Coronation Tour

On the day of the Coronation, Loughborough ringers and friends had a “Grand Day Out”, ringing at a number of towers to celebrate the Coronation. Ringing started at Loughborough Parish Church, with some nice ringing on the glorious heavy 10. We then moved on to Loughborough Bell Foundry, where it was particularly pleasing to see Dhruv, a few days after his 7^th birthday, being assisted in ringing rounds. He needed rather a lot of boxes! After he rang, he was presented with his Coronation ringing badge and the look of pride on his and his parents’ faces was fabulous. Dhruv took his badge and a certificate marking the ringing to “show and tell” at school the following week.

Oaks in Charnwood was the next tower, and it was hard to fit all the ringers in the ringing room! We then went on to Copt Oak where, following the ringing, 33 ringers and friends enjoyed a fabulous “bring and share” Coronation picnic in the church. Toasts were made to King Charles III and to Charles Bishop who taught many of the people ringing that day to handle a bell. The desert section of the picnic looked like competition entries for the Great British Bake Off and it is encouraging to find that some of our newer recruits are excellent cake makers.

After tea, we rang at Birstall and then finished the day’s ringing at Wanlip. At Wanlip, one of the bands for rounds and call changes was made up entirely of Birstall/Wanlip new recruits, with assistance being given as required. A very proud moment indeed. The day finished with a very pleasant session in the pub.

Having arranged the tour, I was very sorry that recent major surgery prevented me from ringing (though I did sneakily pull a bell off at hand stroke at each tower so that I could claim to have rung)! Over 40 ringers took part on the day, with a good proportion of them being relatively recent recruits, some of whom had learned as part of the “Ring for the King” campaign and some of whom were the new Birstall/Wanlip recruits. Several local residents came along to listen to the ringing throughout the day and the churches involved were extremely pleased that we had rung their bells to mark such an historic occasion.

Sally

Long Clawson

On the morning of the Coronation we had some general ringing then rang a Quarter Peal of doubles. Our newest recruits John and Ben Parlby rang rounds for the first time. John is seen in the second part of the video ringing the treble.

Following this we had articles published about the ringing in the village magazine and the Melton Times. https://www.meltontimes.co.uk/news/children-learn-the-ropes-with-long-clawsons-church-bellringing-team-4165468

Wigston Magna and Aylestone

On Saturday May 6th ringers from Aylestone, Enderby, South Wigston and Wigston Magna joined forces to attempt a quarter peal of Plain Bob Triples, at All Saints, Wigston Magna, for the coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla.  Unfortunately the quarter peal failed but the 40 minutes of ringing were still dedicated to the King.

Following this some of the band met at the home of Winifred Warwick, where we were joined by some of her family members, for tea and cakes.  The whole party then moved on to St Andrews, Aylestone, where we rang several times culminating in a course of Stedman Triples, rang by Winifred, her daughter and son in law, her grand daughter and three great grandsons plus one.  This was a truly special ring as Winifred had rung a peal of Stedman for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.

Knighton

With the help of several experienced ringers all of our five new ringers were able to ring with a steady band, which was greatly appreciated.

We had 17 people ringing for The Coronation on 6th May. We started at 4.45pm and had two of our newest ringers in at a time, they really upped their game on the day and the rounds were very clear and evenly spaced. It could not have gone better. 

We stopped for photos at 5.45pm and had a small drink of some homemade mead and cider, as well as some lovely crown shaped shortbread, then we gathered a band of 8 to attempt a quarter peal of Grandsire Triples. Sadly there were a few false starts, so we reassembled with a band of 6 and rang a successful quarter peal of Grandsire Doubles, which we have recorded on Bell Board. 

Shepshed

At Shepshed there was general ringing prior to the coronation service. Ringers included Phil Bowley who also rang for the previous Coronation of HM Queen Elizabeth in 1953. It was also the first Service Ringing by Emma Richards, after only three training sessions – Well Done Emma!