It has been a quiet month – a good one to prepare for the
Christmas rush!
Last week a group of us polished all the bells so they will
look shine through all our performances over the festive season.
This year saw the 50th Anniversary of the founding of the
Handbell Ringers of Great Britain AND the 40th anniversary of the first meeting
of the North East Region of HRGB so it has been quite a celebration.
We celebrated our regional birthday back at Grassington in
May with a packed rally attended by many groups including some that had never
been to a rally before.
There national celebrations will include a large regional
rally in Sheffield on the same day as those in other regions. Technology
permitting the rallies will all link up together and free food and cake will be
available.
Because not everyone can make it to this event there will
also be mini rallies in each part of our large region. Our Western one will be
at Sowerby Bridge which is conveniently not far from us.
The real stars of the birthday celebrations have been the
Jubilee Bears. Every region (or in our case part of a region) was given a bear
at the National Rally in April and the plan was for them to visit every band
during the next six months.
Our bear started its journey at Leeds in April and travelled
via all parts of our area to reach Ryburn, the hosts, at Sowerby Bridge in
October with photo opportunities at each stop!
