On Wednesday 27th October, a group of 14 young ringers met up at St Mary's Church, Barking. We were there on the Suffolk Guild "9 to 19" day, to ring together and to discuss our expectations of ringing and of the Guild.
Everyone introduced themselves, and Brian Whiting and Stephen Pettman gave a short talk on what we would be doing and what the aims of the day were. Martyn Crouch was appointed ringing master for the morning, and then we got underway. We rang everything from rounds and called changes, to Cambridge Surprise Minor (which David Cornish, from St Matthew's, Ipswich, had to learn in five minutes!). We also rang some Stedman Doubles, but mainly we rang Plain Bob Doubles. In between bouts of ringing, we all had a chance to talk and get to know each other. Martyn made an excellent ringing master and we are all very grateful to him for giving us a lead.
Our thanks go to Suzanne Stanford for providing refreshments halfway through the morning, and also in the afternoon.
At lunchtime, we were provided with a fine meal by Brian Whiting at his home and we would all like to thank him for his hospitality - I particularly enjoyed the pumpkin soup! During lunch, we all started talking seriously about the opportunities for young ringers in Suffolk and Essex (there were three ringers present from the Essex Association).
Several suggestions were put forward as to the creation of a specific section of the Suffolk Guild for young people, who would have their own events and meetings. Everyone wished to maintain strong links with young people in other ringing associations. It was also agreed that we needed to "advertise" ringing much more, to recruit more of the younger generation.
People discussed the need for the younger members of Suffolk Guild to be a presence on the Internet, and to have their own section of our website, which would include information about young peoples events in the Guild, games, competitions and cartoons.
At the end of lunchtime, we had all exchanged telephone numbers and, those of us who had them, email addresses. We all agreed that we wanted to keep in touch, and that a directory of young ringers on the Net would be a good idea.
In the afternoon, we went to St Mary's, Offton, a pleasant ring of eight, with the tenor weighing just over 8 cwt. In the interests of equal opportunities, I got nominated to be ringing mistress for the afternoon! Unfortunately, it did not start out very well, as the stay on the 6th was broken the first time we rang. However, Daniel Martin (a regular ringer at Monewden) came to the rescue, and hung on the end of the rope for nearly two hours, to allow us to ring the bells all afternoon.
During the afternoon, we rang rounds and called changes, Plain Hunt Triples, Bob Major, Stedman Triples and Cambridge Surprise Minor. Some of us who had never rung at either place were very glad to grab the towers, and it was suggested that a further Guild event for young people should be a tower grab.
The entire day was very pleasant, and all those who took part would
like to thank Brian Whiting and Stephen Pettman for arranging it for us. We
hope that this will not be the last event of its kind! Go see Oscar's Cartoon
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