Anne has asked me to circulate the below documents from the Guild General Committee meeting for everyone to view.
- Notes from Oxford Diocesan Guild General Committee Meeting
- Server Manager Report
- ODG AGM 2016 Details
Anthony Cole
Ten commandments Feb 2016
Those who were at the branch AGM were treated to a fun version of the ten commandments Penny found whilst hunting around the internet.
For those wishing to read them please head to the Horfield bellringers web pages where you can find the Ten Commandments plus lots of other poems and interesting facts (scroll to the top for the full list).
Apply now for Radley 2016 ringing course
Message from the Guild Representative.
One of the things that the Guild provides for all members, is to run courses.
The next course to be run is at Radley (near Abingdon) on Saturday 9th April 2016 and applications need to be in by 31st January.
See http://odg.org.uk/pdf/Radley2016.pdf poster for how to apply, or use Guild Website link below.
These courses provide an excellent opportunity for anyone needing help in learning methods. The Radley course covers basic methods such as Plain Bob Doubles and Grandsire doubles, and is for all members meeting the criteria outlined below.
(The Guild also runs courses for more advanced methods at other times in the year, see the guild website for details, Education tab).
Oxford Diocesan Guild of Church Bell Ringers
Education Committee
Ringing Criteria for the Radley Course
To ensure the safety of the students, helpers and tutors on this course a standard of ringing competence and understanding is required.
While we try to make sure that all of the bells we use are suitable for teaching, they may be much lighter or heavier than the bells in your home tower, there may be steps or ladders to access the ringing room, the length of the draught may be much longer or shorter than you are used to, and there may be any number of other peculiarities to deal with. For this reason, we ask that you are able to ring a bell competently and confidently on your own, and you should ideally have experience of ringing a range of different bells, including bells in other towers, so that you are not impeded in your progress and can take full advantage of the tuition provided on the course.
All students must be members of the Oxford Diocesan Guild, and therefore regular Sunday service ringers.
The tower Captain or Tower ringing Tutor should fill in the ringing ability section on the application form giving their name to this.
If the student is under 18 a permission to ring form needs to be filled in and this will be forwarded on receipt of the application. A parent or an appointed responsible adult needs to be present on the course. This could be a helper.
This criteria will also help the tutor to plan the course as they will be aware that the student understands these requirements.
From the point of view of the student, the day goes like this:
Meet at the hall approx 9 am
Tea and coffee available. Bookstall also available.
Meet the other students in your group, and your tutor.
Students are put into groups of 5 people, according to the method they requested.
Theory for about 1 hour, then travel to your first tower. Cars are shared, so that less parking space is needed.
At the first tower, you will meet the helpers. In my experience, the helpers always ring up and down at the first tower (volunteers at later sessions). Early on, you will need to select your meal for the pub lunch (or you can take your own packed lunch).
The tutor then needs to find out what each student can do, so each student in turn has a go (together with 5 helpers).
Each tower session is 1½ hours, so at the first tower, each student will probably get 2 goes.
Pub Lunch
In the afternoon, there will be 2 more tower sessions, and they will develop according to everyone’s ability. The tutor may keep to only one student at a time, or he/she may include two or more students at a time.
The great advantage of these courses is that, as a learner, you are surrounded by helpers who know the method well, as well as a tutor standing by to help you. This is a brilliant way to get to know a method, and I would thoroughly recommend these courses.
After the 3rd tower session, everyone returns to the hall, where a meal is provided (cooked by volunteers, and is always excellent). The tutors give a short summary of their class, and certificates are provided. The day finishes at around 8pm.
For the last couple of years, applications for the basic methods courses were very low, but are now rising again. I would encourage anyone who needs some help with a method to go on one of these courses. (They are not just for some mysterious elite ringers. All who meet the criteria above may apply). The day is long, but very satisfying and beneficial.
I have attended a few of these courses myself. If anyone has any questions, or needs a bit more encouragement to go, please feel free to email me.
Anne Martin
Steeple Aston course October 2015
On Sat 24th Oct students and helpers from across the Guild headed for Steeple Aston and ringing or teaching one of 5 methods.
The students were given a briefing before heading out to towers. I was there as a helper on the Grandsire Triples course so I headed for Steeple Aston Church. After sorting out lunch menu choices we rang a variation on plain hunt on 7 (Grandsire start though) and then progressed to plain courses of Grandsire Triples.
Lunch was at the Red Lion in Steeple Aston and was a chance for learners to get to know their helpers and vice versa.
Next we headed for Islip where Teresa was cajoled into ringing with us as an extra helper. We mainly rang plain courses but a few bobs and singles were introduced to some of the learners. We also had some dodging practice to help get the Grandsire dodges right.
Finally we headed for Kirtlington which were heavier and which posed a bit of a problem for one learner but they do sound lovely. More plain courses and then all students got to try out bobs and singles – an introduction for three and perfecting for two.
From my perspective as a helper I found it was a good day with progress made by our students which is always good to see. I also got to ring touches of Grandsire Triples which I’m sad to say is all too rare in the Bicester branch but a good refresher for me.
One branch member was on the Grandsire Doubles course so hoping to hear of lots of progress made and a step forward for future branch practices.
Anthony Cole
QP for Bill Knapton (May 2015)
On Monday 25th May ringers from Bicester rang a quarter peal to celebrate the life of one of our own, Bill Knapton, who died at the end of April, aged 92. Bill rang at Bicester and Caversfield for many years, only retiring about 18 months ago after a heart bypass.
Oxford Diocesan Guild
Bicester, Oxon
St Edburg
Monday 25 May 2015 in 42 mins (15-0-7)
1260 Plain Bob Doubles
1 Janet Smith
2 Sarah Cole
3 Simon White
4 Jeremy Adams
5 Anthony Cole(C)
6 Steve Walker
Rung to celebrate the life Bill Knapton, ringer at Bicester for many years, who died recently aged 92.
Recruitment? (2015)
The Guild master has been in discussion with Branch reps and Secretaries at the Spring General Committee meeting regarding recruitment and retention. Each branch was asked to submit their thoughts – see Anne’s Recruitment thoughts report on behalf of the Bicester Branch – download it below.
This does bring up a big issue really – more and more towers (countrywide, not just locally) are finding it hard to continue ringing and more towers are falling silent due to lack of ringers. Kathryn has sent these thoughts around by email:
It was great to have two new members at our Branch AGM – and youthful ones at that! Most of our towers could do with more ringers – and although it’s sometimes a thankless job recruiting/ teaching/ retaining/ encouraging new ones, without recruits we may, within the next 10-20 years, have a number of ‘silent’ towers. Anne Martin (Launton) and I were at a meeting where this topic was discussed throughout the Oxford Guild and some of the ideas/ difficulties are highlighted in Anne’s report on the Branch website. Do see what you can do individually to encourage newcomers to our quaint but lovely English tradition!
I echo these concerns – the Bicester branch membership is dropping and whilst some is due to people moving away, some is simply because our members are getting older and less able to ring and newer (younger) recruits are not coming forward. Equally I wonder if many towers in our branch have ringers confident or capable of teaching new recruits. If you are from a tower that has possible recruits but hasn’t a competent/capable/willing teachers then please contact Anthony or any of the branch officers and we will help where possible. Equally, if a course on teaching bell handling would be useful then get in touch and we can organise something. Having taught a new band at Caversfield over the last year or so and watching them improve I can vouch for it being a rewarding opportunity to teach new (and younger) recruits and we are now fairly good at plain hunt and are starting to work on plain courses of Grandsire Doubles (with a little extra help from Launton) which after just over one year is very pleasing – we also came second in the branch striking competition last year!
Bill Knapton funeral update 30/04/2015
It is with sadness that I heard today of the death of Bicester ringer Bill Knapton, aged 92.
His funeral is to be held at Oxford Crematorium on Friday 1st May at 12pm. Please note this is a change to previously advised location at Banbury Crematorium.
Mini fun April 2015
On Friday 25th April the Caversfield ringers and two of the Launton band trekked down the motorway to the Leigh End mini ring.
It took a bit of getting used to for some of the ringers but we had some pretty good ringing by the end of the evening.
We started with some handling tips from Mark Walker before we had goes on our own (including some double handed fun for those who had rung on mini rings before) and then had a go at rounds (one person had to ring double handed as we only had 7 ringers at the start.. I leave it to you to work out who was showing off!!). Next we rang call changes on all 8.
We then had a look at the bells as the last two ringers had arrived and then we had some more rounds on 8. That was followed by some plain hunt on 5 with tenor cover before stretching the limits and trying plain hunt on 7 which some haven’t tried anywhere before.
We progressed to Plain courses of Plain Bob Doubles with tenor cover and then Grandsire Doubles with a different tenor cover ringer. We rang rounds on the 8 at the end before the hilarity of ringing down.. though we didn’t try in peal despite Mark’s encouragement.
Anthony Cole
President in the news
Our branch president Willy Haynes marked a huge anniversary recently when he celebrated being Tower Captain and Steeple Keeper of Charlton on Otmoor for 50 years. He was interviewed for the Bicester Advertiser, Oxford Mail and on Radio Oxford.
The article can be found at the Oxford Mail.
New York, New York! (2015)
In the second of our Bicester branch World Tour (or at least one of our members!) I have received the following report from Ian about his experiences in the Big Apple!!
I contacted the Trinity ringers via email, to ask if I could come along and ring with them whilst I’m working in New York at JFK. I had a lovely reply welcoming me to NY and to come along to ring. Trinity church, from the outside, looks like a quaint little church, but once inside you realise that it’s only it’s setting amongst all the skyscrapers in the financial district of Manhatton that give it the appearance of being small. There are 12 bells and the ringing chamber is bigger than Bicester! The bells were all hung in 2006 and go really well. I rang the 24cwt tenor and it goes so much better than the (slightly) lighter tenor in Buckingham and no box to stand on! Practice is on a Wednesday night from 6.30 to 9 pm, ringers travel from all round NY and this gives them time to travel in to the city.
We started off ringing Grandsire and Plain Bob doubles then a touch of PB minor, before hunting on 9 and even rounds and calls on 12 – a first for me! I was then treated to some excellent ringing, including Superlative major and spliced Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and Superlative. I went back to ring on Sunday before the service, to find there was a quarter attempt, they attempt quarters every Sunday prior to ringing before the service – something we could try in Bicester branch?? Going back tomorrow, Wednesday evening practice and I’ve been given homework to learn the bobs to grandsire, which I haven’t done yet!! Hannah is due to visit next week and I’ll take her along so she can ring on 12 too. Will let you know how we get on!!
If I’m honest, a Quarter Peal every Sunday isn’t likely, but we do need to perhaps try a few more each year 😀