leadership qualities in putting everybody to work. We were fortunate to have Alan Regin MBE who gave a fascinating insight into his work researching the history behind the names of those ringers who lost their lives in the conflict. He brought along the Rolls of Honour, of which he is the Steward, and gave an illustrated talk which included many fascinating facts behind some of the Surrey ringers who died in the conflict. His talk was followed by home-made soup with bread rolls and then fruit distributed from the soup kitchen under the watchful eye of Trisha
Shannon.
As well as the history there was of course also some ringing. The two hours
immediately before the talk was a learners practice and our IT bell technician Eddie Hartley set up the simulator so everybody could get in plenty of practice without disturbing the residents too much. Mike Wigney was also on hand to run some hand bell sessions to give those attending their first taste of this side of ringing. Caroline Prescott ensured everybody had the opportunity to practice their ringing and celebrate the new skills learnt in recent months. After lunch general ringing followed on open bells allowing all those attending to have a ring at Barnes.
The Ringing Remembers theme continues to attract much publicity outside ringing and has received government support. Surrey was fortunate in being given a grant of £75 towards the event which was used to purchase a commemorative banner, designed for continued use after November. All towers are being encouraged to organise ringing on the 11 November 2018 either at 10.30am (half-muffled bells) and/or 12.30pm (open bells) in the evening. This is course, either side of the Armistice centenary at 11.00am. It is recognised however that these times may not be convenient for everybody, so ringing at other times on the day is encouraged. What is your tower planning to do, and if nothing has yet been organised what about gathering the troops together and getting something on the front line?
Events top team: Caroline Prescott, Alan Regin and Trisha Hawkins
The general consensus was that this is the sort of event that should be held more often. The coffee and cake stall run by ringers in the morning raised funds for the church and the ringing event itself had surplus funds of £60 which is to be given to the Barnes Ringing Centre to support the on-going good work they do.
