What a
full and enjoyable day the tower bell and hand bell ringers had last month at
the 250th celebration day. We started by ringing before the Service,
watched by the Chair of Bingley Town Council and her colleague. As we had hoped
a bell theme then ran through the whole service and included a special poem,
appropriate hymns, readings by our ringers and pieces played by the hand bell
ringers and the junior hand bell team from Trinity All Saints’ School. We enjoyed an excellent, humorous and
supportive address and sermon by the Bishop, showing his impressive background
research on our bells and the bell ringers past, present and recruited for the future.
In general we felt the church had done its bells proud, and it was a pleasure
to see the large congregation swelled by a number of past ringers, ringers from
other local towers and special guests.
After
the service refreshments and celebratory drinks were abundant, alongside our
historical display, souvenir buns, biscuits and a tombola. Visitors had a go at ringing the Wombel, and
our tower tour encouraged the Bishop to climb up to the bell chamber to take a good
look at the action of bells as they were rung.
We
ended the day with a successful quarter peal rung on 6 bells. The 45 minutes successful
ringing, can be compared to the original 160 minutes of successful ringing,
undertaken by the 6 Bingley ringers of 1768. This great achievement by an all
Bingley Band of Ringers, so many years ago, deserved such a day of acknowledgement
and celebration by the church, its current ringers and their communities. Our
thanks go to everyone involved. We feel it was both a thoroughly enjoyable day
and a fitting remembrance of our 18th century predecessors’ great
achievement.
Solna Burnham & Ann Cossavella
