Members of the Sparsholt and Crawley bands went on a bell ringing outing on Saturday 13th. April 2002.
The intinary for our outing was:-
9:30 - 10:15 : St.Andrew (6 bells 14 cwt) Nether Wallop
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10:30 - 11:15 : St.Mary (6 bells 10 cwt) Abbotts Ann
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11:30 - 12:15 : St.Peter (8 bells 8 cwt) Goodworth Clatford
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Lunch break Royal Oak Goodworth Clatford
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2:15 - 3:00 : All Saints (6 bells 7 cwt) Barton Stacey
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3:15 - 4:00 : St.Andrew (8 bells 14 cwt) Hurstbourne Priors
l to r [back row]:
Amanda Bayford, Janet Beesley, Graham Beesley, Felicity Coulson,
David Reeve and Jenny Watson
[front row]:
Peter Noel,John Cleverley,Coral Northeast
and Peter May.
The photo was taken by Edmund Wratten who wishes to be heard
but not seen.
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Our first tower was at Nether Wallop; it was not a very good ring of bells to start the day with. The bells were difficult to handle and also it told which ringers had had a good breakfast before they left home.
Then we all made our way to Abbott's Ann where things started to get better, the ringing here was enjoyed by all, the bells were a lot better to handle and we had some good striking, with some call changes and plain hunt.
The time here seemed to go very quickly, so it was on our way again to Goodworth Clatford where we were met by the tower captain who took us up into the ringing chamber to tell us what to do when we had finished ringing. This tower had a ring of eight bells, so we had a band of ringers to ring the bells up, but on raising the bells the seventh bell seemed to have a problem with it which we were not told of, but John Cleverley the Sparsholt tower captain managed to set the bell and found that the rope slips the wheel at the back stroke but other than that everyone enjoyed this tower.
Just before we left we all sat on the church seat outside to have a group photograph taken in the lovely sunshine, and then down to the Royal Oak Pub for a spot of refreshments. We all sat around the table eating and chatting away, and it was nice to not to see any of the team on a diet.
We all worked very hard on the first part of the outing, after the hour and a half break for lunch we made our way to Barton Stacey for a work out on bells of which the ringing chamber was some way up in the tower having to climb up a loft ladder, it is all good fun and the ringing went as planned with again some good striking.
Our last tower was at Hurstbourne Priors, where we had to walk up spiral steps into the ringing chamber which took our eyes with all the pine board panelling, and everyone remarked on it and said how neat and tidy it looks. This tower was the best ringing we had all day, and the sound of the bells were really wonderful and very easy to ring and the church was in a lovely setting, which made our tour around the Andover District completed with great enjoyment with thanks to Janet, Graham and Edmund.
(A personal account of the 2002 outing by John Cleverley - originally intended for the Parish magazine)
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