Outings - Autumn 2005
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Durham Area |
| Saturday 22nd October 2005 | We set off
early on a wet morning to arrive in the Durham area by 10.30 am in a
convoy of cars. Our car arrived early, ably assisted by the
satellite navigation equipment that Nick had borrowed from work for the
day. This sat. nav. was quite a feature of the day, especially
when in Joanna Lumley mode - ‘turn right darling’….. |
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The first stop, Shincliffe was a really lovely little rural village; as were all the places visited in the day, but because it rained most of the time, we didn’t have chance to see much. Another feature of the outing was access to the ringing chambers, all towers having their own challenges. Shincliffe had a long stepladder up to the belfry and a narrow trap door to negotiate. If you didn’t look down, and stepped off the ladder across to the ringing floor carefully, it was fine. Once there, the six bells were light, (flighty sic Robin) that caused a few raised eyebrows, but we managed a plain course of Cambridge, before scrambling down the ladder again. |
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We moved on
to Durham St Oswald’s - a heavier ring of eight. They actually
sounded quite nice, a point that I failed to take much notice of at the
time, mainly because of the oddstruckness of the second. I
initially scoffed at the unevenness of the steps, noted at the bottom
of the spiral staircase, but, as I ascended, I realised how very
difficult they were to climb in combination with a low roof. The same lady let us in at both these towers, so she did her bit for tower relations that day. We managed a creditable plain course of superlative as well as grandsire and plain bob, but time was tight here as there was a wedding booked and the couple did not want the bells rung (shame). |
| We set off
for lunch at a local hostelry and due to some confusion the group ended
up at different places, but we had a nice meal at the unlikely named
‘Floaters Mill’, (at your destination, arrived you have, - sat. nav.
Yoda style). |
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After dinner
we went on to Houghton-le-Spring, and waited a while outside the wrong
door – sheltering under brollies and asking where each other had got
to. On finding the back door entrance, it was revealed as a
cruciform church, a design that puts the tower centrally, and that
meant a short walk across the roof, in the rain, on wooden slats, to
reach the ringing chamber. It’s the only tower I’ve been in that had a security camera and the lady that let us in suggested that we kept the door shut, in case of unwelcome visitors, which seemed out of character for the place. It was another ring of eight, rather tinny (harsh sic Robin) and it was ringing here that I realised how nice Durham’s St Oswalds actually had been. We rang Double Norwich – reasonably well, but I couldn’t see us managing without Chris’ truly amazing support. |
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From here it
was to Brancepath (8) the heaviest ring of the day at 14 cwt and a
church completely destroyed by fire in September 1998. It had
been rebuilt and decorated in a most beautiful way, full of light, with
pale walls and a light oak arching ceiling, it was airy and
peaceful. In quite an individual setting too, next door to a
castle, an original sort of small castle, judging by the size of its
walls. It was unfortunate that at the point of our arrival they were practicing for an imminent and somewhat complex rededication service involving a great deal of blessing, radio controlled communication and manoeuvres between church and castle. Tensions were running high and the woman who ‘welcomed’ us wasn’t familiar with the bells and asked the vicar if he minded us making a lot of noise - which of course, he did. Amidst abject apologies in a crowded church porch, the churchwarden breezed in saying that there was no problem because you couldn’t hear the bells in the nave anyway, and we were to follow her. So, off we went across the back of the church towards the tower, in full view of the vicar still trying to explain the procedure of the service to the assembled throng, having just refused to let us ring. It seemed very rude, but one of those situations where the more you try to explain the worse it gets so I just pointed to the churchwardens back as I trotted along behind her and he stared at us, huffing: I tried to generate an expression that conveyed a ‘trust me, you won’t know we’re here’ sort of thing, but it wasn’t entirely successful. Then it was up a couple of very steep ladders, which unless you leant out backwards holding onto the stair rails, you couldn’t clear the tread of the step above which meant that you tended to bang your knees. The physical insult didn’t end there either because as I rang the second down, I jumped up, only a little, and hit my head on the ladder placed against the wall to give access to the bell chamber above, (care take must you with ladder low slung – sic Yoda). It was the local tower of the Durham University Society of Bellringers and I liked their list of Underrated and Overrated on the board up there. It included in the overrated list - superlative, I think I tend to agree (just joking Robin). Still, the bells sounded nice and we managed a passable Yorkshire before sneaking out the way we’d come, past the somewhat mollified, but still instructing vicar. |
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Last
ring of the day was Sedgefield (sounds familiar – I wonder who’s the
M.P. there?) where the ringing chamber was accessed by simultaneously
hurdling two central heating pipes whilst ducking for a low
doorway. We rang Norwich Surprise here and this made a total of
ten methods throughout the day, which wasn’t a bad show and not that
easy in this tower because the tenor was almost hidden from the treble
by the clock mechanism that dominated the tower. A further
feature of the tower was the table set up with lego – for the
entertainment of those (adults) not ringing. |
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We set off
for home at about 5 pm and were doing fine until we broke down on the
M1 (when you are able, leave the motorway at the next junction darling
- and that was just the traffic patrol officer). Gill heroically donated a spare pair of tights to replace the disintegrated fan belt, but too late, the battery was fatally low and we couldn’t restart the engine. We did think about pushing the dark car, with no lights, in our dark coats, down the hard shoulder in the drizzling rain, whilst lorries and cars thundered past, but thought better of it and just waited for the AA and to keep our spirits up discussed bobs in Superlative. Just as the mood and mint level became dangerously low, help arrived and we made it safely home just an hour delayed. Many thanks to Elaine for all for the organising, let’s do it again in March - darlings. |
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| Second Report Ranmoor Outing 22 October 2005 |
I have been asked to write a small piece
about the Ranmoor
October outing to Durham and surrounding areas. Firstly, let me warn
you that on such outings, towers all mould into one and I have a
problem remembering which ones were which, so I will tell you about
general things that I recall about that day...... I was invited to join
the Ranmoor regulars along with a couple of other outsiders, Simon
Darwin and James Blackburn. We travelled with Chris B with Simon being
the assigned driver. On the way, we introduced James to the game of
Mini Punch, being a novice he ended up black and blue! (see me for
rules)! |
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First tower was Shincliffe, St Mary, 6
bells 4cwt (have no
recollection, sorry)! [Fine light six with interesting painting in
tower Ed.] |
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Second tower was Durham, St Oswald, 8
bells 12cwt (still no
recollection, sorry again)!
[More good bells, with an additional extra two bells on show in the
church] |
| Third tower was Houghton-le-spring, St Michael,
8 12cwt
bells. Now I remember nothing about the tower, (suprise, suprise) but
we did stop here for lunch. |
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| Disaster no real ale pub!!! As a lager
drinker this did not ponder a problem, unlike others. Even I have to
say that the chosen pub was pretty dire, spit-n-sawdust type! still, we
had a decent enough lunch. We all fancied some afters but didn't
particularly want to stay in the pub so we had a stroll down the local
high street and found a pleasant tea shop. We all piled in had a very
nice cup of tea and cream cakes, most enjoyable. It was absolutely
Chucking it down with rain when we left so all ran to the tower to ring
and attempt to dry out. |
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| Fourth tower was Brancepath, St Brandon,
8 bells 14cwt. This
church had
been very badly damaged by fire in 1998 as had been newly restored, the
inside was immaculately painted. The Ringing room itself was completely
white and had blue/red stripped sallies (odd the things you remember) -
when you rang on them it appeared that the sallies actually seemed to
be purple.
Simon now tells me there was a large Castle next to the church which I
seemed to have missed, or can’t remember! |
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| Fifth and final tower was Sedgefield, St
Edmund, 6 bells 9cwt
, and
local church of Tony Blair. It had some very fancy upholstery and a
full Lego set to play with whilst waiting to ring. It also had a really
big model bell in the corner. |
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On the way home we decided to stop at
Wetherby to get a Whale
and
Chips, James was the only one to complete the task by actually
finishing it! If you have ever tried one you will know that this is no
mean feat and respect has to be given to James!! All in all, it was a very enjoyable day. Jo Bullock |
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This 2nd report published in Spirals (Sheffield Branch newsletter) Feb 2006 |
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