Category: Outing

The Bicester Branch are going on tour! The full details of the towers we’re to visit on Sat 23rd April are below:

Some details about the towers gleaned from David Bagley’s webpages:

Tarrington, SS Philip & James, 6 bells, tenor 10-3-27, Grid Ref: SO618407 (Lat/Long N52.063349 W2.5586268)

Much of the church is Norman, but the tower is 15th C. The ringing chamber is at ground floor level, and may be reached through the back of the church. The church porch is on the south side of the church. Sharpe gives the tenor weight as 12-1-9, which he has obtained from the Whitechapel bell foundry records. Dove gives the weight as 10-3-27. The weights of bells 1 to 5 shown are as given by Sharpe.

1. Thomas Mears, Gloucester, 1839, 5-0-21
2. Mears and Stainbank, London 1927, 5-2-25
3. Mears and Stainbank, London 1898, 6-0-16
4. Thomas Mears, Gloucester, 1839, 8-1-7
5. Abel Rudhall, Gloucester, 1745, 10-3-11
6. Mears and Stainbank, London, 1927, 10-3-27 in F sharp

(Data:Sharpe 1971)

Stoke Edith, S Mary the Virgin, 6 bells, tenor 14-2-14, Grid Ref: SO604407
(Lat/Long N52.063251 W2.5790472)

The 14th C tower has a truncated spire, the top part having fallen off during a storm. Parking is in the church lane, and access to the tower is via the west door, and up a short flight of wooden stairs. The bells sound good, and go well, especially after being oiled. The bells were rehung by Taylors in 1903, and are fitted with Hastings type stays. The founder of the third is thought to be Robert Hendley, who was active during the second half of the 15th C.

1. John Taylor & Co, Loughborough, 1903, 4-3-11
2. John Taylor & Co, Loughborough, 1903, 5-0-27
3. Robert Hendley ?, Gloucester, Late 15th C, 5-2-17
4. Abel Rudhall, Gloucester, 1752, 7-2-25
5. John Finch, Hereford, 1636, 10-0-6
6. John Taylor & Co, Loughborough, 1903, 14-2-14 in F sharp

(Data:Sharpe 1966)

Lugwardine, S Peter, 8 bells, tenor 12-1-20, Grid Ref: SO551410
(Lat/Long N52.065542 W2.6563912)

The tower dates from c1484, the present 6^th being older than this. There is a record of another bell cast before this date, so there must have been a tower or bell house or turret before this. The tower steps are in the south west corner. The bells go fairly well, and sound clear. There is a curious sliding door in the ringing chamber. Much of the inscription on the 5th bell is inverted, or backwards, and the date of 1651 on the bell does not tally with the known dates of John Green. It is therefore possible that the actual date should have read 1615. Parking is in the lane past the east end of the church.

1. Mears and Stainbank, London, 1927, 4-1-8
2. Mears and Stainbank, London, 1927, 4-1-11
3. Mears and Stainbank, London, 1877, 5 cwt
4. Abel Rudhall, Gloucester, 1748, 5-1-14
5. John Green, Worcester, 1615?, 6-0-2
6. Worcester Foundry, c1400-1420, 8-1-13
7. Mears and Stainbank, London, 1877, 10-1-23
8. John Finch, Hereford, 1632, 12-1-20 in F

(Data:Sharpe 1970)

Weston Beggard, S John the Baptist, 5 bells, tenor 8.5cwt, Grid Ref: SO584413
(Lat/Longt N52.068498 W2.6082922)

The doorways and chancel arch date the nave to c1200, although it was rebuilt in 1881. The west tower and porch are 14th C. The tower steps are in the north west corner, and access to them is through the church. Parking is on the grass verge in front of the church, but the lane is frequently used by farm machinery, so do not block it. The bells go quite well, and their tone is good for old style bells.

1. John Rudhall, Gloucester, 1790, 4.25 cwt
2. John Rudhall, Gloucester, 1790, 4.75 cwt
3. John Rudhall, Gloucester, 1790, 5.25 cwt
4. John Rudhall, Gloucester, 1790, 6.25 cwt
5. Abraham Rudhall II, Gloucester, 1729 8.5 cwt in A

(Data:Sharpe 1969)

Yarkhill, S John the Baptist, 8 bells, Tenor 4-1-27, Grid Ref: SO609426
(Lat/Long N52.080368 W2.5719725)

Apart from the 13th C west tower and 13th C south doorway, this church was completely rebuilt in 1862. The new ring of 8 were installed underneath the unserviceable two tier 17th C oak frame. The most famous inhabitant of Yarkhill (to ringers) was Fabian Stedman, who was born here in 1640, and died in 1713, being buried in S.Andrew Undershaft, London. In 1668, he published “Tintinnalogia”, the first ever book about the art of change ringing. He was Master of the College Youths in 1682.

The new ring of 8 are as follows :-

1. Whitechapel Bell Foundry, 2011, 1-2-13
2. Whitechapel Bell Foundry, 2011, 1-2-19
3. Whitechapel Bell Foundry, 2011, 1-3-1
4. Whitechapel Bell Foundry, 2011, 1-3-16
5. Whitechapel Bell Foundry, 2011, 2-1-6
6. Whitechapel Bell Foundry, 2011, 2-2-0
7. Whitechapel Bell Foundry, 2011, 3-1-7
8. Whitechapel Bell Foundry, 2011, 4-1-27

The details of the old bells are :-

1. John Martin, Worcester, 1671, 5.25 cwt
2. John Martin, Worcester, 1671, 5.75 cwt
3. John Martin, Worcester, 1671, 7 cwt
4. John Finch, Hereford, 1636, 9 cwt in A

(Data:Sharpe 1972)

Anthony Cole

On Saturday 18th April 14 ringers plus some “hangers on” trekked to Bedfordshire for the 2015 Bicester Branch Outing. The A421 stressed out a few of the sat navs (those like mine which hadn’t been updated to show the course of the new road!) but we managed to get to Haynes by the 10am start time.

A pleasant little 6 with a lovely church – nice that the congregation can watch the ringers. We rang call changes, plain hunt and lots of Grandsire Doubles here.

From here we moved to Biggleswade and the first 8 of the day.

The tower was in the middle of renovation work and featured an open cased clock mechanism – who is that scruffy person ringing the tenor?? 😀 We rang call changes, plain hunt on 7 and even managed a course of Grandsire Triples here.

Lunch was up the A1 on the outskirts of Eaton Socon (our next tower stop) where we had a lovely meal at the Highwayman (Brewers Fayre). Some of us were inside and those with dogs were able to sit and eat outside in the sunshine.

Next was the 8 bells of Eaton Socon where we again managed Plain hunt on 7 and Grandsire Triples as well as call changes. The tower also had a monitor showing a live camera feed from the bell chamber – something that would be fun in more towers perhaps.

The next tower Eynesbury wasn’t far away, but confused the ringing master and his sat nav a little! At least he arrived in time for a last ring! The tower was also able to confuse a number of the other ringers as the bells were arranged in an anti-clockwise order which, whilst not exactly rare, is not something the Bicester branch ringers have experience of.

Watch the video of ringing at Eynesbury

(Thanks to Steve Cameron for taking the video)

Lastly we visited the birth place of John Bunyan, author of the Pilgrim’s Progress amongst other things. Not only that but John Bunyan rang in the detached tower at Elstow Abbey where we were to ring. Having arrived to late for the attempt at Eynesbury, we rang a couple of courses of Eynesbury Bob Doubles at Elstow along with Grandsire Doubles, Plain Bob Minor and call changes.

Finally what better way to finish off a lovely day than to visit a tea garden for a cream tea?

Thanks to everyone who came along and made it such a fun day. Obligatory group photo below!

Sorry folks, but today’s Branch Outing has had to be cancelled due to the snow.

I will try to re-arrange in the autumn when hopefully the weather will be a little warmer.

Following the cancellation of Great Shefford which I reported at the Branch AGM (great to see 18 ringers for this years meeting – and thanks for putting up with my organ playing!) I have rearranged the tower before lunch and the pub. The revised details of the outing (Saturday 23rd March, Newbury area) can be downloaded below:

Outing2013Poster

LUNCH MENU

Please pass on and if you are planning to come along please let Anthony know.

Due to forecast snow tomorrow I’ve set up a Twitter feed so I can get updates to everyone. The feed should automatically update on this web page (top right), but if not please search for @accole32 #bbo13 on Twitter.