News

• June 18th 2019   On Monday 17 June the G & B Youth Team had their final practice before the Ringing World National Youth Contest 2019. This year the contest is being hosted in Liverpool. The G & B will be taking a large party to the Contest but, of course, only 8 young ringers can actually ring and represent our Association.

  The final practice was hosted by Upton St Leonards - a big thank you to Charlie Burnett for arranging this. Also thank you to Alan Woodward and Roger Haynes for traveling to Upton to give your wisdom, guidance and coaching support to the G & B Team on this and all previous occasions during the build up to the RWNYC 2019.

  The team selected is as follows:

  1. Mary Pang - aged 16 - from Barnwood in the Gloucester Branch
  2. Zoe Bonnett - aged 14 - from Stone in the Wotton-under-Edge Branch
  3. Yuhan Jiang - aged 17 - from Stone in the Wotton-under-Edge Branch
  4. Isabel Beattie - aged 16 from Kempsford in the Cirencester Branch
  5. Florence Lazenby - aged 17 from Ampney Crucis in the Cirencester Branch
  6. Maddie Johnson - aged 16 from Gloucester Cathedral in the Gloucester Branch
  7. Alistair White-Horne - aged 17 from Stone in the Wotton-under-Edge Branch
  8. Mathew Bishop - aged 17 from Bisley in the Stroud Branch
  Reserves are Ivan Barritt aged 13 of Barnsley and Matthew Woods aged 16 of Cirencester, both in the Cirencester Branch. The Conductor is Alistair White-Horne and the team will ring 12 courses of Plain Hunt.

  It proved extremely difficult picking the team this year as any of these 10 are good enough to represent the G & B and there are several other youngsters who have regularly attended practices this year who have missed out most notably the Judson sisters Millie aged 14 and Daisy aged 12 of the Stroud Branch, Richard Isherwood aged 14 of the Wotton Branch and the Lister sisters Abigail aged 13 & Niamh aged 11 of the Chippenham Branch, Catherine Barritt aged 15 and Evie Perfect aged 15 both of the Cirencester Branch: their time will come.

  The Ringing World National Youth Contest is being hosted by Liverpool on Saturday 6 July. There are 24 Teams from all over the country and all the test pieces are to be rung at St Francis Xavier - the home of the University of Liverpool Society - 8 bells 16cwt. The Contest HQ is Our Lady & St Nicholas, Pier Head - 12 bells 41cwt. The team will also be taking the opportunity to "grab" several other Liverpool towers during the course of the day - even Liverpool Cathedral - 12 bells 82cwt. Whatever the outcome of the Contest, we will have a great day.

  The Association wishes them all the best of luck and hope they have a good day.

• June 12th 2019   In the run up to the Ringing World National Youth Competition which takes place in Liverpool on Saturday 7 July the G & B Team have been playing skittles, training and going on outings; not just practising. A full report on the build up with pictures is available here.
• June 4th 2019   The latest edition of Swindon Branch's quarterly newsletter Belfry View is now on this site. It includes amongst other things reports on the first peal on Liddington bells, called in his own words, by a willing but inexperienced conductor and an article on a visit by Devon call change ringers. There is also a list of peals and quarters and details about the forthcoming combined striking and pudding competitions.
• April 23rd 2019   Further items have been uploaded to the website. Everyone having an obituary or simply recorded as having passed away in any Annual Report back to 1898 is now listed on the site. This includes the 'Toll of the Great War' list in the 1920 Report plus some additions as shown in the Central Council Roll of Honour.
• April 13th 2019   The unapproved minutes of the recent Association AGM are availablehere
• April 7th 2019   The latest edition of Strike Note, is now available on the site. This issue, a year in the making, includes reports on the Ring and Ramble, Branch Outing and Ringing Remembers as well as the usual reports and peal / quarter peal lists.
• April 6th 2019   The results of the striking competitions for the Penn (eight bell) and Croome (six bell) trophies are now available on this site.
• March 25th 2019   There are a number of corrections to the Annual Report 2018 which was recently published. Chief amongst these is the omission of Terry J Jefferies of Winterbourne in the Bristol Rural branch from the list of Honorary Life Members. Terry was elected an HLM in 1995 and in addition has also completed 40 years membership of the G&B. We regret any distress this might have caused.
• March 2nd 2019   Voting for the Tower of the Year took place at the Branch Officers' Meeting on 2 March. The winner of the competition for 2019 was Almondsbury in the Bristol Rural Branch. Joint runners up were Barnsley in the Cirencester Branch and Tidenham in the Forest Branch. They collected their awards at the Association AGM on 6 April at Mitcheldean.
• March 2nd 2019   The Association Annual Report 2018 and Handbook for 2019 has been published. Copies have been distributed to the branches via their officers.
• November 24th 2018   The latest edition of Wotton Branch's quarterly newsletter The Clangour is now on this site. This bumper edition includes amongst other things news from the towers, Sarah and Matthew Lorkin's wedding, the branch outing report and the usual peal and quarter peals.