Weekend in New York City

The last weekend of October saw almost 20 members from the UK join a group of 10 North American members to sample the splendid new 12 at Trinity Church, Wall Street, New York City. Superbly hosted by Tim Barnes and helped by the very effective sound control, we clocked up 3 peals (plus one failure), 3 quarters and plenty of practice and service ringing over an intensive 4-day period, ably marshalled by the (then) Master, Chris Kippin. A number of firsts were scored and much valuable practice was had in methods including Stedman, Cambridge, Bristol and Orion. We also sampled the delights of the Merchants' Cafe and the Heartlands Brewery, were treated to a demonstration of Trinity's new digital organ by the Director of Music (Owen Burdick) and enjoyed a delicious meal on the Saturday night. This is the latest in a series of Society trips to North America over the last couple of years; we know that they are very much appreciated by Members on both sides of "the pond".

Anniversary Dinner

By common consent, this year's Anniversary Dinner was one of the best ever. An astonishing 357 members, friends and guests gathered at the Guoman Tower Hotel on the first Saturday in November for an evening of good food and excellent company, washed down as always by liberal quantities of alcohol. The attendance was again the biggest since the Society’s 350th anniversary in 1987, illustrating the Society’s current health. Continuing the US theme, we enjoyed high-quality speeches from Rev Jim Cooper (Rector of Trinity Church, Wall Street) and Rick Dirksen of Washington DC, as well as from Tim Joiner, the former Lord Mayor of Westminster and a cousin of our ex-Treasurer Andrew Stubbs.

After four years at the Tower, we seem to have sorted out most of the teething problems and almost everything worked smoothly this year, with only the PA system letting us down. We are already making plans to return there for the 2008 Dinner. A fuller write-up of the Dinner by Robin Hall appeared recently in the Ringing World; a copy (plus a gallery of photos) can be found elsewhere on this Web Site.

Changes on Top Table

As always, the Anniversary Dinner marks the conclusion of the Society's year. So the November business meeting saw Chris Kippin step down as Master in favour of new father Mark Humphreys (congratulations Mark - brilliant timing!). Chris has been a tremendous ambassador for the Society during his year of office, having travelled many thousands of miles to take part in Society activities, including trips to Washington, Vancouver, Perth and New York City. We thank him again for all his efforts and wish him and Heather well in their new home in Shropshire, where they have joined Chris' two immediate predecessors as Master (Stef Warboys and Simon Linford) as West Midlands "exiles". Peter Valuks moved up to the post of Senior Steward, with Martin Cansdale joining the Top Table as Junior Steward. The Secretary, Treasurer, Librarian, Trustees and Webmaster were all re-elected.

The other significant change in the hierarchy saw Philip Saddleton retire after no less than 22 years as Peal Recorder, being replaced by Richard Allton. Philip has very much made the job his own during this time and, in addition to recording details of peals rung, has meticulously built up an electronic database of the Society's peals and compositions. The rapid increase in the number of Society peals rung in recent years has considerably added to the size of this task and we are most grateful to Philip for establishing such a valuable resource. We were pleased to make a presentation to him at the December meeting as a token of the Society's appreciation.

Finally, Andrew Stubbs has stepped down as one of the Society's Central Council representatives, having served for a remarkable 33 years. Richard Allton (again) was elected in his place for the next triennium. Our other representatives (Simon Linford, Philip Saddleton and Andrew Wilby) were re-elected.

Library move

As reported in my last update, the Librarian (Chris Ridley) has been busy making arrangements for the removal of the Society's archive from St Paul's Cathedral to the new library room at St Sepulchre. At the time of writing, the new bookcases have been installed and Chris is in the process of moving our (surprisingly heavy) stock of books, letters, photographs and other ephemera. Our thanks again go to the donors of the furniture and to all those who have helped with the move.

We are organising a drinks reception at St Sepulchre after the practice on Tuesday 4th March, to mark the official opening of the room and to thank those who have made it possible. All Members are welcome; please let me know if you are planning to come.

Elections and deaths

We have elected 9 members since my last update, including two from Washington DC (the US theme again), Becky Joyce and Susan O'Neill. To all our new members we extend a warm welcome.

Sadly, we have lost 5 members by death during this period. Most notably, we said farewell to Stan Mason, a true giant of the Society who served for two years as Master and was also Treasurer (1969-1981) and a Trustee (1986-2004). Stan died on his 90th birthday, having been a member for over 70 years - a rare achievement. He had spent the last few years in a care home near Norfolk with his beloved wife Wyn, who died some months before him. He was honoured with a reception service at Westminster Abbey, attended by many Past Masters and other members.

Ringing

In his opening remarks at the November meeting, Mark declared his intention to make Tuesday night practices his top priority and to focus on improving the quality of striking. This promise has generally been fulfilled and we have enjoyed some excellent ringing at practices over the last 3 months, particularly on the difficult bells of St Paul's Cathedral and St Mary-le-Bow. Focus methods have included Orion, Ariel and Lincolnshire (in preparation for this year's 12 Bell Contest), but Stedman and Bristol have also been much in evidence. Special practices have been held at Bow, Cripplegate, Jewry (very enjoyable Stedman Triples) and St Sepulchre.

Peal ringing has also continued (almost) unabated. Highlights since my last update have included a peal at Worcester Cathedral to mark 60 years' membership by John Chilcott, the Society's senior Past Master and my illustrious predecessor as Secretary; a very enjoyable peal of Bristol on the magnificant new 12 at Crediton, only the second peal on the bells; and the 1000th peals of two distinguished Members, Simon Linford and Jim Clatworthy. We also nearly succeeded in an attempt (organised by Chris Kippin) to ring the "Pitman series" of Spliced S Major peals by six different bands in a day; 5 out of 6 were scored, the other (plus an attempt to ring the 4 Spliced "silent" the following day) unfortunately being miscalled. Last year's total of 295 peals was once again a record, and Chris succeeded in his ambition of ringing peals with more Society members than anyone else during his year of office, beating the record set by his son-in-law Simon Linford in 2004/5.

Other news

December opened with the now-traditional Advent Carol Service at Cripplegate, once again superbly organised by Gwen Rogers and featuring the Ringers’ Choir. The Ringers’ Christmas Party at the Red Herring afterwards was arranged this year by the SRCY; our thanks to them for putting on a highly convivial evening.

As usual, our normal venue (the Counting House) was unavailable for the December meeting, but the Red Herring again proved a willing alternative. At that meeting we re-elected Janet Carless and Andrew Keech as Independent Examiners and adopted the proposed programme of events for 2008 (more on that below).

The January meeting featured the annual reports of our Tower Officials - the appointed Secretary and Steeplekeeper at each of the towers which fall within the Society’s care (Cornhill, Cripplegate, St Sepulchre and St Lawrence Jewry). We also received a report from St Mary-le-Bow, which although no longer officially a Society tower is still seen as very much part of the "family". Notable items this year included further (very frustrating) delays to the faculty process for the new ring at Cornhill; the good news that the £13,000 borrowed by the Church from the St Sepulchre bell fund is to be re-paid; and a plan to re-lay the ringing room floor at St Sepulchre (the Society has already agreed to fund the cost of this work). Our sincere thanks go to the Tower Officials, who do sterling work (much of it unseen) in looking after the bells and maintaining relations with the incumbents. The existing Tower Officials were all nominated for re-election at the February meeting, except for Paul Carless who has decided to stand down after 10 years as a Tower Official at Cornhill. Our thanks to Paul for all his work, and congratulations to him and Janet on their new arrival.

The January meeting also saw lengthy debates on three motions brought forward by the Officers. The first - to widen the objectives of the Society's Bell Fund to allow it to make grants to towers other than those at which the Society regularly practises, but with which it has a close connection - proved particularly controversial and was ultimately withdrawn, although it remains under discussion "behind the scenes". The other two proposals - to establish a Friends of the Bell Fund Scheme (which will broadly replace annual steepleage, but hopefully in a way which will make it more attractive to out of London members) and to abbreviate the writing up of multi-method peals in the Society's Peal Book - went through without too much alarm. Further details of the Friends scheme will be published on the Society's Web Site shortly. If you don't already pay annual steepleage, I'd urge you to consider becoming a "Friend" once the scheme is up and running.

Finally, the February meeting noted a complaint regarding the noise of the bells at St Sepulchre (hard to believe, since they are almost inaudible outside) and the DAC's approval of the St Magnus the Martyr bell project, subject only to the submission of updated sound control drawings. All being well, it is still hoped to obtain a faculty by the summer and to have the bells cast and installed by Easter next year.

Looking forward

Plans for the coming months are well in hand. The centrepiece of the year will undoubtedly be UK08 (the visit of a group of overseas Members to the UK), which is being organised by Simon Linford and will be centred on Birmingham around the end of August. Please see the Web Site or contact Simon (simonhippo@hotmail.com) for further details. We are also planning an Informal Dinner at the Hop Cellars on Friday 4th April; another midweek striking contest with the Cumberlands, with both legs this year taking place on the same evening (Wednesday 23rd April); the Country Meeting in Liverpool on Saturday 19th July; the Peal Weekend in September; and the Society's participation at the Ringing Roadshow, also in September. More on all this next time.

Good ringing in 2008, and best wishes to all,

John Hughes-D'Aeth