About us
The Band
The band is member of the KCACR and belongs to Canterbury District.
We practice every Tuesday evening and ring for the 10am service on Sunday morning, with the following exceptions:
- Holy Week
- The wrong type of snow on the roof.
- Church otherwise in use.
- Not enough people around. Like at Christmas. Or New Year.
On the 3rd Saturday of a month we hold additional practice sessions with the bells muffled, now supported by Abel ringing simulator connected to all 10 bells.
Please get in touch if you would like to make use of that facility.
We also ring for weddings and on special occasions (quarter peals) - please contact our Tower Captain, Freda Parker or our secretary, Zoë Story, if you would like the bells to be rung for you (click here)
Last - but not least - once a month the band meets for handbell practice.
The Ringing Chamber
Quite cold in winter..not particularly warm in summer.
Equiped with all mod cons, like a heater, a padded bench. And a hard one.
A few boxes to stand on.
Not to forget coat hooks.
And a good number of peal boards for inspiration.
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Way In
Through the door, up the stairs, across the roof, into the tower.
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Almost anyone can learn to ring. If you think you might like to give us a try, then follow one or more of these routes:
- Look at http://www.cccbr.org.uk - that should give you some idea of what would be involved at any ringing tower in the country.
You might also want to watch this video to see how this heavy metal could become your kind of music: youtube: Up the spiral staircase. - Contact our Tower Captain, Freda Parker or our secretary, Zoë Story (please click here)
- Read the rest of this section which sets out how the (imaginary) Jo Learner got on in her - or his - first year of ringing at St Laurence.
Jo might be 8 years old, or 80.
S/he arranged to join us on a Tuesday evening practice, when he was shown up to the ringing room - and watched people doing their stuff at the end of a rope.
Jo was offered a chance to see what it felt like - with an experienced ringer keeping hold of the rope alongside Jo.
A tiny bit scary, but Jo was not put off.
Next Jo came to a number of hours of practice with just the teacher and one other new learner - these were arranged at 7 p.m. before the main practice, but they could have been at any other convenient time.
Soon Jo had got to the stage where she could ring alongside other ringers.
He also found that we are quite a friendly crowd.
After a few months, Jo was also ringing on Sunday mornings before the service.
You might not have quite the same experience as Jo. That is because every learner is different - some might struggle and make what could seem like very slow progress, others find it (comparatively) easy. Some might decide it’s not for them - obviously you can stop at any time. But if you think you might like to give it a go - just give us a ring!
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Quarter peals rung this year:
- 26Feb11 - Grandsire Caters, 1259 changes, visiting band.
- 19Mar11 - 3 Doubles methods, 1260 changes, visiting band.
- 22Apr11, Good Friday (half muffled): Grandsire Triples, 1260 Changes. Freda, Rosemary, John, Sarat, Mike Little and others
- 12Aug11 - Rutland S Royal, 1360 changes, visiting band.
- 01Oct11 - St Simon's Bob Triples, 1260 changes, visiting band.
In the paper:
And in addition to that:
On 07 May 2011, the first module of the ITTS course for new teachers (Teaching Bell Handling) was successfully delivered at St Laurence by Peter Dale from the Cinque Ports ringing centre.
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Clothing
Please contact us to find out where to get clothing in royal blue with our logo.
From the preferred supplier you can get:
- a range of polo shirts (various qualities, also one long sleeved)
- sweat shirts (round neck, V-neck, hoodie)
- fleeces (full zip or 1/4 zip)
- T-shirts
