First Peal Board Completed

A peal board to commemorate the first peal on the bells on 23rd December 2016 has finally been completed. John Mulvey will collect it on 28th November. It has been hand painted by Maggie Willans of Bath. Maggie has produced such boards for churches all over the UK. She uses the same methods that have produced such commemorative boards for over the last two centuries.

 This will be hung on the wall in the ringing room after it has been displayed in the church.

Half Muffled Ringing Over Remembrance Weekend

On Saturday 11th November the bells of St Peter's rang out half muffled to mark the 99th anniversary of the Armistice which ended the 1st world War. This quarter peal lasted 40 minutes and was the first for Kevin Jackson ringing an inside bell for the method.

On Sunday prior to the Remembrance Service at st Peter's the bells were rung half muffled by local ringers.

Many have told me how much they enjoyed the ringing on these two days.

Peal For The New Parish

A peal lasting 2 hours 31 minutes was rung on the bells of St Peter's church on Tuesday, 5th September. This celebrated the creation of the new parish of Drayton Bassett and Fazeley with Mile Oak, that came into existence on 1st September.

Bells to ring for Leavers' Service

The bells will ring out after the Manor School Leavers Service on Friday next, 21st July to wish the Year 6 pupils well as they move on in their education.

There is a special bond between the present Year 6 pupils of the Manor School and these bells. It was the Year 6 pupils who in April 2016 saw our three new bells cast at John Taylor's bellfoundry in Loughborough. They also came up to the church the morning in late September 2016,  when those same bells arrived in the village, to view the bells before they were hoisted up the tower.

It seems fitting that the bells should also ring out to wish them well for the next stage of their lives as they move onto secondary school.

Hour Chimes Now in Operation

Last night finishing at 12.20am Simon Adams and I completed the installation of the electronic control panel and wiring for the chime bell. This means that the hour will chime out between 8am and 9pm over the village. The chimes will be silenced over night.

The mechanism will also allow the bell to chime out before and after services.

Another task completed!

New Bell Ringing Recruits Needed at Drayton Bassett

Paula Aston and Ray Kneale, our latest recruits, have now joined the other more experienced ringers for practice nights on Thursday.

So we are now looking for other people who would like to find out about bell ringing and perhaps join us and learn to ring. The intial stages of learning to ring involve one to one tuition so that you can master ringing a bell on your own. This can be timetabled to suit your free time. After you are competent with this stage you can then join the rest of the band for Thursday night practices.

Anyone interested in finding out about bell ringing at Drayton please telephone John Mulvey on 07760 367570 or email mfjohn1@ntlworld.com.

Chime Bell At Last in Position

The old 1713 treble bell in position .

The old 1713 Joseph Smith bell, which was taken out of the ring when the bells were augmented, has sat patiently on the belfry floor since the 3 new bells were put in last September. A combination of a decision to reposition where the bells was to be hung so that its chiming could be heard better and the fact that Taylor Bell Foundry has been inundated with work has meant that over seven months has past. 

Finally two weeks ago Simon Adams from the foundry ably assisted by Tamworth ringers; Kevin Jackson, John Mulvey, Brian Taylor and John Wybrew spent a Saturday installing the new steelwork, hoisting the old bell and its clapper into position high up against the louvres.

It is hoped that within a few weeks the electronic control panel will be installed and the bell will be able to strike the hour and be used for chiming for services.

Visiting Bell Ringers

Next Saturday,13th May we welcome to St Peter's Drayton bellringers from the Rugby Deanery. They will be ringing for an hour from 10am. We will be their first church on their day tour of churches in this area.

Secondly next Tuesday, 16th May we welcome to Drayton at 2pm "The Tuesday Band". This is a group of mainly retired people who meet on 3rd Tuesday of every month. They ring at one church in the morning, have lunch together, then ring at a further church in the afternoon. This group kindly donated to our bell appeal.

New Beginners Join Us on Practice Night

Both Lynda Hayes and Paula Aston have now joined us at practice time on Thursday night. They are both doing extremely well considering it is there first time that they have rung with other ringers. Ray Kneale and Jake Commander are gaining more confidence through spending more time on the end of a rope. Jake even comes along to join us at Tamworth church for practice on Wednesday nights.

Next Saturday morning a quarter peal will be attempted starting at 11am to mark the centenary of the death of Harry Clower in WWI. He is one of the six men from the village who died in WWI and whose names are inscribed on the smallest new bell.  Harry grew up on his parent's farm, Hill Farm, in Drayton. In 1913 he emigrated to British Columbia, Canada. It was there that he joined up with the Canadian army and went to France. He lies buried there.

February News - Past Successes & Future Events and Update on Local Ringers

The quarter peal for Colin Bryan was succesfully rung .http://bb.ringingworld.co.uk/view.php?id=1158258

 The peal, in memory of Sam Tilling, also mentioned in the last posting was successfully rung. http://bb.ringingworld.co.uk/view.php?id=1159117

 On 11th February we had a visit from a group of ringers from the Stafford area.

On the afternoon of Wednesday, 22nd February there will be an atempt to ring a peal lasting about 2 1/2 hours . This will be in remembrance of another of the village men who died in WWI; Alfred William Ball. He died on 16th February 1917 and is buried in the town cemetery, Meaulte in France. He and his family worked at Drayton Manor for the Peel family. He had been a footman and his father was a groom. They lived at the lodge on Coleshill Road.

Jake, someone who learned to ring at Drayton on the 4 bells abour 15 years ago has joined us again. He has had a few lessons to get him used to ringing again and is now joining us on Thursday practice nights. Ray Kneale, who only started to learn bell ringing a few months ago, is also ringing with us on Thursday nights. In the next few weeks we will be joined on Thursday nights by two ladies; Linda Hayes and Paula Aston, who have been receiving lessons at Drayton since the new bells have been installed. Things are looking up!

This means that there are now vacancies for anyone else who would like to learn bell ringing. Just call John on 07760 367570 if you want to find out what bell ringing is about.

New Year Update

Practices have restarted again on Thursday nights when enough people are free. Ray Kneale has now got to the stage in learning where he is joining the Thursday practices in order to start ringing with others. Linda Hayes and Paula Aston are continuing their one to one bell handling lessons and are making good progress. Last week we welcomed back Jake who began to learn to ring on the 4 bells at Drayton a few years ago and then went to the USA. On hearing that bellringing had now started on our ring of six he has returned to brush up his style.

The New Year started with a visit from about 20 ringers from the Ashby area. Drayton was the first tower on a days outing to 6 churches. There were loads of compliments about how good the Drayton bells were.

Next Saturday, 14th January the Tamworth ringers will attempt a quarter peal to congratulate Mr Colin Bryan, CEO of Drayton Manor Theme Park, for being awarded an OBE for service to the community in the New Year's Honours List.

On Saturday 21st January a visiting band of ringers will attempt a full peal between 10am and 1pm to mark the 100th anniversary of the death of Sam Tilling in Iraq during WWI. Sam was raised in the village and his name appears on the smallest bell, the WWI memorial bell.

Anyone who wishes to find out about  bell ringing is welcome to contact John Mulvey on 07760 367570.