Peeling away in Ypres
The Bellringing is going extremely well since the bells were installed in St George's memorial Church, Ypres, Belguim October 2017. We have had numerous enquires from towers in the UK to come and ring Peals, Qtr Peals and to offer to help the St George's Band to ring and improve their skills.
Bellringing is a very social activity as well helping you to a great mental workout, maintain a traditional skill, a valuable service to the church, team activity and an opportunity to make new friends and visit new places.
Some people consider ringing to be their contribution to church life, others do it for pure pleasure it brings. Ringers come from all walks of life and range in age and our band is an example of that, with ages from late twenties up to 72 yrs. A lot of our learners were looking for a new activity and skill as retired from work, they miss the companionship of work colleagues and the social side of work. So we are very happy that our church is now providing this missing link in their lives.
We have 16 recruits at the moment who are going through training with the ARTs Foundation of trainers from the UK, which the Bells4StGeorges Organisation provided.
Mr Alan Regin MBE and Mr Graham Nabb have been liasing with the Rev Gillian Trinder and Liz Millward Tower Captain on dates, times, accommodation, teachers and where each recruit is at in their training. There are 11 Belgians from in and around Ypres, 4 from the UK (expats), and 1 from Holland. We hope to start up our own practice nights very soon with Gregory who is a British ringer working as an interpreter for the EU, living in Brussels, he is scheduled to do ART Module 1 training during the next couple of months, as he is retiring later in the year, he is hoping to come to Ypres regularly to do further teaching with the Ypres Band of Bellringers. Liz Millward Tower Captain will be attending an ART module 2F course this year.
In January the Bells Trustees travelled to Ypres to attempt the first peal on the new Memorial bells.
Alan Regin was awarded an MBE in this years’ New Years Honours list for his services to bellringing including the Bells4StGeorge’s project, The peal was successful, Ypres Surprise Major being the chosen method (this method was first rung to a peal on 24th May 1969 at Sittingbourne, Kent. Since 1964 Sittingbourne has been one of the towns twinned with Ypres!).
