If you really want to know about life amongst the towers and ringers of the Maidstone District then this is the page for you. The Webmaster will put in the little snippets of news he sniffs out, but we rely largely on ringers themselves to provide the news.
Email contributions to webmaster@kcacr-maidstone-district.org.uk
Last year as some of you may recall, Paul Bastow, bell ringer and Round Tabler from Aylesford ran his first marathon in Paris raising funds for the Round Table Children's Wish charity. He and his running buddy Martin raised in excess of £2000 just for this one event. This year, they have doubled the stakes and are aiming to run 2 marathons in 2 weeks - Zurich on 11 April & London on 25 April. They are after your money as they want to raise £5000 for the Round Table charity. If you are able to sponsor them please contact Paul on 01622 843725 to pledge your donation, or click on this link:
http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/MartinandPaul3.
For further information about the charity please visit their web site www.rtcw.org
Eighteen people attended the Practice Meeting at Harrietsham on Saturday 13th February, which was quite impressive given that it was only two weeks since the previous meeting. Although we were unable to muster enough to ring special method Bristol, we managed the other special method, Stedman Triples, along with Plain Bob Major, Grandsire Triples and plenty of Plain Hunt and Call Changes. As a bonus there was also a course of Plain Hunt Major on Harrietsham's newly refurbished handbells. All in all a very useful practice.
The winter Quarterly District Meeting was held at Marden on Saturday 30th January, having been postponed from its original date as a result of heavy snow. Possibly for this reason the attendance of only 16 was rather less than usual for what is normally the best-attended meeting of the year. Nevertheless ringing ranged through Call Changes, Plain Doubles and Major, Grandsire Triples, Yorkshire, Superlative, and 5-spliced Surprise Major and three leads of Bristol. Indeed something for everyone.
The first part of the Business Meeting was in fact the adjourned ADM, at which Mike Birkbeck was elected Hon District Secretary. At the subsequent Quarterly Meeting proper routine business was speedily dealt with, including the election of David Kite of Marden as a new member of the Association. Click here to see the unadopted Minutes of the Meeting. Following the Meeting we enjoyed delicious chilli jacket potatoes, followed by tea and cakes, in the welcome warmth of Marden Vestry Hall. All in all a very enjoyable day, and our grateful thanks to Andy and Di Copas for organising everything, particularly the tea.
The possibility of a new three in the Maidstone District? Ditton have been being chimed for years now by three locals, however when a rope broke earlier this year one of them was forced to do what many people in that position would do, google rope suppliers in Kent. Of course not much came up. However they did find the KCACR and made contact with Brian 'Redleader' Butcher, who has been and inspected the bells and says they are actually hung for full circle ringing, and prompty rang the treble up! Apparently the other two require a little more work to make them ringable again, but watch this space.
The District Carol Service is traditionally held at one of the District's three or four bell towers where there is little scope for an ordinary District meeting. This year it was the turn of Broomfield on Saturday 12th December with the service returning to a more traditional format. We are grateful to the Vicar of Broomfield for taking the service and to Sue King for playing the organ.
There was ringing on Broomfield's three bells prior to the service and, as can be seen from the picture, the twenty ringers and friends present enjoyed the traditional mince pies and mulled wines afterwards.
A major event in aid of the project to augment Otham's three bells to six took place on Saturday 24th October when around 50 people attended a concert in Otham Church. The concert was given by bellringers Damien Smith and Carla Ovenden (pictured right) and was geatly enjoyed by everyone.
The augmentation project, which has been on hold whilst re-ordering of the church has been taking place, is now set to proceed with the full support of the Otham and Langley PCC. Two bells have been purchased from, and are on hold with, the Keltec Trust and are waiting to be installed. They have been paid for out of grant by the KCACR Bell Restoration Fund.
Click here to see the flyer giving more information about the Otham Project.
The Annual District Meeting took place at All Saints', Maidstone, on Saturday 10th October. There were 24 members at the Business Meeting, which was adjourned when there no proposals or volunteers for the post of Secretary. Under Association rules a District must elect a Secretary and two District Representatives (all other officerships are optional), and the retiring Chairman had no option but to move a motion for adjournment of business until the January Quarterly. If a Secretary cannot be found by then the Maidstone District will effectively cease to exist. Before the adjournment, the remaining District Officers were elected (or in most cases re-elected) and details of the new committee can be found by clicking here. We also welcomed two new members to the Association, Judy Woods of Staplehurst and Jane Bird of Yalding. The full unadopted minutes of the ADM can be seen by following the link.
Ringing ranged from rounds and call changes up to Yorkshire Surprise Royal. Unfortunately there were not enough people present who could ring the other special method, Erin Caters, so we had to settle for Stedman instead!
August is not usually a good month for ringing meetings. After all, who wants to be stuck in a stuffy ringing room on a warm summer afternoon? So this year we decided to do something completely different. On Saturday 15th we met at Staplehurst at around 2.15pm for the 3 mile walk to the neighbouring village of Frittenden, where we rung for an hour or so on the lovely Gillett & Johnston 15cwt eight and had refreshments, courtesy of the local ringers. We then walked back to Staplehurst for a ring on the 19cwt ten before retiring to the The Bell Inn opposite the church for an excellent barbeque.
Now it so happens that Frittenden is in the Ashford District, so we thought it would be a good idea to make this event a joint one with them. As a result we had around 30 people walking and ringing, and even more for the meal. The picture right shows everyone tucking in. Click here for more pictures and a full report of the event
Congratulations to Daniel and Adam Brady of Staplehurst who rang their first peal, Yorkshire Surprise Royal, at All Saints Maidstone on Saturday 20th June. What a way to start your peal ringing career!
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Congratulations also to Freda Tomlin who celebrated her 90th birthday on 26th June. Freda has been a member of the Staplehurst band for very many years and although no longer an active ringer she is still a great friend and supporter of the band. The peal at Maidstone on 20th June mentioned above was rung as a birthday compliment to Freda and a quarter peal rung at Staplehurst on 27th June, which also included her niece, was also dedicated to her.
