Vernet Bells

25/05/2026

Our Books, Bells and Bites event yesterday was great! Off the back of it, we have two new learners. They had their first lesson this morning and are coming for another on Thursday. Here's a link to the video of yesterday's ringing demonstration (in French). The presenters are two of our ringers, Daniel and Michael and there are three pieces of ringing: rounds on eight, call changes on ten and Grandsire Doubles. If you prefer, you can watch the original on our church's FB page, St George's Anglican Church . Please help both church and bells by liking and following that page too!

https://fb.watch/Hk1FnyceXG/

21/05/2026

This Sunday (24th May), we'll be giving a couple of ringing demonstrations, at 12:00 and again at 13:30. In between, there's a 'bring and share' lunch. It's all part of our inaugural festival of Books, Bells and Bites, which starts at 10:00. We have seven visiting authors, loads of second-hand books for sale or exchange, tea and scones, bell-ringing on all ten bells...If you're in the area, do drop in and join in! Service ringing and our Pentecost service at 16:30 will round off what promises to be a fabulous day. See you there!

17/05/2026

A very special moment today, when Lottie Harmer, pictured, became the first Trevelyan College (Durham University) undergraduate to ring the bell which bears the college's name and motto. 'Trevelyan', the third of our ring of ten, is one of six bells at St George's cast in memory of Catherine Ladd, the wife of tower captain Jeff. Catherine studied theology at Trevelyan and, like Lottie, was also a ringer with the Durham University Society. Congratulations to Lottie for ringing 'Trevelyan' to a quarter peal of Grandsire Triples, a day after ringing the treble, 'Catherine', to her first peal on ten bells, Cambridge S Royal. Footnote: the college motto (Vera fictis libentius) loosely translates as 'truth rather than falseness'; particularly apt on a bell hung for change-ringing!

04/05/2026

If you're in the area on Sunday 24 May, make sure to come along to our special event featuring Bells, Books & Bites - the joys that bring us together! Visiting ringers welcome!

Join St George’s and Animer Vernet for the inaugural Bells, Books & Bites: a day that brings communities together over food, literature and English change-ringing bells. Join us for:

- Local authors (French & English)
- Giant sale of used English books
- Bell demonstrations in France’s only tower of English change-ringing bells
- Bring-and-share sweet or savory treats
- Afternoon snacks

Come enjoy a day in Vernet you won't forget.
We'll be sharing more details soon — watch this space for updates!

01/05/2026

It's very rare for us to ring a quarter peal with the sound control fully open. This was for 'La Ronde des Clochers', a 30 and 15km running race touring round the local bell towers. We rang for 90 minutes in total (with the odd break) starting off with rounds and calls on ten. Very happy that we could ring for this!

1260 Grandsire Doubles rung at Vernet-les-Bains (St George), Pyrénées-Orientales, France

12/04/2026

Massive congratulations to Caitlin Gainsbury, who yesterday joined a very select group of those who have come to Vernet and left having rung their first quarter peal. It was a real pleasure ringing with Mum, Dad and the two sisters. Congratulations to all of them for managing to make it here in a day trip from Collioure on buses and trains. That sort of thing needs careful planning!

1260 Plain Bob Doubles rung at Vernet-les-Bains (St George), France

06/04/2026

We're too late to wish you a happy Easter (it's been super-busy here), but we hope you're all enjoying the long weekend. We had eight of our local band here yesterday, plus a very helpful visitor, so were able to greet Easter with some excellent call changes on eight and an error-free 120 of Grandsire Doubles. Our lowering in peal still needs a bit of work though! What and where did you ring for Easter?

20/02/2026

We thoroughly enjoyed welcoming our first visitors of the year on Tuesday, the Murphy family from Sussex. Seven of our eight local ringers were able to turn out in the middle of the afternoon (the eight was at work), so we were able to ring rounds and call changes on the ten as well as this 120 of Grandsire Doubles. As always, the visitors very kindly helped us practise things we can't normally do. If you're a ringer and haven't explored the Eastern Pyrenees yet, do come and see us! We can usually find enough ringers to ring with you whenever you're here.

120 Grandsire Doubles rung at Vernet-les-Bains (St George), Pyrénées-Orientales, France

09/11/2025

Ringing for Remembrance Sunday service is always special. We're fortunate in having ten bells; it means we can make the bells sound particularly poignant by ringing in a minor key, using bells 2-9. No need for muffles, which don't work particularly well on the bells here anyway; the lighter bells become almost inaudible outside the church. So, call changes on the Dorian eight it was, nicely rung by our eight resident ringers (details on BellBoard): https://bb.ringingworld.co.uk/view.php?id=1900104
# St George's Anglican Church

11/10/2025

If we haven't posted on here for a while, it's been because we've been very busy! Probably the year's last visiting band (Abbots Bromley and friends) is with us this weekend. They rang a good peal this morning which pleasingly included a couple of firsts on ten bells. Meanwhile, one of the visitors, Jenson Peate dashed off the splendid painting of the church which you can see if you click on the link. Its been an excellent visitor season here; to date eight peals and twenty quarters have been scored in 2025. Hopefully, it'll be twenty-one quarters by this time tomorrow. The visitors seemed to come from far and wide, so it would be impossible to detail them here. Check on BellBoard if you're interested to see who they all were. A highlight was our annual Summer School at the end of August, which gave all our ringers the chance to try something a bit more advanced than we can normally ring here. A huge thank-you to all the helpers, who again came from far and wide and worked tirelessly to support us. And a big thank-you to all our other visitors; you're invariably keen to support our ringing, and we love having you here! Bookings are open for next year and beyond; just get in touch if you'd like to come and ring on these super little bells.

5040 Plain Bob Royal rung at Vernet-les-Bains (St George)

04/09/2025

Not many arrive at St George's in such stylish fashion. These sleek beasties belong to members of BRM aka Bellringing Motorcyclists. They were among a considerable number of visitors who were here for several days, to help with our annual Summer School and to knock off a few quarters and a peal. We all had a great time; thanks to our helpers, our local ringers were able to make good progress in hunting, treble-bobbing, Grandsire and Stedman Triples. A big thank-you from us to everyone who came. Here's to the same last weekend in August next year!