Bingley Handbells News

Merry Christmas to all of you!
We are practising hard for our Christmas performances which include one at The Brown Cow on the evening of Wednesday 11th December and our usual slot in the All Saints Carol Service on Sunday 22nd.
We hope to see you all at one of these.
Since I last reported we held the mini rally at Wilsden in October and at the beginning of November we played for residents of the Anchor Housing Association project at Hallcroft, Windhill, Shipley. This was a successful afternoon. The residents enjoyed singing along even to the pieces which were not intended to be sung along to! As many of them were in wheelchairs it was difficult for them to come to our tables to “have a go” but instead we took the bells to their chairs and most of them enjoyed ringing scales and having their photographs taken with a bell in their hand. As a thank you the group gave us a donation and a box of biscuits which will be very welcome at the coffee breaks in our practices!

A few months ago we received a request to perform for a Community Group at Trawden Forest over the border in Lancashire. They had tried to find a local handbell team but couldn’t so they contacted Handbell Ringers of Great Britain who put them in touch with us.

So on Thursday 17^th October we got our passports out and travelled over to Lancashire. On arrival we were welcomed by Tony who explained that they use a small bell to call their meetings to order, which had promted their wish to hear a proper handbell team.

As this was a mid week performance we needed to call for assistance from two friends from Treble Eight Handbell Ringers, they joined us for one practice before the event, and on the day donned a couple of spare Bingley polo shirts and blended seemlessly into our team. Thank-you Christine and Roger.

We played a range of music then gave the audience a chance to “have a go”, which always gives people the chance to feel the bells and realise that ringing tunes is not as easy as it looks.

When we had finished we were invited to stay for lunch, this was served by their lady members whilst the men did the cooking. We were treated to Cottage Pie, Vegetables and a great selection of cakes.

So our venture into Lancashire was very successful. We are now preparing for our Christmas performances, once again are fully booked for our busiest time of year……so book early if you need us in 2020.

This last month has been one of preparation.

We have a number performances booked over September, October and November. Some of these are for groups that wanted us to ring for them over Christmas but contacted us too late. They are however happy for us to play Christmas music and this gives us the opportunity to check all our adaptations are correct before we reach the hectic festive season. We still seem to be booked up for Christmas well in advance and even have a booking already for 2020!

In addition, on Saturday 19^th October from 10am-4pm, we will be hosting a mini rally of teams from our part of the North East Region (mainly from West Yorkshire) at Wilsden Village Hall. Teams will play their own performance pieces and will join together to all play the same piece of “massed ringing” under a guest conductor.

There is plenty of room for spectators who are most welcome to watch this display particularly during the afternoon when junior teams will be present and there will be a final polished performance of the massed ringing pieces

All our new and recent recruits are
progressing well and our increased numbers means we can ring all 3 octaves at each
practice even if not all of us are there. In fact most weeks our musical
director Clair is able to be just that rather than having to ring as well.

The new system of practising on Wednesdays
each week seems to be going well and will continue for the foreseeable future
although we have added a couple of new features:

Firstly Andy has printed us all personalised
mugs with the Bingley Handbell Logo so there is no confusion and secondly Clair
has prepared a number of exercises to play at the beginning of our sessions to assist
our timing and technique before we start playing pieces.

We are beginning to receive booking enquiries
for this year so if you are interested in booking us for a performance or Roger
for a talk please don’t delay too long.

January is traditionally a quiet
month for the handbell ringers after all the excitement of our Christmas
performances.

We allow ourselves a short break
and then meet together for a post Christmas meal. This year we returned to Galo’s
and a very enjoyable evening was had by those who attended. It also gave new
members an opportunity to mix away from the frantic rehearsals.

Practices started again in
earnest on 16 January and we welcomed two new recruits, Colin and Janet, in
addition to Andy, Diane and Geoff who had joined late in 2018.

Claire, our esteemed musical
director, has devised some exercises for the beginnings of practices to help us
all with our technique and timing. These proved very successful as well as fun.

We do not have any events planned
until May and are confident that by then we will be able to ring all three
octaves again on a regular basis.

After much discussion we are now
running a trial of practising just on Wednesdays which should produce a better
turn out. These will continue to be in the vestry except for when there are
services such as on Ash Wednesday and in Holy Week when we will move into
Church House.

Despite our improving numbers we
still welcome new members at any time.