Kington St Michael Bellringers
The ‘new’ band of Kington St Michael bellringers started the village church bells ringing regularly again just over a year ago. It had been nearly 25 years since the village had its own band, however Kington St Michael still relies heavily on neighbouring villages to ring for our village weddings, etc. It would be great if we had more volunteers to join us.
We have two experienced village ringers, and two novices, plus numerous experienced volunteers to guide us carefully on our steep learning curve. Needless to say it is not a skill you can pick up in 5 minutes and it was a good few months before anything melodic came from the tower. The villagers have been enormously supportive of our efforts and we have adjusted our times and length of practice in an effort to please as many as we can. Thank you all for your patience and very kind words of support.
Our practice is on a Monday evening from 7pm to 8pm. We have now progressed from simple rounds to Call Changes, Plain Hunt and Bob Doubles. The new language does become clearer as you progress!
One small technicality or peculiarity of St Michael and All Angels Church is that the bells here are rung anti-clockwise; most other churches are clockwise. It makes no difference to the sound of the bells of course, however when we have gone for extra practice at other churches it takes a few minutes to remember!
I think I can safely say we are all thoroughly enjoying the challenge of the new experience, and the very warm welcome we have had to the bell ringing world.
If any villagers would like to join us please do contact either Diane or Sheila on the numbers below.
Diane Allen (novice) – 07768 053116
Sheila Wills (experienced) – 01249 758189
News
2022
We are looking to re-start teaching new bellringers, as our numbers have dwindled.
So many people say how much they enjoy hearing the church bells and our numbers are now too low to ring every week. Please pop in to our practice night one Monday evening, 7.30pm - 9pm, to see if this might be a hobby for you.
Some
of you may be interested to know that we rang a short method called
‘Kings and Queens’ before tolling prior to the funeral of Queen
Elizabeth II. The bells will be rung down prior to the Teddy bears parachute
day and rung up again before our next practice towards the end of
October. If you want to know more about what this all means please pop
along when you next hear us practicing.
Adam Allen, Tower Captain - 07768 053116
Hand Bells - Is anyone in the village interested in learning how to ring handbells?
A few people have expressed an interest and there is a fine set of hand bells, which is rarely used. Please contact Diane dianelallen@hotmail.com OR call on 07768 053116.
2016
November ~ We now have a regular band of 11 ringers from the village and all are progressing well. This ancient tradition is losing numbers nationally. The ringing does not require physical strength, it is a skill that is slowly taught and, as with any hobby, ‘practice makes perfect’. Ringing is both fascinating and challenging. We have teaching staff who have been ringing for 60 years or more and they are still learning new methods.
You may have heard an extended ringing on the afternoon of Saturday 19th November. This was the Branch AGM, we had approximately 30 ringers from across the Branch join us. The ringing was followed by a service led by Mike King from Yatton Keynell, who is also a bell ringer.
Tea was provided by the KSM Band in the Village Hall and was followed by the meeting when our ‘new’ ringers were welcomed to the Guild. We are all now officially members.
Thank you all for your continued support and encouragement over the year; we wish you all a very Merry Christmas.
Past newsIn March 2014 we won the Tower of the Year trophy for 2014 with our 500 word article - p
lease click here to read it, complete with photos.
In 2013 the bell ringers were delighted to receive The Most Improved Tower of the year for this Diocese. There is a significant sized bell trophy now proudly sitting in the corner of the tower.
