We met at the first tower of the day, Norton in the Moors. This was a lovely Taylor ring of eight. Unfortunately we met short of ringers and could only manage the eight when reinforcements arrived in the shape of Sharon and Marty Lyons and Sue Wakely who had been delayed on the M6. Before that we did manage to throw Andrew Burrows of Neston in at the deep end asking him to cover doubles for the first time. Of course, he coped admirably.

On we moved to Stoke and the beautiful bells of St Peter ad Vincula. Here we were met by Maurice Grisenthwaite who had also had trouble with the traffic. We persuaded the tower captain to ring with us and got the 10 going to rounds and call changes. We also manages some Grandsire and Plain Bob before carrying on to Keele. The bells of St Peter’s were a joy and we felt very lucky to have had the chance to ring them.

Lunch was Sandwiches or at the Sneyd Arms at Keele. We were a little concerned that we would loose Peter Humphreys at this point because there are two Sneyd Arms, but his trusty Sat Nav was 100% accurate and paid off for some of the stick he had taken about it so far in the day. David Jones was the navigator in our car and I don’t think it is unfair to say that his skills in picking great rings of bells far outstrip his skills as a navigator!

At Keele we almost had the famed lock out……..but David managed to contact Phil Gay and we rang 20 minutes of doubles and minor. Then we moved on to the colliery village of Silverdale. Peter Newton organised interesting ringing on the eight here in what was an incredibly hot ringing chamber. It would be a challenge to ring for a wedding there in the heat of summer as there is no ventilation in the ringing room.

By the time we got to Audley we were all getting a little tired. We had all been ringing all the time at each tower. Still we managed to ring some Cambridge and very interesting doubles which Peter Robson conducted.

Our last stop was Phil and Rowena Gay’s mini ring at Woodlands. Waiting for us was a feast of delicious cakes and pots of hot tea and coffee which Ro had kindly made for us all. It was exactly what we all needed and refreshed and revived we left the non-ringers chatting and went to find the bells. The mini ring has been built at the back of the garage and consists of eight bells which Phil has collected from auctions, sales and had cast specially for the ring. We had great fun getting to grips with the light bells, and for me it was definitely the high spot of the day.

It would be lovely to see more of the Branch out next year enjoying ringing in new towers.

Jane Davies
Wirral Branch Secretary