03/08/2023
Many thanks to David Underdown for the great photos from our day out in Kent yesterday. For me these two, taken just before we left for home after ringing at the last church of the day at St Bartholemew’s, Otford, encapsulate the statistics, coincidences and great joys of being a bellringer. L to R: -
Chris learnt to ring and rang at St Mary’s for a brief spell in the 90’s but before and since has helped with catering for numerous ringing occasions; Fiona, long standing friend of our tower captain, Paula was taught to ring by our very own Peter Tuppen who passed away last year (who with his late wife Ann attended many of these little gatherings.) Fiona stopped ringing following a bad skiing accident and had her first ring for a long time, here at Otford. Her daughters sometimes put in a Christmas appearance in the ringing room and astonish us with their ability to pick up ringing where they left off. We hope the same will apply to Fiona, possibly on a more regular basis (fingers crossed!); Charlotte a visually impaired friend from Battersea who enjoys joining us for these outings; Paula, our tower captain; Jan, of nearby Penshurst, who has kindly arranged the towers for several of our recent outings in the area. Her husband Nick is a long standing friend of Gerrard and it is through them that Gerrard got into ringing. Without that connection, these little Kent/Sussex trips may never have started; and we may never have got to know Gerrard, Jan or Nick, or their daughter, Laura; Anthony, who learnt to ring during the spring at St Mary’s, Barnes as part of the “Ring for the King” initiative, whose tuition I was delighted to be part of during that period and equally delighted that he accepted an invitation to join us for the day. Anthony has become a member of the band at St Nicholas, Chiswick; Susan, who learnt to ring whilst a student at Washington Cathedral and who has been with us for quite some time; Wendy, the Barnes tower captain. There has long been a great friendship between our two towers. Two other Barnes ringers, Bobby and Jo (whose first quarter peal on the treble I was pleased to be asked to conduct there in January) were with us earlier in the day; Colette, recently moved to Southfields and has been getting back into ringing with us, Barnes and Wimbledon after a lengthy absence; David, who looks after this site and whose photos prompted this note, started his ringing at Peterborough Cathedral and has been with us now for some time. David was closely involved with putting together much of the information used for articles in the “Ringing World” leading up to the Centenary of the 1918 Armistice about ringers lost in the First World War: Tom, another “Ring for the King” recruit; Ian, a ringer at St Paul’s Cathedral who, with over 5,700 full peals is the 6th leading ringer of peals in the history of ringing and a much valued supporter of ringing both at Putney and Barnes dispelling the myth that regular peal ringers offer little to grass roots ringing; Gerrard mentioned above who looks after our bells and helps us in so many other ways; Laura, Jan’s daughter; and me, Michael, 63 years a ringer since learning at St Mary’s in 1960. The first photo taken By Dorcas, another retired ringer who appears next to me in the second, taken by Laura. One of her hobbies is playing the Ukulele. In a chance conversation with one of her group, Dudley, earlier in the year she discovered that he, too, had been a bellringer until about 50 years ago (!) and a consequence of this was that, following a reunion with me and Robert Cooles, (who played a great part in getting our own bells restored in 1982/3) and with whom he had rung at Battersea in the 1960’s, Dudley is now ringing again at Merton.
So, as you see, statistics, coincidences and above all, friendships, play a huge part in keeping this ancient art alive, interesting and exciting.
