Over the last two months, I’ve enjoyed attending all of the District AGMs. They have been largely well attended and it’s been nice to see a healthy number of new members elected. Most towers and meetings appear to be “back to normal” following CoVID, though sadly a number of ringers have not returned for a variety of reasons.

In October, I was a student on the ART Module M1 course at Hathern. This course is aimed at ringing teachers, and I can highly recommend it. It is suitable for both new teachers and for experienced teachers who want to add other techniques to their teaching toolkit. Although I have taught lots of people to handle a bell in the past, I learned a lot and came away with a wide range of new ideas. All the students on the course were from our Guild which puts us in a great position to teach lots of new recruits.

I was recently involved in helping on a couple of Heritage Open Day events at the Bell Foundry. During the days, visitors were shown around the foundry and were given a sample bell handling lesson. It was an excellent opportunity for some of us to put our new ART skills into practice. Let’s hope some of the visitors have been inspired to learn to ring.

The Central Council have now launched the “Ring for the King” appeal, aimed at recruiting and teaching new pupils so that they’re ready to ring for the Coronation. Several towers in the Guild are advertising for new ringers using this appeal. For the majority of us, this will be the first Coronation that we’ve rung for and I’m really looking forward to it.

A few local handbell groups have given performances over the Christmas period. The Loughborough handbell ringers rang at service of Nine Lessons and Carols at Staunton Harold. Quite an interesting experience ringing by candlelight in box pews in a church with no heating! Our ringing was much appreciated and was a great PR opportunity for the Guild. We also rang at the All Saints, Loughborough Carol Service and at Abbeyfield Care Home where several ringers/ringers’ relatives are resident. Alan Berry, former Managing Director of John Taylor Bell Foundry, visibly enjoyed our ringing and really seemed to recognise change ringing when we stood next to him and rang a course of Plain Bob Major. Very sadly Eric Godfrey, former Treasurer of the Central Council of Church Bell Ringers and more recently ringer at Oaks in Charnwood, died shortly after our visit. RIP Eric.

Over the last couple of months, I’ve been very busy selling badges to commemorate ringing to mark the passing of HM Queen Elizabeth II. The badges, designed by Rebecca Banner, have been extremely popular and I have sold over 2000. I’ve received many compliments about both the badge design and badge quality and have had a large number of repeat orders. Badges have gone all over the world, including Europe, USA and Australia. Having recently sold out, I was looking forward to a rest from spreadsheets, packaging and trips to the Post Office – though I’m now considering ordering some more as I’ve received several large orders this week. I am delighted to say that as a result of badge sales, I have made a donation of £4000 to the Guild and will be donating over £3700 to the Loughborough Tower Fund. Some of this money will be used to fund a new set of ropes, due for delivery in the New Year. Advance warning!!! I will shortly be ordering badges to commemorate ringing for the Coronation. Further details from bellbadges@gmail.com

I wish everyone a very prosperous New Year,

Sally