St Mary's Bell Ringers' annual ringing outing - the 'Spring Ring' - happened last Saturday, 13th April, and this year 15 of us, including partners and some ringers from Campsea Ashe, visited Cambridge.
It was a lovely bright spring day, and we began at St Clement's Church, which has a ring of 6 bells installed in 2022. This is a designated Ringing Centre and promotes and teaches the art of change ringing to anyone who wishes to have a go, or develop their existing skills. Incidentally, this church is shared with a Russian Orthodox congregation.
Thanks to Meg, one of our ringers, we were able to enjoy lunch in the Buttery at St John's College - a group of grey heads among the students!
Next it was a walk to St Andrew the Great, adjacent to Lion Yard in the city centre. These were a lovely ring of 8 bells - even if we did have to move several sofas out of the ringing chamber before we could start!
The room doubles up as a creche - with the bell ropes hoisted up well
out of harms way.
It was then a short walk to St Bene't's, said to be the oldest building in Cambridge. The six bells there, housed in their Saxon tower, proved to be a bit of a challenge to ring, but it was a great experience.
Finally, we had time for a quick visit to the University Church of St Mary the Great and a look at their ringing chamber. Theirs is a 12 bell ring, (we have 8) but it would have been just too much of a challenge to ring those....
Now we are looking forward to a possible 'Autumn Outing' - another ringing tour on more local towers this time.
We always welcome visitors to the ringing chamber. If you would like to see how we ring or are interested in actually 'having a go' please have a word with any of our ringers.
(Written by Jackie Shipley)