by Fraser Storie
Twas a sunny, mid-July morning, when I found myself on a trip to the
Flavells’ house, due to me being kindly invited to go on the Kingston bell ringers’ annual expedition, this year – a fast-paced one day trip. Kate Corney was behind the organisation, with Paul Flavell overseeing the operation (most notably making sure the lunchtime menu contained Fish & Chips!). The base was the Cotswold District of Gloucestershire, meaning all towers were grabs for me.
The highlight tower was the ring of 12 at Cirencester. The tower here contains a mid-weight ring, with an extremely boomy 27cwt tenor tuned to Db. Ringing here included several bursts of Rounds on 12, Plain Hunt on 9 & 11, Grandsire Caters & Little Bob Royal.
The pack then began its afternoon circuit getting closer to home as it
went on. Our lunch venue was The Masons Arms, Meysey Hampton. We had the luxury of the longest table in the pub thanks to Kate C informing them of the numbers. Paul gave positive remarks about his Fish & Chips and I gave my positive remarks about the very sizeable burger! Depending on how exhausted we were after our lunch, we either walked or drove to the local ring of 6 in Meysey Hampton. Our method repertoire was exercised here with Grandsire & Stedman Doubles and even Surprise Minor on the menu.
The remaining towers included: Down Ampney, a tricky ring of 5 where we came across Mr Simon D G Webb, someone I’ve seen on the interwebs many times but never in real life! Paul was excited about ringing here as Down Ampney is also the name of a hymn tune, Mark Underwood gave us a jolly recital of it!
Cricklade were next, Ground floor 6 with the rope circle resembling more of a square, with ropes in the corners, complete with an excruciatingly long draught.
Our final stop was Rodbourne Cheney, a surprising coincidence as a recent name in the visitors book was Fred Mills, ex-Surrey Striker who lives in the area now. These were a true delight to ring, a pleasant course of Stedman Doubles was rung, amongst other things. During our visit we were serenaded by a guitarist downstairs! We all made us of the facilities at Rodbourne Cheney before heading home, via a rather wet M4!
My thanks to the Kingston Ringers, in particular Kate C for excellent
organisation and to Paul & Kate Flavell for chauffeuring me around.