Newspage

The Carillion that plays every three hours at 9.00 am, midday, 3.00 pm and 6.00 pm was removed on Monday and Tuesday March 19th and 20th to Gillett and Johnson's workshop for refurbishment, The workings will be given a thorough overhaul and the barrels will have their pins tightened. A new fourth barrel will be made and people have been asked to vote for their 7 favourite tunes from a list of 14. They must choose 5 songs and 2 hymns. The barrel will play songs on Monday to Thursday and Saturday whilst Friday and Sunday will be hymns.

The Carillon will be reinstalled in time for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and its overhaul is part of the town's celebrations for this event. The machine was made in 1897 by Gillett and Johnson at their Croydon works for Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee.

Above left - undoing the hammer wires from the machine.
Above right - the front piece of the carillon frame is lowered to the ringing chamber floor.
Below - three boards are removed from the ringing chamber floor to allow the pieces to be lowered to the ground floor.

Steeple Aston ringers with their new tenor bell.

The old bell was removed on Wednesday 7th March, delivered to Whitechapel on Thursday 8th and the new bell collected. The old bell metal was recycled on Friday 9th into the new bells to be used in the Queen's river pageant in June. If one or two don't sound too good you will know where the metal came from!
We brought our new bell home and parked it in the school play ground for an afternoon for each class to view it. It was then paraded round the village on Saturday morning when a large number of people came to see it,
The Rector christened it on Sunday morning in church before it was hung in the tower.

It was then rung for evensong for the first time on the same day.
We are all very pleased with the sound of the bell and hope Branch members will come and enjoy it soon.
The bell is a very fine casting and the Royal Coat of Arms has come out remarkably well.

The Steeple Aston ringers would like to thank all those who helped and supported us.

Graham Clifton

The new tenor bell showing its inscription and royal coat of arms

New bell with its inscription and royal coat of arms

Due to a sudden snow fall on the late afternoon and evening of February 4th the Branch Social Evening was cancelled at the last minute. Ringers from Steeple Aston, Adderbury and Cropredy, not wanting to waste the salads and sweets they had prepared, met together for their own social evening.

This year it was decided not to have a Firsts Week but to encourage as many towers or individuals as possible to ring sponsored quarters for the Guild Bell Fund. The up take was disappointing with the general consensus being that this was partly due to the rather general nature of the sponsor request. Had it been targeted at something more specific than just to raise more money for the funds then the feeling was that more people would have felt happier asking for sponsorship.

However, quarters were rung at Banbury and Steeple Aston and these raised just over £200.

Congratulations go to Helen Wilde who rang her first quarter of Grandsire Doubles in the sponsored quarter at Banbury and to Heather Bletchly who rang her first quarter of Cambridge Surprise Minor at Steeple Aston.

Dick Hughes of Cropredy is also to be congratulated on ringing his first quarter, inside to Plain Bob Doubles, at Tadmarton. This quarter also celebrated his 75th birthday while the Banbury quarter was a 15th birthday compliment to Steven Jenkins.

The Branch Dinner was held at the New Inn at Wroxton Heath on March 10th. This year followed the same format as last year by being an informal evening without a speaker. The meal and company were excellent and the evening was enjoyed by all. Thanks go to the social committee for organising this event and in particular to Lindsey.

Steeple Aston ringers decided that the best way to celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee was to raise enough money to replace their tenor bell with one that had a better sounding note. To this end the ringers have been raising money and this was achieved in December 2011 with an environmental grant from Viridor the operator of Ardley Refuse Disposal Centre.
On Thursday, 26^th January the Jubilee bell was cast at Whitechapel Bell Foundry in London and witnessed by a group of ringers from Steeple Aston.
The Queen had given her permission to use the Royal Coat of Arms alongside the inscription to go on the bell. The bell will arrive in Steeple Aston towards the end of March and will be put in to replace the existing tenor in time for the Jubilee. A fuller report on the visit to Whitechapel Foundry will appear in the next Branch Newsletter.

2012 looks as if it will be a busy year in the Branch. This year we start in February with a sponsored quarter peal month to raise money for the Guild Bell Fund. We would like as many towers or individual ringers in the Branch to take part in this event. The Guild Bell Fund has over many years supported towers in this Branch when they have needed money for restoration, re-hanging or augmentation of their bells. We hope as many towers or individuals as possible will support this event. Sponsor forms can be obtained from your tower correspondent or down loaded from this page. Contact either Heather Blechly or Barry Davis if you need help.

June will see celebrations for the Queen's Jubilee across the country. It is hoped that towers across the Branch will take part in these celebrations by ringing to mark the occasion with general ringing or by ringing a quarter or full peal. Please let me know when the time comes how your tower marked the occasion.

July sees the start of the celebrations for the 2012 Olympics. Again it is hoped that towers will ring to mark this event.

Welcome to the Banbury Branch News Page for 2012

If you would like to see the minutes from this years meetings please click on the links below.

North Oxfordshire Ringers Clothing available

Latest News