A band of seven, led by Hazel, grandma of the tower, performed the solemn muffled ringing very well. Even the church clock, which we had forgotten to silence, struck dead on cue, just before the bugler sounded the last post.
The Tuesday group which meets at St Cuthbert’s at 8pm to wind the clock, rang at least three of the six bells after carrying out the weekly winding and tower maintenance tasks during November and December.
On Tuesday 21st we unloaded the stands ready for the Christmas tree installation and we were joined by ‘Wooly’ who successfully chimed a bell…. Perhaps we have a new ringer?
On the 2nd December we joined the fieldpath team installing the trees in St Cuthbert’s.
Because of illness and family commitments we weren’t able to provide full bands for all of the Christmas Carol services, however, we rang the two bells at St Leonard’s and rang two bells at St Cuthbert’s before their Carol services. We did better at St Giles and rang five of the six on the Tuesday evening. A band of five rang at St Cuthbert’s on Christmas Eve at midnight and the year finished with a good turn out with a band of eight at St Giles to ring in the New Year.