Barming Practice
Please note that there will be no practice at Barming this Friday, 27th January.
Winter Quarterly Meeting 
The Quarterly District Meeting was held at Ightham on Saturday 14th January. Both the business meeting and the Tower Captains' meeting which preceded it were incredibly short and the only thing of interest to report was the election of four new members (including one returning member which is always good to see). Minutes of both meetings will be posted on our Documents page when available.
The ringing was generally good, with lots of practice of Plain Bob and Grandsire Doubles for people, and Cambridge, Norwich and London Minor were also rung (individually, not spliced - that would be a little ambitious!).
The picture on the right shows ringing in progress in the gallery ringing room, whilst others await their turn in the church below. Our thanks go to the Ightham ringers for the use of the bells and for providing the usual delicious tea.
District Carol Service
This year's District Carol Service was held on the relatively, recently, rediscovered three at Ditton. The pre-service ringing was rather tentative with people coping well with the very tricky bells, rounds, call changes and even Shipping Forecast Singles were rung under the guidance of new District ringing master Adam Brady. The service went without a hitch with all the old favourite carols being sung with considerable gusto by the congregation. After last year's success a quartet made up of Tina Bastow, Debbie and Daniel Brady and Richard Young sung two pieces, O Little One Sweet and We Wish You a Merry Christmas. The service was followed by mince pies and mulled wine which was prepared by Andrew Brady. Our thanks to all those who helped out during the service by doing readings, to Ross Terranova for taking the service and to Alan Warner for arranging the use of the bells.
Call Change Striking Competition
Not so much a competition as a match - only two of the 30+ bands in the District entered a team in the Call Change Striking Competition at Hunton on Saturday 12th November. Judge Tom Barlow, always one to look at things from a positive point of view, decided that he would award gold stars for good ringing rather than faults for errors. The result was that last year's winners Staplehurst retained the winners' shield again this year by the narrowest of margins by achieving seven gold stars to The Suttons' six. However The Suttons won the shield for the band having the most ringers who had not rung in a competition previously.
Below left is the youngest member of the Staplehurst band receiving the winners' shield whilst to the right one of the Suttons' band is presented with the other trophy.
Close thing at County Six-Bell
This year All Saints Maidstone represented the district at the county six-bell and came a very close second place behind winners St. Dunstans, Canterbury. The competition was hosted by the Maidstone District on the wonderful bells of Hunton, thanks to Hunton ringers for the use of the bells and for providing the refreshments and to Graham Hayward of Nottingham who was the judge for the day.
Pictured is the district team, who rang a test piece of Plain Bob Minor.
| 1st | Canterbury | (St Dunstan, Canterbury) | 13 |
| 2nd | Maidstone | (All Saints, Maidstone) | 13½ |
| 3rd | Rochester | (Meopham) | 15½ |
| 4th | Lewisham | (Beckenham) | 17½ |
| 5th | Tonbridge | (Hadlow) | 33 |
| 6th | Ashford | (Frittenden) | 35½ |
Tower Location Sheets
A recent emergency in a tower in our district has brought to light the necessity of being able to quickly and correctly convey your location to the emergency services.
Fortunately accidents and emergencies in the tower are a rare occurence, however I think it is very important that we are prepared. The document below has location information for all towers within the district, in the main part the emergency services are able to locate a tower using the postcode alone, however for some areas which are more rural a postcode may cover a large area so other information is also included.
I ask that you print out the relevent page from the document and display this somewhere in your tower.
Click to download Tower Location Sheets.
Daniel Brady
District Chairman
Outing to London a great success
More than 40 ringers from the Maidstone and Ashford Districts came on the outing to London, which this year focused on the west of the City and Westminster, culminating in ringing at St Margaret's, Westminster (pictured right). A report is on our News page.
Come Back to the District BBQ
And come they did ... in their droves! The Come Back to the District Social event and BBQ was a resounding success, with every ticket sold and, according to the feedback we have had, a great time being had by all.
The afternoon began with two hours of ringing on the ten bells at Staplehurst Church. Those packed into the ringing room enjoyed a variety of ringing from rounds and call changes up to Surprise Major and Little Bob Royal. Then it was back to the garden of two of the Staplehurst ringers where a BBQ was already sizzling nicely away. Much use was made of Chris Trafford's mini-ring during the following three hours, culminating in a light-hearted striking competition with chocolate bars as prizes. Even the weather was kind to us, even if it did get a little cool by the time festivities due to a close at around 9pm. Click here for pictures of the event.
A huge vote of thanks goes to District Chairman Daniel Brady who did the lion's share of organising the event, and to everyone else who helped out on the day.
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