This afternoon whilst the wedding of Lowenna and Ricky was taking place, an interesting race developed in the ringing chamber which led the ringers not being sure whether to watch the tower captain or the wedding service. Most kept an eye on both as the pressure was on to complete a rope splice. The fourth rope was reef knotted together before the service after the tail end all but failed and so the moment the bride arrived the rope was removed from the bell and the race began. The rope had to be back on the bell, ready to ring all six bells as the newly married couple walked back up the isle! Progress was rapid as the identified replacement sally and tail end had already been checked out and was ready to be long spliced onto the good top end. Unfortunately the pressure was increased when it was realised that there was one less hymn than normal in the service sheet but with moments to spare and a fortunate slightly lingering register signing, the repaired rope was returned to service; just in time to ring the newly weds out. The ringers did have to stop to re-adjust the tail end due to a miscalculated length assessment as well as taking up the normal stretch that the fresh splice always has. It certainly made the wedding service pass very quickly. The bad news was that when the sally height was fine tuned when we had finished ringing it was noted that the treble rope also needed a little attention as well so the process had to be repeated later the same night. At least the pressure was not the same whilst watching Ant and Dec's "Saturday Night Takeaway!" It cannot be long now before our new ropes are finally put to use - how long have they been in the tower? - officially stretching!
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