Category: News

There will normal ringing at 5pm.

The Kingston ringers kept up their tradition of visiting islands by including the Isle of Thanet in their Annual outing on 11 July 2015.

We started at the rather heavy going six at the impressive church of St Nicholas at Wade, so called because in medieval times it was necessary to wade through the marshes to get to the village!   We didn’t have to wade through marshes to get to the Waterloo Tower in Quex Park, but it was necessary to drive across a field to get there.

The Waterloo Tower was built in 1819 by John Powell Powell to celebrate the victory at the Battle of Waterloo, The original twelve bells were cast in 1818/1819 by Thomas Mears of Whitechapel and four subsequently recast in 1951. The metal spire, not unlike the Eiffel Tower, was added by John Clark of Ramsgate in 1820. The tower and spire can be seen for miles around and several of our party took the opportunity to enjoy the views of the Thames and Kent from the top of the tower. The sound of the bells is rather mushy in the ringing chamber, making them tricky to ring to methods, but we managed to ring a bob course of Grandsire Cinques with the help of a couple of local ringers.

Lunch was taken in Minster where we had hoped to ring, but unfortunately the church was booked for an all-day conference of monks!

Following on from the light eight at Birchington with its vertical ladder, and slightly more difficult ten at St Lawrence in Thanet, we rang on the nice little six at Westgate. The last tower was Margate, a rather laborious 23cwt eight which sounded good but were hard work to ring. We felt we had acquitted ourselves fairly well during the day, especially our learners Matt and Isabelle, and were very satisfied with the outing. We celebrated with a drink and a snack in the Bell Inn in St Nicholas at Wade.

There will be a quarter peal attempt of Grandsire Triples on the evening of Sunday 12 July as a farewell to Simon Toyne, leaving Kingston after many years as Director of Music.

There will be no ringing practice at Kingston on Wednesday 8 July as there is a concert in church that evening.  Next ringing is normal time Sunday morning.

The temperature in Kingston is projected to be 31 degrees at 7.00pm. A few people are away and a few more are on the sick list. So we have regrettably decided to cancel the Kingston practice this evening.

I have booked for 12 people at Strada, as it’s not at all clear to me who is & isn’t coming!  Hopefully it will be around 12 of us – there are 12 names on the board, I  know not all are intending to eat and Adrian & Alison are coming as well.

We also agreed ringing would start at 7 pm so there’s plenty of time to ring the bells up then down again so hope to see lots of people for ringing.  It’s a special service involving churchwardens from around the area .

Best wishes,

Kate

Dear Kingston Ringers

At last our door bell has been fixed and is now working.  A new bell push has been fitted just slightly to the left of where the old one was, where there is now a hole.  Where it was originally fitted it was getting squished every time the door was opened and this broke the push.  We tested it last night and it is working fine.

Best wishes

Kate

Dear Kingston Ringers

The church has an Archdeacon’s visit on Wednesday 20 May, including a service at 8 pm for churchwardens around and about to attend.  We can’t have our normal practice.  Jonathan would like us to ring for the service from 7.15 to 8 pm.  My guess is that we ought to be able to get enough people together to do that. Maybe we could go out to eat somewhere afterwards, as eating first could be tricky. We are away this week but perhaps you could let me know if you are available and we can start a list on the blackboard.

Best wishes,

Kate

Message from Diane:

Hi All

I will be bringing all outstanding polo shirts to Kingston on Sunday morning.  For those who have not paid yet, could you please let me have your payment as soon as possible.

Regards

Diane