Bells Ring out 2012 and In 2013

Tuesday, 1 January, 2013
Once again the ringers of Swanton Morley took part in the age old tradition of ringing out the old Year and ringing in the New. The bells rung out for the last few minutes of 2012 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 the original 5 bells pealed out in joyful celebration.  The band was 1. Mark Tweedie, 2. Fiona Joisce, 3. Helen Watson, 4. Ted Conyers, 5. Aaron Hall. After the ringing the ringers took part in their own tradition of singing Auld Lang Syne.

Bells Ring Out 2012 and in 2013

Year and ringing in the New. The bells rung out for the last few minutes of 2012 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 the original 5 bells pealed out in joyful celebration.  The band was 1. Mark Tweedie, 2. Fiona Joisce, 3. Helen Watson, 4. Ted Conyers, 5. Aaron Hall. After the ringing the ringers took part in their own tradition of singing Auld Lang Syne.

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.

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.

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

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!

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.