Ringing Quarters

What beautiful weather we've had! and it made for some hot work, ringing the bells in the belfries, with sun streaming through the windows.

A quarter peal is a continuous piece of bellringing, which usually lasts for about an hour. Often these are to mark special occasions, or before a church service. We usually ring a quarter every week at Pettistree, before the evening practice. This gives everyone a chance to improve their skills and ring new methods. We have rung the surprise minor alphabet (Allendale to Zealot Surprise Minor) so we thought that we would mop up the rest of the Regular 41 methods. So we made a start by ringing Netherseale - twice on subsequent weeks so everybody had a go.

On Saturday five of us ringers were invited to ring a quarter of Cambridge Minor (six bells) at Orford for the Orford ringing master, Richard Moody to practice this method. After the quarter,there was a pleasant evening meal at the local pub, the Jolly Sailors, - plus some beer to re-hydrate ourselves. Then today we rang Cambridge Surprise Major (eight bells) for evensong at Ufford (its the Ufford stocks that I am pictured in,in my profile photo by the way).

I include some photos of Orford church, Ufford church and also some old ringers graffitti in the belfry. We not allowed to do this any more! but it seems that people have always wanted to write their name on the wall.