News Archive 2015 29th December 2015 Well, you can't sit around for too long over the Christmas period so David and Phillip decided to install the new handrail rope for the tower stairs. We purchased it from Outhwaites of Hawes in North Yorkshire, who had been very helpful when the initial enquiry had been made and were able to advise us on installation.

We ran the rope down from the top of the tower loosely tying it there temporarily, and started fixing the brackets from the bottom of the turret stair. The installation was fairly straight forward with each bracket being more or less 1 metre apart, allowing for some slight adjustment to avoid electric cables and uneven pieces of stone. The clunch was easy to drill but created a lot of airborne dust, so dust masks were the order of the day. Each bracket was secured, the final two being on the wooden finial of the upper most steps, but the top one not being secured until we had adjusted the tension of the rope between each bracket using the screws provided. A bead of impact adhesive on any bracket which was not flush to the newel completed the job after a thorough vacuuming on the tower steps.

We started at 9.00am and finished at 3.00pm (with an hour for lunch), so 10 man hours completed the job and now we have a practical and safe hand rope for ringers and visitors. Phillip & David on completion of the work

Phillip & David on completion of the work

26th December 2015 On Boxing Day we celebrated Christmas by ringing a quarter peal of Plain Bob Doubles. Rebecca and Mark were staying with the Georges for Christmas and this was an ideal opportunity to ring, especially as there had been no church service on Christmas Day and therefore no ringing then. 1260 Plain Bob Doubles in 42 minutes 1. Sheila Prest 2. Rebecca Banner 3. David Prest 4. Phillip George (c) 5. Mark Banner 6. Sheila George And while we rang the children happily amused themselves in the church with Daniel's tablet.

L-R: David, Phillip, Sheila G, Mark, Rebecca, Sheila P 12th November 2015 We were short of experienced ringers at practice last night but this gave us an opportunity to ring more for our more recent recruits. Rounds for Matt and Susanne, learning to lead for Jenny, and an experiment - firing the bells which were half muffled. The latter was slightly disappointing because although we made a good job of it the effect was not as good as with the bells open. The muffles had been left on for this practice to give an opportunity to several ringers who had not yet rung on muffled bells. An important part of the evening was the presentation of Matt and Susanne's 10-bell badge in the Sherbourne Teaching Aids programme. Matt and Susanne have been ringing since mid-July and are now ringing Rounds. Call changes will soon follow.

Matt & Susanne

7th November 2015 The bells were rung this morning to a quarter peal which was half muffled for Remembrance. This was arranged because there will be no ringing on Remembrance Sunday. 1260 Single Oxford Bob Minor in 46 minutes 1. Sally Mew 2. Sheila George 3. James Hayden 4. Geoff Durrant 5. Phillip George 6. Iain Hayden (c)

This was a Hunts District quarter peal.

The ringing was very good and a part of it, including the ringing down of the bells at the end can be heard here.

31st October 2015 Andrew Lawrence rang a quarter peal on the tenor at Great Gransden today which completes the assessment for his Duke of Edinburgh's Award at the bronze level. His other objectives were to ring a quarter peal on the treble, to learn Plain Bob Doubles on an inside bell and to ring the simulator, all of which he has achieved. On completing this Andrew joins Jonathan in this achievement and Alasdair has just started his six-month course at the same level. Well done Andrew - keep up the good work. 1260 Plain Bob Doubles in 45 minutes 1. David Prest2. Sheila Prest 3. Sheila George 4. Andrew B Smith 5. Phillip George (Cond) 6. Andrew Lawrence To complete Andrew Lawrence's DofE Skills Award and bronze level. 23rd October 2015 Our youngest recruit, Sam was awarded his 10-bell badge during the practice on Thursday 22nd. His initial bell handling lessons took place in May but family

commitments delayed a more intensive learning regime until September. More or less weekly tied bell practices and attendance on Thursday evenings coupled with his steely determination has helped him progress to ringing Rounds, although this still has to be perfected. He has been signed up to the Learning the Ropes Scheme (developed the Association of Ringing Teachers) and is part way through Level 1. Sam expects high standards of himself and is a joy to teach, constantly asking questions and commenting on his own performance, and I am sure will be a valued member of the team.

25th September 2015 At practice last night we awarded Jenny her 10-bell badge in the Sherbourne Teaching Aids scheme. Jenny started ringing in March and is now ringing Rounds and will soon be moving on to call-changes. It was also an important evening for her son Jonathan who has now successfully achieved his bronze award in bell ringing after also starting to ring in March.

Jenny displays her 10-bell badge 14th September 2015 Ringers and non-ringers alike enjoyed a grand day out on Saturday 12th September when we visited six churches / rings of bells on our annual outing with the Swavesey ringers, organised this year by Andrew Stevens. About 23 attended and there was ample opportunity to try the bells, some of which were slightly more challenging than those in our home towers. See the photographs by following this link: Gallery for Gransden / Swavesey Outing 2015 Many thanks to Andrew for organising the day. One comment received from a Gransden ringer "..enjoyed the experiences and the challenges faced by older towers and the joy of the small bells at the last venue..." Group photo at end of day taken outside Mindenho le Tower in Newmarket

11 September 2015 (by Sheila George)

At bell ringing practice at Great Gransden last night 2 of our ringers achieved goals - Victoria received her 25 bell badge, and Level 1 Learning the Ropes certificate was awarded to Jonathan. Well done both.

We had a very busy practice with 13 local ringers and 2 visitors present and it included ringing rounds with help for the first time for 3 ringers and up to PB Doubles for those who are more able. One comment from one of our youngsters was 'I think I've got the hang of this now' - light at the end of a long tunnel!

1st August 2015 Special ringing today, this time to honour Victor Hughes who has retired after serving for 56 years as church organist in this church and at Little Gransden. He also previously served 17 years as organist at the Baptist chapel in Gamlingay. A quarter peal of 1320 changes of Cambridge Surprise Minor was rung by members of the Hunts District Ringers and included daughter Sheila and son in law Phillip, also of this tower. Victor was choir master for most of his time here and was also a bell ringer, ringing three quarter peals during his ringing career. He has been a member of the Ely Diocesan Association of Church Bell Ringers since 1978.

Rev Catharine Furlong congratulating and thanking Victor for his 56 years as organist and wishing him a happy retirement. 28th July 2015 Today we rang a quarter peal in memory of David Staughton. David lived all his life in Abbotsley and was much loved in the community and was well known in the surrounding villages. His wish was to have the bells rung for him and as those at Abbotsley are unringable we arranged to ring at Great Gransden. We rang half muffled for him and had some lovely ringing.

25th July 2015 At the wedding of the year of Alice Foster (former choir girl) we had to ask outside ringers to help. Matthew and Michelle regularly attend our practices without their dogs Merlin and Una. Una is a guide dog puppy under training and merlin is a former guide dog puppy. They were brought along today and lay quietly in their respective corners while we rang. Also is use for the first time - the cctv camera and display monitor. The monitor has been discreetly wired in so that cabling is kept to a minimum. Clever positioning of trunking and the use of a box of tricks (for the plugs and BNC adaptor have resulted in a very neat installation. Merlin (left)

Una (right)

Merlin (left)

Friday 12th June 2015 We have just installed a new colour CCTV camera in the belfry with a Dell PC monitor in the ringing room and permanently wired the system. The previous set up was an old black and white camera which had to be plugged into an equally old CRT TV. Setting it up really made us ask if it was worthwhile, but we will not have that problem in future. The new camera has infra-red sensors and displays a monochrome picture when there is insufficient light. The picture quality is good and the 67 degree lense enables five out of six bells to be seen very clearly.

The camera works via a BNC connector with a VGA output into the monitor. This is perfectly adequate for our needs in the tower and a good demonstration of the bells ringing can now be given at the flick of the mains switch. The Dell monitor clips into its stand when used with a PC, so an interface kit was designed so that it would fit onto a standard TV wall mount.

The camera, together with our new laptop has brought us rather more up to date and we will use both systems for teaching.

Swann Pro 742 CCTV camera Dell monitor displaying belfry view

First impressions at last night's practice - a fascinating distraction to see the bells ringing whilst we ring them!

Sunday 31st May 2015 Congratulations to Andrew Lawrence on ringing his first quarter peal. This was planned as part of his DofE bronze skills award and was a target he set himself when we discussed his plan for the next three months. Andrew rang very throughout and we had some very nice ringing. Thanks to Catherina for coming over from St. Neots to ring with us. See http://www.bb.ringingworld.co.uk/view.php?id=465678 for details.

Back: Catherina Griffiths, Sheila Prest, David Prest. Front: Sheila George, Phillip George, Andrew Lawrence

Thursday 7th May 2015 We had a very busy evening, which started by welcoming the 1st Gransdens Guide Unit to the tower to show them the clock and bells. They had been temporarily evicted from their usual meeting place due to the Reading Rooms being required as the polling station for the general election, so the leaders, Hazel Pettit and Helen Jackson asked if a tour of the tower would be possible. We were delighted to help out and arrangements were made to meet at 6.45pm.

The guides were taken up the spiral staircase in small groups, first to see the bells, during which time we were able to silence the clapper and demonstrate what a bell looks like when being rung, and then stopping at the clock room on the way down to see the clock and bell museum, where there was an opportunity to hand round one of the smaller bell clappers (redundant since the bells were re-hung in 2000). Heavy metal in action and much enjoyed by everyone.

The clock room served as a passing place on the spiral stair case for next group was able to go up to the belfry. The last room to visit was the ringing room where Sheila George demonstrated how the bell was rung, so during their visit everyone saw a bell in action and the movement of the bell rope.

The photographs are of the girls in the belfry - thanks for coming, please visit us again.

Thursday 7th May During the practice we were pleased to award Jonathan with his 10-bell badge in the Sherborne Teaching Aids system. Jonathan has only been ringing for a few weeks and is working on his Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme and is also making good progress towards level one in the ITTS training scheme.

Jonathan with his 10-bell badge

Thursday 23rd April St. George’s Day Three generations of the George family rang at St. George’s Church Littleport to mark the day. The initiative was part of the Ringing for England campaign, who supplied tee shirts for the occasion. We are pictured in the ringing room at Littleport.

Photo - Liz Morgan

In the evening we also dedicated our ringing to St. George’s Day and the phot shows the happy band of ringers. It was also Megan's 12th birthday - Happy birthday Megan. Thursday 26th March 2015

At practice on Thursday 26th March, Megan was awarded her ITTS Level 1 certificate for bell handling. She attends our practices most weeks and joins in with all the fun of the evening. She is a capable ringer of call changes including accurate leading and is keen to get things right, often offering self-criticism if she is unhappy with her performance. The photograph shows tutor Phillip presenting the certificate.

Saturday 28th February 2015***** Ringing Skills Event ***** This morning we held a Ringing Skills event for local ringers and friends from Swavesey when we set aside two hours dedicated to bell control and listening skills. Starting with Rounds we recorded several short pieces of ringing and gave our opinions about how good or bad it was. Everyone was very honest and were able to recognise where the striking errors were. This was followed by ringing Rounds facing outside the circle. Mm! not as good, and it took longer for Rounds to be achieved. Key learning here is the importance of the treble ringer! We then went on to ring Mexican wave, with places, then we added a dodge at the beginning, then included a double dodge. This was excellent practice for both up and down dodges which everyone enjoyed and achieved to a reasonable standard. Key learning, try not to lose your place, and work the bell on the dodges i.e. hold up and cut in. Midway and we had short break for refreshments when we managed to demolish a box of homemade handbell shaped shortbread and a box of cupcakes with icing. Much appreciated by all and thank you Sheila G for providing them.

Andrew had his friend Jack staying with him, so we gave Jack a go too at backstroke and handstroke which he managed very well. We have seen Jack before so he was not a complete stranger to ringing. It’s a pity he doesn't live here as I am sure that if he did he would be part of our team. Well done Jack.

L-R Alasdair, Andrew, Jack and Daniel Back - David, Sheila P, Janet, Caroline, Sheila G, Phillip

After the break we did more Mexican Wave, followed by plain courses of Plain Bob Doubles to help Andrew and Alasdair ring the tenor behind; and all the treble ringers had a go at honing their Hunting skills on the treble. The last touches of the day were a bit of a dodgy attempt at Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, with quite a few missed backstroke stands, but which were accompanied by much amusement by everyone; and finally some call changes conducted by Sheila P to finish off the morning. Thanks to everyone for your hard work.

Thursday 12th February 2015 - Sheila George writes

At Bell ringing Practice at Great Gransden last night we were only 7 in number but Megan one of younger regular visitors achieved a badge in the Sherbourne Teaching Aid Scheme for accumulating 25 bells on her card. Megan rang with confidence last night, both ringing a bell up and down on her own, leading and call changes, all her own work and unassisted by any of the adults. Well done Megan.

New Year's Day Date Touch On January 1st local ringers and friends rang a date touch of 2015 Minor in 5 methods. The ringing took 1hour and 7 minutes and was enjoyed by all, including one resident who posted a compliment on Facebook. It was the 21st year a date touch has been rung here on the 1st January.

From L-R: Phillip George (composer and conductor), Catherina Griffiths (St. Neots), Andrew B Smith (Gamlingay), Andrew Stevens (Swavesey), Sheila George (Tower Captain), Iain Hayden (Thrapston).