Got passed two photographs today which have helped to illustrate the history of our church and bells. The first is an interior shot showing the rear of St Giles church before when the bells were rung from the downstairs. Although the image shows the newly installed electric lighting probably dating from the 1920's or 1930's it clearly shows the three bell ropes and the area as it was when the six bells were installed in 1977. The second shows a "swiftways" lorry collecting our bells from their original home church of Hampton in Arden circa 1975. This lorry was paraded around the village to show the inhabitants the new bells, hence the loudspeaker attached to the lorry cab. Interesting the bells still have their cannons and wooden headstocks so this shows the bells before they went to Taylors to be tuned and machined. My thanks goes to those who both loaned and found these photographs which have been added to the history area of this website too.

Once again a local band met to ring the New Year in as is tradition. Some good ringing was had especially the final leading down and our youngest ringer rang her first New Year in as a capable member of the band.

Once again we have managed to ring fully muffled for the Remembrance service both before and afterwards - putting the bells down. It is the first time that the second ringer Ruby has rung in rounds for a service unaided and the first time that her family have rung together.

Actually had 13 people come to our practice this evening including our long lost learner Shaun who returned to see if he could remember how to handle a bell in rounds (he could). We also had our youngest learner have a go on the our heaviest bell as well as ringing bob minor and Stedman doubles.

The bells were rung fully muffled after the formal announcement of the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. We used both our new and old muffles to complete this ringing and made sure that all present both old and young were able to ring. Even our youngest learners both are able to say that they rang for this event. The bells in England have not been heard this way since the death of the Queens father so it is a very rare event to hear the bells ringing in this way.

Turns out to be a bit of a learner evening tonight which was lovely. New recruit Issy came up for the first time and joined Ruby in our younger learners band whilst Dave came over from Shustoke to have a go on different bells. Dave holds the accolade of being the last ringer to be taught to handle a bell by Dick Dale. In actual fact we had a busy evening even if we only rang a course of plain bob and grandsire doubles and the light warm evening makes it weather that Dick would have almost considered too hot to ring in!

A group of us met to celebrate the dedication of Her Majesty the Queen and rang to remind people of the service starting at Westminster this morning. David and Anne, Mike, Steve, Hazel, Quentin and Xavier all participated in ringing rounds and call changes - including the tune Queens of course - as well as plain bob minor and grandsire doubles.

An impromptu quarter peal attempt as we had the band present and there was no pressure resulting in a pretty quarter being rung and scoring two people their first ever quarter peal attempt. Much praise is due to Xavier who is only 12 ringing the treble which involves moving amount the working bells and to Mike who rang the tenor keeping the beat without errors for so long. It was planned to ring this quarter a little nearer the event but the quarter was then dedicated to the celebration of the Platinum Jubilee of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

A quarter peal of
1260 Plain Bob Doubles
was rung in 45 minutes 
​
Treble Xavier Howell - first quarter
Second Helen Howell
Third Hazel Herschell
Fourth David Jackson
Fifth Quentin Howell - conductor
Tenor Mike Miller - first quarter

The bells at Shustoke were rung today both for Easter and for the Christening of Ava. The bells sound lovely but it was clear we have not ring them for a while as they were a little stiff for a bit. The Sunday sun and the bells made it a lovely service.