The Essex Association of Change Ringers   President: The Right Reverend the Lord Bishop of Chelmsford

The 60th Essex Association Annual Dinner took place on Saturday 4th October at The County Hotel, Chelmsford. Our guests for the evening were the Very Revd Nicholas Henshall, Dean of Chelmsford with his wife Christine, and Rosalind and Tim Martin from Christchurch Priory in Dorset. Stephen Nash and his wife Alison were also guests in recognition of Steve having been made a Life Vice President of the Association at our AGM in May.

There was time to mingle before dinner and catch up with old friends and meet some new ones. I started to get a bit concerned when it was almost time to take our seats and the Dean and his wife hadn’t arrived yet. I stood outside waiting for then to see then hurrying along the road. Just before entering, they stopped off at the corner of the hotel whilst Christine did a quick shoe swap from her comfy shoes into her posh dinner shoes! The Dean then apologised for their lateness, due to a service at the Cathedral overrunning, which he’d thought was going to be an informal service to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the ordination of women priests, but turned in to a full blown service and refreshments. Just time for a quick G&T and sweet sherry before taking our seats.

As usual, the staff at the County did us proud with a superb three course meal followed by coffee and petit fours.

The new Master, John Harpole

The formal part of the evening followed with an opening speech by our new Master, John Harpole. He recollected some of his personal highlights of the last twelve months including an ideal weekend on Lundy with bells and beer, and District Meetings where members who weren’t at the AGM could put a face to his name. He thanked all officers for their work during the year. He was pleased to present his predecessor, Brian Meads with a certificate to acknowledge Brian’s 20 years as a Tutor on the Essex Ringing Course. At the AGM in May, John had the privilege of proposing another former Master of the Association as a Life Vice President and presented Stephen Nash with his certificate.

In proposing a toast to the Church, John said one of the pleasures of being Master was to be able to visit many of the county’s churches which ranged from 7th century, 20th century, town, city and countryside and the unique glass tower at Basildon, John’s home tower. He had recently been on a ringing holiday to the US and Canada, visiting both big cities and smaller places off the tourist trail in Cape Cod, and New Castle by the Delaware River, and ringing in the redundant church, now used as a library in Quebec. He noted the contribution that ringing makes to the life of the church and the mental and physical challenges of being a bell ringer.

Dean Nicholas in full flow

The Dean responded by recollecting his long experience with bell ringing at Derby, particularly at New Year’s Eve, heading up the tower, followed by a few whiskys or beers and trying to work out why the tower moved! Sacrilege struck at his last post at Harrogate which had no bells but a congregation of 400. Someone decided to install a sound system which included a recording of St Paul’s Cathedral bells, which was played for weddings at no extra charge. When he took up his post at Chelmsford, he was told that vicars and Deans don’t change things. He does not subscribe to that theory and has been exploring changes in evensong times and thanked the Cathedral ringers for rising to the challenge by agreeing to ring after the service rather than miss out altogether. The Dean was struck by the part that bell ringing plays in church history. The origin of ringing before service came from St Francis when he went to visit the Muslims on Crusades. It was a public display outside of what was taking place inside and St Francis determined that ringing bells should take place before daily prayer. In today’s culture it shows how great religious traditions cross boundaries and that we should be proud of relationships with other faiths and what can be learnt from one another. He concluded saying that bells have a profound place that rises up above petty differences in a tower of praise spreading extraordinary messages of peace, love and hope.

Tim and Ros double act

Next came the double-act of Tim and Ros Martin. They had travelled up from Dorset and asked if there would be an opportunity for some ringing during the afternoon. This resulted in two successful quarter peals at Writtle and Danbury. Tim began, explaining that he’d been introduced to ringing by his father and learnt at a 5 bell tower. Ros had learnt as a student to get his attention, had given up for a period of time but returned to it about 5 years ago. He suggested that changes in ringing today generally fall into 4 camps. To traditionalists he invited them not to be afraid of change; he was captivated by traditions in his youth and there is a need to pass on its values to the next generation. However, we are now at a crossroads and something needs to be done. In Dorset there was a gradual weakening of ringing tower by tower. Twenty to thirty years ago service ringing would include ringing the standard methods but now many towers struggle to ring all their bells. There are huge changes in demographics where retirees can devote time to ringing and are the bedrock of any band, but he asked, where is the next generation coming from? Time is precious for those that work and have family commitments. Ringing still has a time honoured structure and whilst there is nothing fundamentally wrong with this, some traditions need to change to avoid an unhealthy arrogance to new ideas.

Ros said that it had taken 6 months for her to be persuaded to take on the post of Winchester & Portsmouth Guild PRO. She explained that she thought that we need to recruit people with courage. People shout, things get broken, people get ignored at other towers. Nationally, we lose about 80% of new recruits and we need to be honest with them; ringing can be frightening, dangerous and addictive. When someone gets shouted out, they should be reassured afterwards. If we want to be serious about young ringers we need to embrace technology; have a Facebook page, a district website and a vision to get more ringers get more enjoyment out of it. Ros told of one tower that was really struggling but then set aside Wednesday mornings and spent a term and a half helping ringers through Plain Bob. Ros wished the Association well in its challenges ahead and proposed a toast to the health of the Essex Association.

The Master finished the formal proceedings by thanking our guests and their partners for being with us and our speakers were presented with flowers and wine. He also thanked the Social Committee for their hard work in organising another fantastic evening.

With the speeches completed, the sweepstake was won by David Sparling who came nearest (I only missed out by 30 seconds!). The raffle followed which raised funds for bell restoration work and there was plenty of time for everyone to mingle and socialise.

Vicki Chapman
(Monday 3 November 2014)