Monday 13 August 2012

Thank You Letters



The ringers of All Saints were very tocuhed today after recieving 31 thank you letters from the Year 3/4M class from Swanton Morley Primary School after their visit to the tower on Thursday 5th July. For that night ringing was suspended so we could all read the beautifully written letters. It become apparrant that all the children had a fantastic time, especailly watching their teacher having a go. There were also some fantastic questions asked, for example how heavy is the tower and how do you become a tower captain...lets hope they are keen enough to learn in the future.

Sunday 5 August 2012

The Day of Two Zip Wires

The Ringers' annual Teddy Bear Zip Wire took an unusual twist this year when the weather took a turn for the worse! The afternoon started off in beautiful sunshine with the Zip Wire taking its usual place from the top of All Saints Church Tower to the tree beside the West Gate. Many of the stalls were dotted around the grounds with refreshments and cakes being held in the church. We were also delighted to welcome the Firemen from Dereham Station, who allowed children (and adults) the chance to look around one of their Fire Appliances. There was as usual a wide variety of games and stalls around the church with one, the bean bag game, becoming very competitive between families and friends!
During this time our two brave volunteers up the tower, Darren Hall and Lee Fox, had noticed that there were some rather dark clouds starting to surround the village! At 3pm a huge flash of lightening grabbed the attention of everyone outside and so started the ad dash to get everything inside the church, take down the zip wire and get everyone off the roof before the storm hit (no mean feat!). After only ten minutes and with help from members of the public the zip wire was reborn inside All Saints Church! It now ran from the trap door of the ringing chamber to the pews below. The biggest cheer of the day went up after the first brave bear took a test run on the new styled wire!
The first prize of the raffle was won by David Stone. Lauren Cooke correctly guessed the name of the teddy for a second year (Henrik) and Anne Boston had the highest score on the Bean Bag Game.


We would like to thank everyone who took part in the event and helped to raised £253.87.

Friday 3 August 2012

Celebratory Quarter Peal

The bell ringers rang a quarter of 1260 Plain Bob Doubles to celebrate the Golden Wedding Anniversary of Celia and Gordon Barker before the practice tonight. The band was made up of Ted Conyers, Sheila Smith, Sarah Seaman, Brian Laing, Aaron Hall (conductor) and Fiona Joisce

Thursday 5 July 2012

School Children visit the Tower



The Year 3/4M class from Swanton Morley Primary School took a trip up the bell tower today to have find out what ringing is all about as part of their RE work. Tower Captain Aaron Hall, who works with the class as a teaching assistant explained all about the history of the tower and the bells which sit in it to the assembled group. The children were then given a short ringing demonstration of rounds and call changes as well as a short blast of plain hunt on five. To round off their visit up the tower Class Teacher Nutan Mulholland and Teaching Assistant Sarah Sadler were invited to have a go...we have two potiental ringers there!

Monday 4 June 2012

Jubilee Bells Ring Out

Monday, 4 June, 2012
The bell ringers of All Saints Church Swanton Morey have rung, along with ringers across the whole country, to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II at both Swanton Morley Church and Beetley Church.
The celebratory ringing started on Sunday at Swanton Morley, as the team rang rounds and call changes before a special Jubliee Service at the Church. The ringers were: Mark Tweedie, Claire Willetts, Fiona Joisce, Richard Joisce, Ted Conyers, Lee Fox and Aaron Hall (conductor). There was then a mad dash across to St Mary Magdalene Church Beetley to ring on the eight bells there, some more rounds and call changes after Beetley's special Jubilee Service. The team there was made up of Brian Laing, Fiona Joisce, Helen Watson, Claire Willetts, Ted Conyers, Lee Fox and Aaron Hall. For many of the ringers there it was their first time ringing on the very light bells of Beetley, but the whole team did fantastically well.
The ringers then returned up the tower on Monday evening to ring as thousands of Beacons were lit across the country including two at Swanton Morley. As the beacon was lit at Darby's public house (just down from the church) and fireworks started to fill the sky the ringers broke into a loud rendition of the National Anthem (whilst ringing some very quick rounds!). The ringers who rang were: Aaron Hall, Ted Conyers, Mark Tweedie, Helen Watson, Fiona Joisce, Richard Joisce, Elizabeth Joisce, Claire Willetts, Brian Laing, Alyson Booth and Barry Leech.

Sunday 15 April 2012

Wedding Bells 46 Days later!

It's traditional for the bells of All Saints Church to ring straight after a wedding as the bride and groom walk into the outside world for the first time as man and wife, however for The Rev Jenny Taylor and her husband Charles Green it was a whole 46 days later! This was because they were married at the Norfolk and Norwich University hospital on Wednesday 29th February before Charles underwent a high-risk heart procedure, which he was told the chance of survival were slim, however Charles proved the doctors wrong and well over a month after the operation he is recovering well. Both Jenny and Charles have supported many of the events held by the ringers, and feeling bad that they never got bells after their wedding at the hospital, the ringers decided that they would ring for them one Sunday. So after the service on Sunday 15th April the ringers rang 120 call changes for the happy couple. After which Tower Captain Aaron Hall presented them with a certificate to commemorate the special ring. The band was made up of Mark Tweedie, Claire Willetts, Fiona Joisce, Helen Watson, Ted Conyers and Aaron Hall (who conducted). Click here to see the ringers with the happy couple after the ringing

Monday 2 April 2012

The Holy Week Big Clean!

Holy week is generally a quiet time in the bell tower, as ringing is suspended for the week, however this year there was sound coming from the bell tower all be it a strange sound...the sound of hoovering!
A small team of ringers took on the huge task of cleaning All Saint's mighty bell tower from top to bottom. Aaron Hall, Brian Laing, Claire Willetts and Janet Yeomans worked from 10am till 3:00pm making sure every part of the tower from the bell chamber to the ringing chamber was cleaned of dust and dirt which had built up over the last few years. The opportunity was also taken to carry out some much needed maintenance work including replacing a worn rope on the tenor bell as well as adjusting ropes of some of the other bells. Click here to see some photos from the cleaning day.

Friday 30 March 2012

Brian's Model Bell

Brian Laing unveiled his lasted woodwork project for the tower...a working model of a bell in its frame. The model will be invaluable in teaching what happens when you ring a bell. This is now standing pride of place in the centre of the ringing chamber on the table built by Brian too. Click here to see Brian standing next to his creation.

Friday 2 March 2012

Bells for the Light Dragoons

The ringers of All Saints rang prior to a special service conducted by the Rev Adrian Aubrey-Jones for the troops of Roberston Barracks prior to their deployment to Afghanistain in the coming weeks. The troops were presented with special wooden crosses which they will take with them on their tour.   The ringers rang from 1:30pm till the start of the service at 2:00pm.

The Drama of the Cracked Stay!

There was some drama at the practice night tonight as the stay on number 5 dropped out whilst it was being run by a new learner, Lee Fox. During the early stages of learning the new ringing learns to ring one  of the strokes at a time with the tutor keeping hold of the rope at all times. Whilst Lee was ringing the handstroke with Brian the stay dropped out (its not really supposed to do this!). Brian safely got the bell back down so the stay could be retrevied. Upon inspection we learnt that the stay had rotten through however it was impossible to see this on routine inspections. 

Saturday 25 February 2012

A New Practice at All Saints

A new monthly practice started at All Saints today. Ringers from towers in surrounding villages came together to focus on one specific method. This month the focus was Grandshire Doubles. It is hoped that this practice will become a regular fixture in the monthly calendar at All Saints.

Sunday 1 January 2012

Ring out the old and Ring in the New

The ringers of Swanton Morley took part in the age old tradition of ringing out the old Year and ringing in the New Year as friends and family watched on. The bells rung out for the last few minutes of 2011 before one by one standing, fading out along with the old year  leaving just the tenor to strike  12 on the stroke of midnight. To welcome the new year all 6 bells pealed out in joyful celebration some extremely well struck rounds and call changes. The band was 1. Mark Tweedie, 2. Sarah Seaman, 3. Claire Willetts, 4. Helen Watson, 5. Ted Conyers, 6. Aaron Hall. After ringing the band, along with their families descended the tower to watch the numerous fireworks being set off around the village. 

Ring out the Old and Ring in the New

The ringers of Swanton Morley took part in the age old tradition of ringing out the old Year and ringing in the New Year as friends and family watched on. The bells rung out for the last few minutes of 2011 before one by one standing, fading out along with the old year  leaving just the tenor to strike 12 on the stroke of midnight. To welcome the new year all 6 bells pealed out in joyful celebration some extremely well struck rounds and call changes. The band was 1. Mark Tweedie, 2. Sarah Seaman, 3. Claire Willettes, 4. Helen Watson, 5. Ted Conyers, 6. Aaron Hall. After ringing the band, along with their families descended the tower to watch the numerous fireworks being set off around the village.