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.

1st Peal Rung on Bells

The first peal was rung on the six bells at St Peter's today. A peal is considered as a "marathon" of bell ringing and usually rung to mark special occasions. The peal today of 5040 changes took 2 hours and 36 minutes to complete. The six ringers who took part in the peal consisted of the donor of the 3rd bell who rang it, another Tamworth bell ringer involved in teaching new ringers for Drayton and 3 members of the Lichfield & Walsall Archdeaconries Society who supported the project by pledging a grant of £4,000 to get the appeal started.

The link below shows you the details of the peal as it will appear in the bell ringers magazine "The Ringing World"

http://bb.ringingworld.co.uk/view.php?id=1041833

Update on Bell Ringing Activity

Since the dedication service in mid October. We have had two groups of ringers visit Drayton.

 The first was a retired ringers group who meet every 1st Wednesday of the month to ring at different churches and to have lunch together. Any surplus money, after donating to the churches where they ring, is given to bell appeals. Drayton received £100 from their funds for our appeal.

Also on Saturday, 19th November, about 40 members of the Lichfield& Walsall Archdeaconries Society of Bell Ringers rang for 2 hours in the afternoon. They were then entertained in the WI Hall, by the Drayton ringers and friends, to chilli and jackets potatoes followed by delicious homemade cakes.

Two quarter peals (which last about 40 mins)  have been rung on the bells. The first was rung half muffled on Armistice Day, 11th November beginning exactly at 11.02am. This was fitting as the treble is inscribed in memory of the 6 men from the village who lost their lives in WWI.

The second quarter peal was rung in remembrance of one of these men, John Forest, on the 100th anniversary of his death.

Bell ringing practices are now held on Thursday evenings when people are available so that the more experienced Drayton ringers can get practice on 6 bells. Other sessions are held for 1 to 1 teaching for raw recruits to suit their diaries.


The first full peal on the bells is being planned for sometime just before Christmas. This will last about 2 hours 40 minutes and will probably be commemorated by a peal board in the ringing room.

Bell Dedication Service Photographs

Below is a link to photographs taken by Kevin Jackson, many of them of the bell dedication service. Enjoy them.




https://www.flickr.com/gp/144037923@N04/y27DCi

Bell Installation Second Set of Photographs

Kevin Jackson, a bell ringer from Tamworth took these photographs during the arrival and installation of the bells.  https://www.flickr.com/gp/144037923@N04/2W20Q8

Bell Installation 1st set of Photos

The bells arrived in the village last Monday,26th September. Work went on throughout the week until finally on Friday morning , 30th September at 11am the full set of 6 bells were rung together for the first time.

A number of people took photographs during the week of the work in progress.

 Below is a link to a flickr album which contains photographs taken by Brian Taylor, a Tamworth ringer who worked on the installation. Just copy and paste this into your web browser.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/144818358@N02/albums/72157673406053740

More photos will be available as I receive them