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

Monday 8th July saw the Handbell Ringers visiting a new venue as we carried out an engagement for Haworth Women’s Institute at West Lane Baptist Church, Haworth. Recently we have struggled to perform on our full 3 octave set of bells due to reduced numbers of ringers, so it was great to be able to play all our bells for this performance.

Following several weeks intensive practice and careful alteration of some of the music so that we could manage with the people available we were able to ring a wide repertoire of pieces including: Ode to Joy, Nimrod, Water Music, Land of the Silver Birch, Blue Danube Waltz, Christchurch Bells and Simple Gifts. A good audience of 30 to 40 ladies enjoyed the music and when we had finished some volunteered to “have a go”. The evening was completed with tea and cakes provided by the WI.

On Friday 12th July the junior handbell ringers from Trinity All Saints performed in Church for the retirement service of Mrs Glendinning. They played Ode to Joy and the Blue Danube Waltz during the service. It was also a farewell performance for our year 6 ringers who will going to high school in September. We do hope the year 5 girls will return next year to continue ringing and that they will be joined by some new recruits to make up a full team again.

We have recently attended two
regional events.

The regional spring rally and
AGM (well we have to have it sometime!) are traditionally held in may in
Grassington Town Hall. It is a lovely place to visit although the event is so
popular that parking for the cars and space for bells and ringers are at a
premium.

As usual we joined in massed
ringing with all the other ringers there and we also performed two pieces as a
band. This was the first public performance by both Andy and Janet and they
both did very well – even though the compere tried to embarrass them from the
stage by pointing out to all the audience that it was their first event!

In June 11 of us took part in
the Summer Ring at St Chads in Headingley. At this annual event we join in
massed ringing of pieces we have never seen before. There are about 50 ringers
and we all mix together so that you are ringing next to members of other bands.
We practice the pieces for about an hour, then have a supper break before
performing each piece – hopefully at concert standard! Altogether it is a very
enjoyable evening and a good opportunity to chat with other ringers.

We are now practicing hard for
a number of summer performances that we have been booked for. After these there
might be a short lull until the festive season. Bookings for December are
already coming in thick and fast so if you would like us to perform for you
please let us know quickly.

The
handbells which we discovered in the tower and raised money to restore were
black and heavily tarnished mainly by smoke as they had been stored adjacent
the chimney which ran up the side of the tower.

Once
they had been restored they looked like entirely different being bright and
shiny.

We
make every effort to keep them like this and you will notice that we usually
play wearing gloves so the bells do not get unnecessarily tarnished by contact
with our hands. However, even so, they do need a regular clean.

This
week, in anticipation of them being on display at the regional rally, we have
arranged an evening session of cleaning the bells. A small amount of polish,
clean clothes and lots of elbow grease will be needed, but it will be a case of
many hands make light work and hopefully they will be back to their best very
shortly.

After
the hectic Christmas period the lives of Bingley Handbell Ringers are quiet in
the run up to the regional Spring rally and a series of other events over the
summer.

We
are pleased to report that our new recruits are continuing to progress and it
has been wonderful to be able to play all 3 octaves at the majority of our
practices. Just before Christmas our numbers had dwindled so that even if
everyone was there that was not possible.

We
are looking forward to 2019 with renewed optimism. Don’t forget that if you
want to book us in for a performance, particularly at Christmas, please think
ahead and give us plenty of notice.

In
the meantime the children of Trinity All Saints are going from strength to
strength. The majority of the ringers who started last school year have stayed
and have been joined by others from year 5. Jane and Kathy took two teams to
the Skipton Music Festival and once again they returned home with a trophy.

We
just hope that the older children will continue to ring when they move to
secondary school and we are trying to think of the best way to ensure this.

Despite
our increased numbers we still welcome new recruits so, if you want to give
handbell ringing a try, please come down to the vestry at 7pm on a Wednesday to
meet us. We have decided that the new system of having all our practices on a
Wednesdays instead of alternating them with Mondays has had an overall positive
effect and the attendance is better.

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.