Welcome to the Banbury Branch News Page for 2006
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| Boxing Day Ringing | November and December | Harvest of volunteers |
| Richard Duckworth | Striking Competition | |
| Branch AGM | Queen's Birthday | |
| Quiz night | 125th Anniversary of the Guild |
North Oxfordshire Ringers Clothing available
Latest News
Boxing Day Ringing Deddington - Please Note
A
message from Deddington ......
It is not a problem but I thought I
should let you know that there will be
a service at the Church on Boxing Day,
starting at 10.00am. It should be over
before 11.00. The vicar is aware and
is quite happy for the bells to be
rung during the service. Could I
ask you however, to try and make sure
that visiting ringers use the west
entrance under the tower rather than
through the south door so that they
don’t disturb the service.
At
the end of November Banbury tower
hosted the Guild 10 bell Striking
Competition. Six teams took part on a
very wet Saturday morning. As the
bells were being raised there was a
very large clap of thunder over head
and Barry feared that a clapper had
fallen out until he was assured it
was only thunder. There was some
excellent ringing during the morning
and this was commented upon by several
non ringers. The judges placed the
teams in the following order.
1. Reading 2. East Berks South
Bucks 3.Vale of the White
Horse 4. Old North Berks
5. Banbury 6. North Bucks.
In the first week of December Bob and
Barry spent the morning in Banbury
tower taking measurements for the
Central Council who are assisting
Ludlow in looking at possible
alternatives to their present ring of
10. One of these alternatives is a
ring of 10 similar in weight to
Banbury. We didn't question what we
had to do but the measurements were
not straight forward. One task was to
measure the distance of deflection for
each wheel. This entailed measuring
the bell hung at rest and then again after
a known weight had been suspended on the
end of the rope. The known weight was
Bob and we came armed with scales to
check accuracy. While Barry measured
the deflection Bob stood in a loop on
the tail end and spun round getting
very dizzy in the process. We also had
to time how long it took each Sally to
swing 20 times and this was done three
times for each bell.
On
December 15th four members of the
Branch rang handbells for
a
wedding at
Horley because the tower bells are
unringable. This was a first for all
four ringers. The
guests were rung
into church from just inside the west
door and then the band moved to the
south door to ring in the bride. After
the service the band lined up outside,
on both sides of the west door, to ring
the bride and guests out.
From October 2nd to October 14th there is a an exhibition by various volunteer groups in St. Mary's Church Banbury. The vicar invited the Banbury ringers to participate. Below is their display.
Following
on from the successful Severn Valley
railway and ringing outing about two
years ago it was decided to repeat the
format but this time in Hampshire.
Twenty five ringers and friends left
rain soaked Oxfordshire for a hot
humid day in mid Hampshire. The day
started with ringing at New and Old
Alresford and then Ropley. The
afternoon was spent travelling up and
down the Watercress Line from New
Alresford to Alton. Many of the
passengers appeared to be members of
the Duke of Gloucester Preservation
Society or followers of the real ale
coach! The timing w
as ideal as it
meant that when the rain arrived we
were able to take shelter on the
train. The evening started 
with
ringing on the Gillett 8 at Alton and
then on to Hurstborne Priors. It was
at Hursbourne that about 15 of the
party had an evening meal. The day was
enjoyed by all and thanks go to Joan
for organising the day.
July
19th marked the 300th anniversary of
the death of 
Richard Duckworth a
former vicar of Steeple Aston. The
occasion was marked with a peal of
Yorkshire Surprise Major rung on the
evening prior to the anniversary (for
details see peals and quarters page). Why
was Richard Duckworth important to
both Steeple Aston and bellringers?
The answer is that Duckworth wrote the
first book on change ringing -
Tintinnalogia, or the Art of Ringing,
first published in 1668. He came to
Steeple Aston in 1680 and was Head
Master at the village school. He was
also responsible for improvements in
the streets and water supply in the
village. A fuller description of
Duckworth's life appears in the
Ringing World for July 14th
A
break with recent tradition meant 
that
this
was
held on a Thursday rather than a Saturday.
The location for the evening of June
29th was Rousham. On a glorious
evening about 70 people turned up.
Rousham House gardens were open for
people to wander around. Seven teams
took part in the competition six
representing towers and the other was
a scratch band made up of those left
over. Judges for the evening
were
Dave Joyce and Chrisi Cable.
After
ringing was over we all walked to Dave
Tuckey's garden for
a wonderful
barbeque provided by the
Rousham
ringers.
After the meal the judges announced
the results:
1. Steeple Aston,
2. Great Tew,
3. Scratch Team,
4.
Tadmarton,
5. Bodicote,
6. Cropredy,
7. Mollington.
The
customary raffle was held with many
prizes and this resulted in £112
being donated to Cropredy bell fund.
All agreed is was a very enjoyable
evening and thanks were expressed to
Mr. & Mrs. Cottrell Dormer of Rousham
House,
who were present, and the Rousham
ringers.
Cropredy Mayfest raises £2,500
What
promised to be a wet afternoon turned
out to be nice and sunny. The effect
was to bring out the crowds to enjoy
all that was on offer at the Cropredy
Mayfest. The event was held in a field
bordering the canal and the afternoon
was to raise money for
Cropredy's Bell Restoration Appeal and
the Cropredy School Foundation Unit.
On offer was a wide range of stalls
and the entertainment included the
Bloxham Morris Men, Punch and Judy, a
Robin Hoo
d
Play etc. Highlight for the bell
ringers was the Lichfield Diocesan
Guild Mini Ring. The bells were
available for children to chime and
adults to try their hand at ringing.
There was also an opportunity for
ringers who attended to ring rounds
and changes. A Banbury Branch band
also rang a quarter peal on the bells
at the third attempt. One of the more
experienced ringers finding bell
handling more difficult on this ring
and managing to slip wheel twice (see
peals page for details).
Graham and Dorothy Clifton set up and
manned a display of artefacts 
and
pictures about bell hanging etc. At
4.00pm the bell ringers 
amongst
the crowd took themselves off to the
parish church to ring for the last
half hour of the event. Thanks go to
Brenda and Stephen Day for their part
in organising the afternoon and
particularly to Brenda for arranging
the Mini Ring etc
The
AGM was held at Steeple Aston on
Saturday April 22nd. Ringing at Lower
Heyford preceded the service at
Steeple Aston. Ringing continued at
Steeple Aston after the meeting. The
Branch welcomed to the meeting the
Guild Secretary Nigel Harrison and
Guild Steward David Joyce. Various
officers presented their reports and
apart from the Ringing M
aster and
Deputy Ringing Master all Branch
Officers were re-elected. Graham
Clifton became Branch Ringing Master
and Jane Broadbent was elected Deputy
Ringing Master.
Roger Stranks was
presented with a certificate for 50
years membership of the Guild and a
copy of the minutes for the meeting in
1956 when he was elected a member. 
The
presentation was made by Graham
Clifton. A grant of £150 was given to
Cropredy towards their augmentation
fund. Members were also asked to
support Cropredy's Mayfest - details are further down this page.
The two peal boards to be hung in
Banbury tower to commemorate the 80th
Anniversary of the Branch and the
125th Anniversary of the Guild were
also on display.
Ringing took place to celebrate the Queen's 80th birthday on Friday April 21st at Adderbury, Banbury, Cropredy, Deddington, Duns Tew, Great Tew, Mollington, Rousham, Steeple Aston, Tadmarton, and Wardington. Bodicote rang on the evening of Wednesday April 19th. The earliest risers were Steeple Aston who rang at 7.00am before they all set off to work. Quarter peals were rung at Banbury and Great Tew (see peals and quarter page for details).
Twenty
eight ringers and friends braved the
cold on Saturday February 4th to visit
the Bedford area. The first bells of the
day were the 10 at Kempston. The tower
was difficult to locate and two didn't
make it. Mike I think needs to invest in some
OS maps or Sat Nav!! Then on to the 6
at Elstow and to complete the morn
ing
the lovely sounding 8 at
Cardington.
The remainder of the day was spent in
Bedford and decisions had to be made
between Park and Ride or fighting your
way round the one way system for a car
park. St Peters was first tower (8)
followed by the light 8 of St Andrew.
This was a keep fit afternoon as
having walked out to St. Andrews
everyone then had to walk back to ring
o
n the 12 at St. Pauls. Here we rang
respectable touches of Grandsire and
Stedman Cinques as well as plain hunt
on 11 for those with less experience
of 12 bell ringing.
The day finished with about twenty of
the group sitting down to an excellent
meal at the Swan in Bromham. Thanks go
to Roger for organising an excellent
day.
A
very suc
cessful Branch Quiz night was
held at Tadmarton village hall on
January 21st. About 40 people took
part in seven teams with Steeple Aston
coming out the winners. The evening's
proceedings were kept in order by quiz
masters Ian Rodrick and Lindsey Smith.
The guess the weight of the cake
competition was won by Jeff from
Tadmarton and the money raised
totalled just over £90. The food was
of the usual high standard we have
come to expect at Branch events thanks
to Vicky and co. The 'interesting
things' on show included a fisherman's
lure and a toasting fork. The
questions kept us guessing, the
answers made us groan and Lindsey's
leaves defeated us!!
Peal marks the Guild 125th Anniversary