Friday 10th April 2026

Richy's Blog

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Wednesday 8th April 2026

With it still being school holidays it was another family outing to Pettistree's weekly practice this evening, along with a large crowd during a busy session.

That crowd included Martin Yardley who was paying a flying visit from Northern Ireland and Birmingham ringer Phil Ramsbottom who Ruthie and I know well from when he used to ring with us on Rambling Ringers. Lovely to see them both and great that even though a handful of regulars were away there were still big numbers and we were able to ring a variety from Plain Bob Doubles to spliced Cambridge & London Surprise Minor, Norwich Surprise Minor and a hugely enjoyable brisk and well rung course of Carlisle Surprise Minor, all following on from a 1440 of seven Surprise Minor methods spliced rung in the ground-floor six.

A trip to the Greyhound Inn afterwards for the boys (honest!) came at the end of a busy day of ringing in Suffolk. The majority of that was due to a visiting quarter-peal tour that saw a 1250 of Plain Bob Major rung at Aldeburgh, 1282 of Yorkshire Surprise Major at Felixstowe and 1296 of Cambridge Surprise Minor at Tunstall, but there was also a Guild Peal as the significant birthdays of SGR stalwarts Mary Garner and Brian Whiting were celebrated with a 5152 of an aptly named Surprise Major method at Hollesley.

A busy day of ringing on the county's coast then and probably in other ways as the school holidays continue!

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Tuesday 7th April 2026

Much excitement in our house was condensed into the end of a fairly dull Champions League football match on the TV being finished with a last minute winner at the same time as one of Josh's teeth came out.

No ringing for us but there was the usual pre-practice quarter-peal at Offton, whilst we received the latest edition of The Ringing World today. Apart from entries in the quarter-peal and peal columns there was nothing Suffolk related that I spotted, but still lots of interesting content.

Nothing as exciting as what was going on in our house though!

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Easter Monday 6th April 2026

It is a traditionally busy day for ringing as church bells are able to ring out joyfully following the sombre Holy Week break. Typically peals at Cathedrals and/or on twelve feature prominently, especially for a Monday and that was the case today, including a 5009 of Stedman Cinques at St Paul's Cathedral with included Norfolk ringer Simon Smith who helps with a lot of peals within our borders and Sally Brown who along with Laura Parker judged the Suffolk Guild Striking Competitions at Falkenham and Felixstowe a couple of years ago.

Here in our county a quarter-peal of Badgeworth Bob Minor at Tostock saw a welcome return to ringing for former North-West District Secretary Lesley Steed, a first in the method for Sally Crouch and also saw Sally and NW Ringing Master Joshua Watkins circle the tower. Welcome back Lesley and congratulations Sally and Joshua!

And although it didn't happen today, I was delighted to hear about Jenny & Ella Fairburn's recent trip to Buckfast Abbey that saw the latter ring the 41cwt tenor there. Well done Jenny and particularly Ella!

Along with a final lay-in of this long weekend and the beautiful warm sunny weather, it was all very upbeat, but we didn't participate in any ringing as we went along to Ipswich Town's men's first team's 2-1 win over Birmingham City. We did see other ringers in the build-up to the match and at halftime as we had food at The Mermaid with my mother-in-law Kate where my brother Chris also joined us and at the FanZone we met with Simon Rudd for a drink.

I'm pleased other ringers were busier on this traditionally busy day then!

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Easter Sunday 5th April 2026

Easter Sunday is arguably the most important day in the Christian calendar as the cornerstone of the faith is marked. Packed churches, an upbeat message and of course church bells back after a week's silence for many of them.

I was there at Ipswich Minster for their return and after refreshment at Costa Coffee with my fellow ringers I was at Grundisburgh too where it was great to welcome back the Twissells David & Gillian after a while out due to various health issues.

That was it for my ringing for today, as bar popping round to Ruthie's sister's for a bit it was an unashamedly lazy afternoon at home with the boys and lots of chocolate!

It is another moment to encourage readers to book their tea for the Guild AGM which is due to take place at Drinkstone in six days and ensure that that isn't a quiet afternoon from a ringing perspective.

Many of the county's ringers were active in the exercise within our borders today though. Thank you to the band who rang the 1295 of Grandsire Caters at The Norman Tower in memory of Becky, which was one of a number of quarters rung in Suffolk. Well done to Jonathan Iles on ringing his first of Stedman in the 1260 of Stedman Triples at Halesworth and to Brandon Warman on ringing his first of Surprise Minor in the 1274 of Cambridge at Mendham, whilst there were also quarters of Norwich Surprise Minor at Pettistree and Plain Bob Triples on the back eight at Stowmarket.

Meanwhile there was lots of other ringing from our soil noted on BellBoard, including handbell ringing on the beach at Thorpeness.

Great to see so much ringing done on this important day in the Christian calendar.

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Holy Saturday 4th April 2026

A story that seems to have gone into Suffolk ringing folklore involves mine and Chris's late paternal grandfather Jack telling Stephen Pettman how good the bells of St Margaret's sounded from The Arboretum, a pub just over 600 yards across Ipswich now called The Arbor House. Stephen apparently replied that they sounded quite nice from his house. "There you go then," replied our father's father feeling justified, before seemingly doing a double take and saying, "wait a minute, you live in Woodbridge!"

I was reminded about that story by myself and others present as I returned to the ringing chamber at Ipswich Minster where a well rung 120 of Grandsire Doubles was being rung on the training bells at the South-East District Practice and exclaimed flippantly about how good it sounded downstairs. Where of course I couldn't hear them at all. Or indeed until I was about halfway up the stairs.

Which is the beauty of them as in a day when typically ringing on church bells wouldn't be possible the SE could hold this two-hour session on the six for the benefit of it's members. Whilst I would always prefer to ring on the actual bells of this famous venue, it was a canny move from the District to take advantage of this superb facility we have in our midst.

On the long Easter weekend when many will have been away or busy with family there was a pretty decent turnout too to enjoy a session brilliantly led as usual by Ringing Master - and now also RM of our host tower - Hal Meakin that took in much from Bisto Little Bob Doubles to Surprise Minor in the form of Ipswich, Norwich and then spliced Norfolk & Primrose with a little unexpected Cambridge thrown in by the conductor James Smith! Not to mention the refreshments down in the church kindly served by Rosemary Caudle, Sonia Doherty and Diana Pipe.

Such ringing activity accompanied with refreshment gives me a tenuous opportunity to remind readers that it is one week until the Guild AGM is due to be held at Drinkstone with ringing also intended to take place at Hitcham and Rattlesden beforehand. All towers where significant improvements and work have gone into the bells, frame and fittings so will be easy going for ringers at all stages of their ringing progression and all in beautiful locations. Please do take advantage of what should be a lovely occasion and if you want a tea then let Astrid know on nandagale8@gmail.com by Tuesday 7th.

By the time it comes round hopefully most of those who wish to take their Annual Report will have their copy of the newest edition as the tremendous work of officers and others to get copies out to members is well underway. Ruthie and I left proceedings this afternoon with piles of them for places like Hollesley, Pettistree and Woodbridge, with those in turn passed onto others or left in places to be collected by the end of an evening that saw my wife back at church singing with her choral colleagues and the boys and I watching football on the TV and yesterday's edition of The One Show which features a section on the rehanging, restoration and augmentation at Pembroke in Wales. 24 minutes and 18 seconds in if you don't want to watch the rest!

One trio who probably didn't get the time to watch it were Alan Reading, George & Diana Pipe's nephew David and his son Henry as they spent most of the day ringing the longest length of spliced and most methods rung all the work with the astonishing 50400 of 420 Treble Dodging Minor methods spliced rung on handbells just over the Cambridgeshire border in Willingham. A stunning achievement that very few of us will match, let alone surpass but which should inspire us to do as much as we can in this limitless art.

One full of stories that have gone into folklore.

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Good Friday 3rd April 2026

Good Friday used to be an active day of ringing for me in the past, a day when David & Katharine Salter very kindly welcomed us to The Wolery for two and on one occasion three peal attempts, interspersed with food and their usual excellent hospitality.

These days it offers a rare opportunity for a lay-in with little if any ringing available locally and so instead we had that lay-in and then went to Ruthie's sister's for a family gathering that included former South-East District Ringing Master Kate Eagle. Although my wife only joined us after a choir rehearsal that never happened as the service at St Mary the Virgin's in Woodbridge ran over far more than anyone expected!

Whilst there was nothing noted on BellBoard from Suffolk today, there was quite a bit of ringing beyond our borders, including much on towerbells, most of it half-muffled. That included at St Magnus the Martyr in London where former Exning learner Jimmy Yeoman circled the tower to peals by ringing the seventh to the 5059 of spliced Cinques & Maximus. Congratulations Jimmy!

Good Friday was still an active day of ringing for some!

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Maundy Thursday 2nd April 2026

No football training for Alfie due to a lack of numbers, but also of course no ringing for us, with none on towerbells nearby during this Holy Week that I was aware of and Ruthie singing with the choir at church on this important day in the liturgical calendar.

Those able to ring handbells to a competent level were having a more productive day from a ringing perspective, including here in Suffolk where a quarter-peal of Westminster Surprise Minor was rung in Bury St Edmunds for the significant birthday of former Guild Chairman Brian Whiting. Happy Birthday to a man who has done so much for ringing within our borders, including for my wife and me, through peals and for me at least in my early Surprise Major ringing done at his home tower of Offton. And his compositions are popular, already being used for five quarter-peals and two peals so far this year in five different counties by five different conductors.

Further afield, former Bardwell learner Louis Suggett was ringing in Reading in peals of five Treble Dodging Royal methods spliced and Avon Delight Maximus, the latter of which was his first in the method in hand. Well done Louis!

Closer to home just over the Cambridgeshire border meanwhile, ringing great Rod Pipe who learnt to ring at Grundisburgh was remembered fifteen years after his death by his son David and grandsons Alfred & Henry in a way that only they could as they completed a 25200 of 210 Treble Dodging Minor methods spliced in Willingham in an effort mostly rung over the end of yesterday but which came round in the early hours of today.

Back here North-West District Secretary Mary Oliver-Barratt sent an email out to members to confirm that this year's SGR Striking Competitions are due to take place at Wickham Skeith and Gislingham on Saturday 16th May, with bookings and dietary needs needed by the week before. Please do consider an entry, even if you don't feel experienced enough. These are fun, friendly occasions with opportunity for silverware for any of the teams entering and it would be fantastic to see representation from all four districts.

For today though, I was going back to yesterday's email from David Everett which includes a link to the new Guild Annual Report. With the usual caveat that it's not meant to be exciting, it is an interesting read that covers so much of the organisation's activities across our beautiful county over 2025. Do take the time to read something that so many have spent time to put together, not least the Report Editor Joshua Watkins who has done a superb job.

Hopefully many copies will be present in paper or digital form on Saturday 11th April when the AGM is planned for Drinkstone and which provides a reminder (if any is needed!) to book your tea by Tuesday 7th.

We don't want to be short on numbers that day!

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Wednesday 1st April 2026

One of the first things I saw from the wider world after I woke up this morning was a letter from Taylor's shared on the Bellringers Facebook page by a concerned ringer. Generally the gist was that because their bells were over a hundred years old the licence to ring them had expired and therefore they needed to pay £1,000 per bell over a century in age to be allowed to ring them again. In the meantime a representative would be along to disable the bells. Of course, before I'd even noticed the laughing emojis and read the comments below I realised what the date was...

It wasn't the only bit of April foolery occurring today, with a 5026 of Bowel Surprise Major added to BellBoard by Annette Curtain, but there was genuine ringing going on in Suffolk, even during this Holy Week. For as is the norm, Pettistree were still holding their weekly practice which - as is also the norm - was preceded with a quarter-peal.

On this occasion it was a very special quarter-peal and one I was privileged to ring as we rang a 1275 of Carlisle Surprise Minor for the anniversary later this week of the birth of Mary Garner. From a ringing perspective it was for a very worthy cause as we celebrate the significant birthday of a lady who has done so much for ringing on this ground-floor six, in the South-East District and the Guild in many roles including currently Membership Secretary. Also from a personal perspective as I consider her a good friend who in her job as a teacher helped me through my GCSE maths, as SGR Secretary at the time through my first four years as Guild Ringing Master and more recently (and previously) been a reference in my pursuit of a new job. Great therefore to ring this, albeit we had a few false starts with the backstroke start and the band did well to continue whilst I had a coughing fit as I went through my 'crank handles' to become fourths place bell!

With mother-in-law Kate having brought me and it being the school holidays, Ruthie and the boys followed on to join us for a lively session with cake and a sing-song for Mary and another eclectic repertoire that ranged from Grandsire Doubles to spliced, with Surprise Minor of the Lincoln, Norfolk and Norwich varieties also rung individually, before such a large crowd retired to the Greyhound Inn that we had to sit in two separate rooms!

Meanwhile, with March now finished it is interesting to catch up with how Suffolk and the Guild's 2026 is getting on compared to 2025 in the peal and quarter stakes and the results remain quite positive. Peal numbers are slightly down on the same date twelve months ago, but only by one and QPs continue to be well up with 149 rung in the county by 31/3/2026 compared to the 112 rung by 31/3/2025. Hopefully we can keep that up and pick up the pace on peals on what has been a good start to the year.

A good start that all being well will continue in other areas too, especially at this year's AGM due to be held at Drinkstone on Saturday 11th April. Today Guild Secretary David Everett emailed members with links to the agenda, minutes of the previous AGM at Debenham and a proposed rule change which I can't imagine will cause too much trouble but is worth reading, especially as there won't be printed copies on the day, so please print them and bring them with yourself or make sure you can readily get them up on your device on the day. Additionally, if anyone doesn't have email or online access and you can print them out for them then that would be really helpful. And a reminder to get names in for tea to Astrid Gale on nandagale8@gmail.com by Tuesday 7th April. No name, no tea!

And that's no joke.

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Tuesday 31st March 2026

We are now in the midst of the school holidays and with both Ruthie and me at work today we were grateful to Granny Kate for taking Alfie & Josh for a day in London, complete with visits to Madame Tussauds and Hamleys. And by the time they'd returned their parents had enjoyed a post-work walk and mini pub crawl to our nearest pubs The Wilford Bridge and The Coach & Horses as we took advantage of the lighter evenings since the clocks were put forward at the weekend and not having a couple of young boys with us who 
wouldn't have appreciated the walking!

No ringing locally to go to though as it is Holy Week, with the usual annual debate on the Bellringers Facebook page about why bells are silent over this period again confirming that this seems to be a restriction largely placed on us by ringers rather than the church and after a busy day yesterday there was nothing from Suffolk's bells or ringers on BellBoard. Although further afield the fastest peal of the forty-one 'standard' Surprise Minor methods yet rung on towerbells was completed at Radlett in Hertfordshire in 1 hour and 50 minutes on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the previous fastest attempt rung at Wormhill in Derbyshire.

Nonetheless, much more is planned for the county's bells in April, starting unusually with Holy Saturday on the 4th. This is a day that is typically avoided for towerbell ringing, but the South-East District are being canny and using the superb resource they have in the centre of their area, the Training Bells at Ipswich Minster. Whilst the twelve remain silenced around them, all being well members (and non-members for that matter) will be able to ring on the six (which can't be heard outside) between 4 and 6pm, with refreshments available in the church and facilities in Church House and across the road at the Sailmakers shopping centre.

Also lined up is the Beccles 10 Bell Practice on the evening of Wednesday 15th, 'Ringing with Others' at Barham from 7-9pm on Friday 24th and the North-West District Plain Hunt Training at Fornham St Martin the following afternoon, which although currently fully booked is worth contacting Ringing Master Joshua Watkins in case any space becomes available or help is needed.

That isn't the only event that the NW are intending to hold next month with their Striking Competition slated for Bacton at 10am on Saturday 18th. Hopefully there will be a big turnout for a valuable element of what makes ringing so appealing to many.

And of course Saturday 11th is intended to be AGM day at Drinkstone with ringing at Hitcham and Rattlesden too. Please get your name in for tea to Astrid Gale on nandagale8@gmail.com by Tuesday 7th.

If all goes to plan, there will be plenty of ringing to occupy us. During the school holidays and beyond.

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Monday 30th March 2026

Two important dates to note if you haven't already.

One is Saturday 11th April when the Suffolk Guild AGM is due to be held at Drinkstone. A chance to ring on a superb new six in a beautiful, relatively central location and whilst the reason for ringers gathering there together is ostensibly for the business meeting, that actually now plays a small part of the day as they have got shorter and less bogged down with stuff now often dealt with easily en masse through instant communication as the year goes on. Arguably more important is that it offers a chance for ringers of all stages of progression in the art to meet up with longstanding friends and make new ones. An opportunity for those up to call-changes or getting to grips with Plain Hunt or Plain Bob to ring it with greater support than is possible at most tower practices and for experienced bands to ring things like spliced together, not just at the host tower but also at Hitcham and Rattlesden beforehand. To sample some peace and reflection in the service if you wish or grab a pint at the end of it all. Or enjoy a fabulous tea.

Which brings me onto the other date to note - Tuesday 7th April. For that is when names for tea are needed. What is on offer sounds fantastic with jacket potatoes and a variety of fillings, but of course it will need very definite numbers, so if you want a tea then please do book it by the 7th with Astrid Gale on nandagale8@gmail.com. Lots of people are putting lots of time and effort into this so please don't let their efforts go to waste. Indeed, AGM day is always at its best when lots of people from across the county go along and it makes for a wonderful atmosphere.

I got a bit of warm up for it this evening with the Ipswich Minster Society of Change Ringers AGM, held after the annual spring clean of the famous ringing chamber with no ringing tonight due to it being Holy Week. Unsurprisingly I couldn't make it in early enough to be any use in the cleaning, especially as previous experience suggested I'd be more in the way then useful, but once I'd negotiated yet another road closure on the way in I was pleased to just about make the meeting being held over a pint in the Halberd Inn. Similar to the SGR version this was quite brisk, with reports circulated in advance and so was hopefully a nice introduction to proceedings for the Reverend Pippa Scott the Associate Priest as she chaired proceedings superbly following the Reverend Tom Mumford's recent departure.

However, for all that it was swift, it was a productive fifty minutes or so which beyond the usual re-elections saw Hal Meakin elected as Ringing Master, James Smith as Secretary and Michelle Bird as Treasurer, whilst Michelle was amongst four new members that also included Gavin Edwards, Courtney Mandell and Neil Pasmore. Congratulations to them and thank you particularly to David Potts and Lucy Heath-Collins who stepped down from their roles which they have carried out magnificently with a lot going on their lives at the same time! Indeed thank you to all the officers and others who do so much and dedicate their own time to ensure the smooth running of ringing at a tower people travel vast distances to ring at.

It all came at the end of a busy day at work briefly interrupted by a fire drill that saw us all stood out the front of the office, but whilst I wasn't doing any ringing it was still a busy day in the exercise within our borders. Thank you to the handbell band in Bury St Edmunds who rang a quarter-peal of Kent & Oxford Treble Bob Major in memory of Becky on a day when they also rang a 1344 of the same methods, whilst a 1280 of Cambridge Surprise Major was also rung in hand in Hasketon. Even during this week when church bells usually hang silent, there were towerbell QPs rung of London Surprise Major at Bardwell and that spliced with the other seven 'standard' Surprise Major methods at nearby Ixworth. Well done to North-West District Ringing Master Joshua Watkins on ringing his first in the method in the former.

Meanwhile over my lunch break I did get the chance to read the latest edition of The Ringing World which arrived with us today and featured much interesting content.

Much going on therefore here and beyond. Including, God willing, on 11th April. And hopefully by 7th April. Please get your names in for tea!

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Sunday 29th March 2026

It's great to mention a couple of ringers near the beginning of their ringing progression.
The headliner is Dawn Thompson who today rang her first quarter-peal at the first attempt in the 1260 of Doubles on the front six at Debenham. Congratulations Dawn!

Meanwhile at Woodbridge I was delighted to meet another recruit to the band, Sheeba Mason. She has been ringing for ten months or so but this morning was the first time I had rung with her and I was very impressed. By their nature as a heavy ring of bells with a relatively long draft, these aren't the easiest bells for those learning the basics of the art, but as with the many recruits that they find on a consistent basis here she managed well with no panic and importantly a smile on her face. Good to see.

Immediately afterwards the boys and I joined their mother and others from the congregation in processing into the church from the neighbouring Woodbridge Prep School car park for the service on this Palm Sunday. Ruthie and I then dropped Alfie & Josh with Granny Kate for an afternoon at Rendlesham Forest whilst Ruthie and I went to Bury St Edmunds to attempt a quarter-peal of Bristol Surprise Maximus at The Norman Tower. I am glad to report that a really good 1344 was rung with a band which was made up almost entirely of resident Guild members. We have been blessed in recent years with the arrival on the local ringing scene of ringers such as the Ormes, Alban Forster and James Croft, but it still shows what can be achieved in Suffolk.

It was dedicated to Becky, so it was particularly nice that we were met by her husband and my brother Chris afterwards for a drink in The Rising Sun and aptly following yesterday's qualifiers discussion on the preparations for the final of the 2027 National 12-bell Striking Contest due to be held on this 27cwt twelve on Saturday 26th June.

Our quarter wasn't the only one remembering Becky either, with the one at Eriswell also kindly rung for her, as well as being the most methods rung by Maxes Meeson & Thomson and conductor Anna White. Well done Max, Max and Anna!

They weren't the only quarters in the county though. A 1270 of Doubles was rung at Rougham to celebrate the seventieth birthday of the rector the  Reverend Canon Julia Lall and at Blythburgh Julia Johnson rang her first of Kent.

Well done Julia, but especially well done to Dawn and Sheeba.

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Saturday 28th March 2026

A 200 mile round trip to lose a peal attempt of Plain Bob Major three courses from the end sounds like an utter waste of time. In fact, quite a lot of people may say that a 200 mile round trip to get a peal of Plain Bob Major sounds like an utter waste of time!

However, this afternoon's trip to Thrapston in Northamptonshire was anything but, as we were ringing it in memory of Len Hallifax. He was a popular ringer from nearby Lowick and a close friend of our family, especially my mother Sally who hasn't rung a peal since one at St Mary-le-Tower in 1977 and so I was there as our representative amongst a band who all knew Len well. Indeed, so highly regarded was he that if successful this peal would've been the first in eight years for one of the band, fourteen for another and twenty-nine for another. And Stephen Bell - brother of Graham who was vicar at Pettistree when the bells there were restored in 1986 - was down from the North-East of England where he now lives and rings. Yes it would have been fantastic to score it for Len and it is never a pleasant feeling to lose a peal so near to the finish, but it was lovely to meet and ring with new people and those I haven't seen much in recent years, as well to see Len's widow Lesley who supplied refreshments in the church afterwards.

Meanwhile, it is always nice to come back to here. It was where many weekends and school holidays were spent visiting my maternal grandparents. It was where I was Christened and my brother Chris and I had our first bell handling lessons. The walls of the ringing chamber sport pealboards with names familiar from my youth including Len's (although his name is misspelt on one of them!) as well as some that most of the readers of this blog will recognise, whilst I made sure to visit the graves of our Aunty Janet, grandparents and great grandparents before I returned home.

Once back there I was reunited with Ruthie, Alfie and Josh who had just witnessed another last minute loss as they went to Ipswich Town Women's match against Southampton at Portman Road but still had a good time.

As I imagine many did at the four qualifiers in the National 12-bell Striking Contest where there were mixed fortunes for our neighbours. Norwich didn't qualify, but did at least get an early draw to enable them to fully enjoy the social side of the occasion. Congratulations to Cambridge on qualifying though and indeed to Birmingham, Bristol, the College Youths, the Cumberlands, Guildford, Leeds and St Paul's Cathedral who are now due to join them and the hosts in the final at York on Saturday 20th June. Well done also to all who took part.

Back in Suffolk in the meantime, there were thirty-seven in an encouraging attendance at Edwardstone for the South-West District Practice.

Which was definitely not an utter waste of time!

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Friday 27th March 2026

Fridays are more often than not a valuable opportunity for us to all spend an evening catching our breath together at the end of a week of work, education and busy nights out ringing, singing, swimming and footballing and with much travelling planned for the weekend that was certainly the case tonight as we merely slumped in front of the TV watching a predictably unentertaining friendly match involving England's senior male footballers.

Mercifully others were picking up the slack across Suffolk today. Hopefully 'Ringing with Others' at Barham was well attended and the focus on 'jargon' was useful, whilst at The Norman Tower a 1280 of Bristol Surprise Royal was rung and at Wissett the quarter-peal of Kelso Surprise Minor was a first in the method for all in the band except for the conductor and North-East District Ringing Master Philip Gorrod on the treble.

Well done to Chrissie Pickup, Peter Richardson, Julie Richardson, Adrian Edwards and Peter Lock on that and also on being more active in the exercise than us on this Friday!

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Thursday 26th March 2026

I've not thought about it much with everything that's happened recently, but this Saturday is due to see some of the best twelve-bell bands competing across four venues in the National 12-Bell Striking Contest for a place in the final slated for York Minster on Saturday 20th June. This is the biggest striking competition in the world and arguably the biggest ringing event around and all being well there will be some incredibly good ringers and fantastic twelve-bell ringing, but it isn't meant to be a closed shop. Indeed, ringers of any ability and even non-ringers are actively encouraged to come along to take in and help make the occasion.

Probably the easiest and most straightforward qualifiers for anyone from Suffolk to make are the two London ones. At St Mary le Bow one imagines the College Youths and holders Bristol are favourites to take the two qualifying spots with stiff competition from Oxford, with Towcester potential dark horses. Meanwhile at Cornhill Cambridge are surely the favourites to qualify, with probably St Paul's Cathedral joining them but maybe Southwark who also have the benefit of a greater potential pool of ringers and opportunities on twelve that the capital offers. Some may also want to cheer on our neighbours from Norwich in this group.

Elsewhere folk might fancy the less straightforward but still eminently doable journey to either Leicester or Nottingham. Despite going two years running without winning the Taylor Trophy for the first time this century, Birmingham will be most people's prediction to come out on top at the former qualifier at St Margaret's and indeed the contest as a whole whilst another previous champion Exeter will be predicted to join the Brummies, although if they slip up one imagines Guildford or even the hosts could take advantage. From the latter qualifier one might expect the two qualifying spots to be taken by 2024 winners the Cumberlands and either Leeds or Melbourne, with the Derbyshire outfit presumably keen to make up for missing their first final for the first time in seventeen years. Although Portsmouth have good recent pedigree in the competition and the hosts could make home advantage pay, so watch out for them. Indeed, although I haven't mentioned Beverley, Cheltenham, Chester, Chilcompton, Liverpool, Reading, Stockton, Wimborne Minster and Worcester, as Ipswich showed in 2022 surprises can happen! Most importantly though, it is a grand day out so if you can then please do go along and enjoy it. Details of local arrangements are available on the website.

If you are unable to travel out of the county to any of the venues, the South-West District would surely appreciate your support at their monthly practice at Edwardstone on Saturday afternoon, whilst the North-West District have an additional session advertised for Sunday, albeit the location for it is still to be confirmed on the What's On!

And there was ringing going on in the county today with Becky kindly remembered in a 1344 of Uxbridge Surprise Major at Horringer, which has been added to a growing number of ringing performances dedicated to her.

Well done to Juliet Griffiths on ringing her first in the method in that, which was one of four quarter-peals rung within our borders today, along with eleven Doubles methods rung at Hasketon, Little Bob Major at Orford and the 'Cambridge Twelve' Surprise Minor methods spliced at Ufford.

No ringing for us as I began taking calls at work and we then went about our usual Thursday evening of juggling Alfie's football training and Ruthie's choral practicing, so thank goodness for Suffolk's busy ringers and the anticipation of the National 12-bell Striking Contest.

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Wednesday 25th March 2026

It was a significant day.

The Suffolk Guild's President - or at least I guess shortly to be our President if she isn't already - The Right Reverend Dr Joanne Grenfell was on the county's BBC radio station this morning with her Bishop's hat on (not literally I think, although it was radio so maybe she did) as she prepared to attend today's Installation of The Most Reverend and Most Honourable Dame Sarah Mullally as Archbishop of Canterbury today. This historic event was of course marked by ringing, including at Canterbury Cathedral itself with a quarter-peal of Plain Bob Maximus and within our borders at Orford where a peal of Burton Delight Major was rung.

Meanwhile on a day of big announcements in local government it was the final day of my initial training at East Suffolk Council as I bade farewell to the other three Customer Service Advisors who have been training with me since 23rd February and will be working up in Lowestoft whilst I'm down in Melton. Processes familiar to me from learning ringing methods have been used almost relentlessly as I've crammed in lots of information and hopefully they are processes that will serve me as well as they have done in the exercise.

One of the things that is due to happen in the coming days is that I will be taking calls from the public with a more experienced colleague sat with me, but this evening I was doing the sitting behind at Pettistree as I attempted to use my experience in the art to help others. I hope that I was of use to Elaine Townsend as I watched her ring the third to Cambridge & London Surprise Minor spliced and John Horsnell as he trebled to some Plain Bob Doubles, but I was also able to indulge in a couple of touches of five Surprise Minor methods spliced before retiring to the Greyhound Inn for a drink at the end of an session that was preceded with a 1296 of Bamborough Surprise Minor.

That was one of a couple of QPs rung in the county today, with the other at Thelnetham kindly dedicated to our sister-in-law Becky on a day when her husband and my brother Chris was able to confirm that the intention is to hold a service of Thanksgiving for her at 1pm on Wednesday 15th April at Pakenham. I imagine the church will be packed.

It wasn't all success for Suffolk's quarter-pealers though, as an attempt at Wattisfield was seemingly curtailed by a broken rope. Although by ringing there Joshua Watkins has now rung at every ringable tower in the North-West District. Congratulations Josh.

And although it wasn't marked with any ringing, today is also the seventieth birthday of twice-past SGR Ringing Master Stephen Pettman, who has done much for ringers in the county, Ruthie and me included. Happy Birthday Stephen!

I hope he enjoyed his significant day.

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Tuesday 24th March 2026

Former North-East District Ringing Master and one-time Halesworth ringer Maggie Ross is becoming quite the celebrity. Through her role as manager at a group of libraries around where she now lives in Berkshire she was on TV not all that long ago and today she was on BBC Radio 2 being interviewed by well-known presenter Sara Cox. Primarily it was about book recommendations and her work with the libraries, but ringing does get a mention too!

Funnily enough I had been thinking of Maggie today as I spent the day working in Lowestoft Library round the back of Our Lady, Star of the Sea, the local - bell-less - Roman Catholic church. East Suffolk Council have desks at various libraries where customers can meet us face-to-face and eventually manning these is intended to be a part of my role, so although I'm not expected to come up here once our initial training is done it was a useful experience. Although the trek to the kitchen and toilets puts Wetherspoon pubs to shame!

Meanwhile at Offton the weekly practice was preceded as it often is with a quarter-peal as a 1312 of Yorkshire Surprise Major was rung on the 8cwt ground-floor eight, as one of the county's former ringers was busy being a celebrity!

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Monday 23rd March 2026

Next week is Holy Week when some towers such as Pettistree intend to practice as usual. Most other towers will be silent though, such as Ipswich Minster where the plan next Monday is for the annual spring clean of the famous ringing chamber followed by our AGM. Seven days after that is Easter Monday when as far as I'm aware a decision hasn't been taken on whether there will be a weekly session, although in recent years we have usually held one on Bank Holiday Mondays.

With this evening's potentially being our final one for three weeks therefore, I'm glad to say we made the most of it. Yorkshire Surprise Maximus didn't go particularly well on this occasion, but I was pleased to call a half-course of it spliced with fellow Surprise Max methods Cambridge & Lincolnshire that went well, whilst Stedman Cinques was conducted by South-East District Ringing Master Hal Meakin and Grandsire Cinques by Michelle Bird as the conducting duties were encouragingly shared around, all listened to by Hawkear as it relayed it's analysis from its new perch in the corner.

Earlier in the day a 1344 of the 'standard' eight Surprise Major spliced at Clare was very kindly dedicated to our sister-in-law Becky by the band. The ringing family really has been wonderful in these tough times and I know it has been much appreciated by her husband Chris and I hope her brother Carl and father Steve too.

Meanwhile, it has been announced that former Suffolk Guild Secretary John Girt is retiring as Ringing Master at St Margaret's in the county town. John has been in the role as long as I have been ringing and indeed under his leadership there I have very fond memories of some of mine and my brother's earliest eight-bell ringing in the company of our grandfather Jack in the old ringing chamber. I'm sure I'm not alone in wishing him and his wife Shirley well as they step back from things there.

However, with Roger Coley - who has been supporting them so superbly - not taking on the role, there is a huge gap to fill, a subject which was one of many conversations in the Halberd Inn after ringing at this eight's twelve-bell neighbour. Which will be silent next Monday.

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Sunday 22nd March 2026

Mercifully the age of BBC Sounds means that one doesn't have to rise at 5.43am to listen 'live' to 'Bells on Sunday' on Radio 4 and so listening to what is presumably an extract from the peal of Double Norwich Court Bob Major in June last year at Lavenham as I woke up on a sunny spring morning was a pleasant, leisurely way to start the day.

It set me up for a Sabbath's morn of ringing first at Ipswich Minster and then after the usual refreshment at Costa Coffee at Grundisburgh where we had enough to ring Stedman Doubles and Cambridge Surprise Minor on the back six of Suffolk's lightest twelve. Nice there as well to see Bredfield ringer Ann Pilgrim who was able to give a relatively positive update on her husband Mike's health.

Following a cancelled peal attempt, that was then the sum total of my ringing today, but that did at least allow us more time for a planned trip to visit my brother Chris after a really difficult few days for him. And for others too, including Becky's brother Carl who along with my brother's friend Dan was there for an afternoon of football in a welcome distraction for all there.

Becky was also being remembered with a quarter-peal of Plain Bob Minor at Stowmarket that her uncle Maurice Rose trebled to, whilst elsewhere within our borders a 1260 of Plain Bob Doubles was rung at Heveningham.

Meanwhile a peal was rung at Backwell in Somerset that celebrated former Reydon ringer Philip Moyse's birthday in a 5152 of Bristol Surprise Major that he pulled the tenor in to.

Happy Birthday to Philip, on a day when bells from his home county rang out across the airwaves.

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Saturday 21st March 2026

It was a busy day that left no time for any ringing. Unsurprisingly for a Saturday these days much of it was spent watching football with Alfie and his teammates and then Ipswich Town's men at Portman Road.

The latter's early lunchtime kick-off made getting from the former a huge rush with no trains again from Melton this weekend and having to drive in via the various roadworks and then find somewhere vaguely nearby to park in time to meet the rest of our party - who had been at The Mermaid for breakfast - in the FanZone for a drink and food. That party today included my brother Chris who it was nice to see at the end of this toughest of weeks, whilst we were greeted by Suffolk Guild Peal Secretary Caroline Goodchild going about her work at the stadium and met up as usual with Norwich ringer Simon Rudd.

After witnessing the 1-1 draw with our visitors Millwall there was time not only to get measured for a suit for the wedding of Ruthie's sister later this year and but also to then become the first non-family visitors to the new home of my wife's best friend Fergie and her husband Dan.

There wasn't much ringing noted elsewhere within our borders either, but there was some from the county to make it onto BellBoard as at Hollesley the bells were rung for the funeral of Ronald Connor, the husband of local ringer Mary Leaming. I have rung with Mary much when she has come over to Tuesday night practices at Ufford and she is a lovely lady, so our thoughts are with her and her family. Hopefully the sound of this familiar eight were a comfort to her today.

Meanwhile amongst the peals of Maximus rung across the country the one at St Michael Cornhill in London was the latest to celebrate forty years since the first peal of RABS - Rigel Surprise, Avon Delight, Bristol Surprise & Strathclyde Surprise spliced - as composed by one-time Grundisburgh learner and subsequently ringing great Rod Pipe. Sadly we're a long way off achieving ringing this in his home county with a local band, but it's fantastic to see the work of a son of Suffolk being celebrated four decades on.

Although there was no actual ringing by us today though, I did read the latest edition of The Ringing World which arrived with us this morning and features a letter from former Debenham ringer Robert Beavis and promotion of Bell Sunday on 17th May that includes a photo from Little Cornard.

At least I had time for that!

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Friday 20th March 2026

From knowing that trying out a new chair for working from home was a notable occurrence in my day you can probably deduce with accuracy that it wasn't the most interesting day.

Other ringers were being more interesting in Suffolk today though. Well done to Christine Seaman on ringing her first quarter-peal of Double Norwich Court Bob Major in the second quarter in two days at Horringer and to Josephine Beever, Andrea Alderton, David Steed, David Howe, Sally Crouch and conductor Stephen Dawson on ringing their first of Eastwood Surprise Minor in the 1296 at Tostock.

All very interesting, but did they get to try out a new chair?

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Thursday 19th March 2026

It has been moving to see the reaction to the news about Becky which today included the local media with a report on the BBC website and on the front cover of the East Anglian Daily Times, further reiterating the positive impact she had on so many.

I also spoke with my brother and her husband Chris this evening once I'd returned from Alfie's football training and at Horringer her uncle Maurice Rose rang the treble to a quarter-peal of Wight Bob Minor dedicated to her and was also a first in the method for Maurice, Josephine Beever, David Steed, Andrea Alderton, Sally Crouch and Stephen Dawson. Well done to them, but more importantly it was moving to see ringing and ringers remembering Becky.

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Wednesday 18th March 2026

There can't be too many mother-daughter teams who rang their first quarter-peal together, but that is what Ella & Jenny Fairburn achieved with the 1260 of Plain Bob Doubles at Bramford today.

It is a much needed injection of good news at the moment, but Chris, Carl & Steve were still prominently in our thoughts as my brother sent me pictures of photos from the school where Becky taught and where so many flowers, drawings and messages have been left. She was clearly highly thought of there. And this evening Ruthie rang in the pre-practice quarter-peal at Pettistree which was very kindly dedicated to our sister-in-law.

The session that followed was apparently a typically social and productive one that included my wife ringing some Bamborough Surprise Minor before she joined her fellow ringers in the Greyhound Inn for post-ringing refreshment.

Meanwhile a 1440 of London Surprise Minor was rung on handbells in Bury St Edmunds, but the main good news ringing headline in the county belongs to Ella & Jenny. Congratulations!

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Tuesday 17th March 2026

The last two days have been horrific. On Sunday morning my brother Chris's wife Becky suffered a cardiac arrest and was taken straight to hospital. Tragically today, she passed away.

Since we first heard the news Ruthie and I have tried to go about our usual activities of work and getting the boys to school. Alfie still went to football training this evening. Ringing has offered it's usual welcome distraction. And periodically we've allowed ourselves a smile or even a laugh to help lift ourselves a bit. However, we are devastated by the loss of our sister-in-law.

That is nothing compared to what her husband Chris, brother Carl and father Steve must be going through, as well other relatives such as Anita & Maurice Rose as she has been taken from their lives far, far too soon. Chris seems to be coping as well as could be expected in such circumstances but please hold them all in your thoughts and prayers.

Of course she was also a ringer with many having rung with her for several years in and around her local tower of Pakenham and beyond and already a couple of quarter-peals kindly dedicated to her with a 1344 of Lessness Surprise Major at Pulham Market in Norfolk and here in Suffolk with a 1250 of Lincolnshire Surprise Major before the weekly practice at Offton.

Elsewhere, well done to former Ipswich ringer George Salter on ringing his first QP on more than twelve in the 1311 of Stedman Sextuples at St Martin in the Bullring in Birmingham, whilst the arrival of the latest edition of The Ringing World with a Neil Thomas photo of Beccles on the front cover gave us something else to think about briefly, but our thoughts were overwhelmingly of Becky and with Chris, Carl & Steve.

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Monday 16th March 2026

There was a bumper turnout for Ipswich Minster's weekly practice this evening, allowing much to be rung and rung well, including a touch of Stedman Cinques, some Lincolnshire Surprise Maximus and a couple of pieces of Yorkshire Surprise Maximus. Although the first bit floundered after four leads as I'd missed the instruction about calling it round at that point!

Earlier in the day there was Suffolk representation in the NDA peal of Emerson Surprise Major at North Creake in Norfolk and within our borders a couple of quarters of Little Bob Royal were rung on handbells in Moats Tye and I ended the day with one of the participants and others as tales from Brian Whiting's annual quarter-peal tours were regaled in the Halberd Inn to another bumper turnout.

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Sunday 15th March 2026

I shan't go into detail for the time being, but we had some shocking, sad family news that completely overshadowed our day.

It overshadowed Mothering Sunday, although I did get the chance to speak with my mother Sally, we saw mother-in-law Kate for a much needed family get-together at the abode of Ruthie's sister and Alfie and Josh were delighted to hand their cards for the occasion to their mum as we showed much warranted appreciation for the mothers in our lives.

It also overshadowed the day's ringing, including that which I did for the morning worship at St Mary the Virgin in Woodbridge that we then attended, on bells half-muffled for Lent. And then this afternoon a quarter-peal I had been looking forward to for a while as I had agreed to ring in an attempt of Bristol, Phobos and Zanussi Surprise Maximus at The Norman Tower.

Having received a devastating update to our earlier news just as we arrived in Bury St Edmunds, I have to admit to not really being in the mood to ring a QP. However, I also didn't want to let the band down, understanding as I'm sure they would've been, but whom some had travelled some distance for this. Having not rung Phobos or Zanussi for probably at least twenty years I had been amazed at how much my brain had managed to recall of them, but a lot of it had dissipated and been diluted with the happenings of the day and so I was relieved and grateful to be able to ring the treble. Although I can't say with any great certainty that I rang it very well, it at least enabled us to ring a well-rung 1298. Particularly well done to the Suffolk contingent for whom these methods are also not regularly rung.

With Ruthie accompanying me to the west of the county and the boys being looked after back in Woodbridge, the plan had been to travel over to Newmarket where my wife was due to sing with the Jubilate Choir. Understandably though she wasn't in the frame of mind for that and so she excused herself and we joined my fellow ringers in The Rising Sun for a drink and a pleasant distraction as we enjoyed properly meeting some of those we didn't know well, such as Patrick Deakin who had conducted our efforts today so superbly.

Ours wasn't the only notable ringing within our borders though as a 5184 of Cornwall Surprise Major was rung at Bardwell. Well done to Max Thomson on ringing his first peal of Surprise and to Guild PR Officer Neal Dodge, North-West District Ringing Master Joshua Watkins and South-East District Ringing Master Hal Meakin on ringing their first in the method.

Good news on a tough day.

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Saturday 14th March 2026

It was a busy day of ringing in Suffolk with the events going on at Debenham, Laxfield and Lakenheath, whilst the final venue also saw a quarter-peal rung and at The Norman Tower a peal of St Clement's College Bob and Grandsire Caters spliced was rung to treble ringer Brian Whiting's composition. Congratulations to Angela Hockaday on ringing her first QP in the 1320 of Doubles in what is hopefully the first of many!

With Ruthie in Bury St Edmunds helping her Gran shop for a dress, there was no time for anyone in our household to join any of the activity on the county's bells though as Alfie was playing - and winning - with his footballing teammates this morning and then Josh was at a classmate's birthday party at Ipswich School this afternoon. Alfred and I did at least spend some time with a former ringer as whilst Joshua partied with his friends we visited my Aunty Marian the day after her birthday, as we chatted about much including the exercise.

God willing on any future visits, today's busy day of ringing in Suffolk will give us even more to chat about.

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Friday 13th March 2026

Friday 13th is notorious for it's perceived higher risk of bad luck, but mercifully there was none today for us. On the contrary in fact as I had a nice evening out in Woodbridge with Ruthie's sister's fiancé Chris as we had a few drinks in The Red Lion, the Old Mariner and Ye Olde Bell & Steelyard in what was a rare pub crawl for us!

Following a day up in Lowestoft for work it left me with no time to do any ringing though, so I was all the more pleased that there was some being done in Suffolk today with a 1260 of Doubles rung at Ashbocking.

Thankfully it appears they didn't suffer any bad luck there either.

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Thursday 12th March 2026

Today would've been the seventieth birthday of twice past Ringing Master of the Suffolk Guild David Salter. A man who did so much for ringing within our borders and beyond from helping with the 'grassroots' at places like Gislingham to representing the SGR on the Central Council for many years to helping ringers further their progression through peals and quarter-peals. That included myself from my early days of ringing and in conducting and Ruthie too, whilst we considered him a friend.

Therefore I was really pleased to see him remembered today with peals across the country, at Milton in Oxfordshire, Linby in Nottinghamshire and most pleasingly a 5040 of seventy Treble Dodging Minor methods spliced at Bitteswell in Leicestershire by a band featuring his son George.

He was in our thoughts today, but we weren't doing any ringing as we did the now usual Thursday evening football training and choral practicing juggling, but there was ringing in the county on this incredibly windy day. Well done to Alan Mayle on his first of spliced Surprise Major on handbells in the 1280 of Cambridge, Lincolnshire, Rutland & Yorkshire in Bury St Edmunds and to Juliet Griffiths on her first blows of Lessness Surprise Major in the 1344 at Horringer.

All which I hope David would've been very pleased to see.

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Wednesday 11th March 2026

Parenthood took precedence over ringing this evening, as it always should when possible, much as we like to fit both in around the other when we can. For it was Alfie's first parents' evening since he began secondary school and unlike primary school that sees us sit down with one teacher for a few minutes this is an hour-and-a-half extravaganza that tries to take in as many of the vast range of subjects that year seven pupils study. It is a process akin to what I imagine speed dating is like as teachers are spoken with in five minute bursts before a bell rings and hundreds of parents and their children are moved on to the next educator. Alfred can be pleased with the feedback from those teaching him on a positive night that saw us bump into lots of friends from almost every aspect of our lives bar ringing, but by the time we'd returned to mother-in-law Kate who been very kindly looking after Josh and then had the tea that she also very kindly fed us with it was too late to get out to Pettistree to help with the weekly practice to any meaningful degree.

I imagine they coped without us, at least judging by the band that would've been present at the start of the session for the 1272 of Beverley, Durham, Surfleet & York Surprise Minor rung immediately beforehand. That wasn't the only ringing done in Suffolk today either as a 1344 of Jovium Surprise Major was rung at Elveden, whilst there was also a 5152 of Gordon Road Delight Major rung at Felixstowe which was the first peal in the method for the Guild and the entire band. Well done to David Stanford, David Sparling, Jed Flatters, Tim Hart, Rowan Wilson, Simon Rudd, Brian Whiting and conductor Alan Mayle.

I'm pleased to see ringing being carried out in the county whilst we concentrated on parenthood!

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Tuesday 10th March 2026

Congratulations to former North-East District Ringing Master Maggie Ross on achieving thirty years of membership with the Society of Cumberland Youths, who along with the College Youths are one of the aspirational London-based ringing organisations. It is a tremendous landmark and one celebrated with a peal of Stedman Triples rung for them at Spitalfields in the capital.

There was also ringing going on in the county which was once her home as the practice at Offton was preceded by a quarter-peal of Grandsire Triples, whilst there is a busy day of ringing planned within our borders on Saturday with three district events pencilled in. In fact the North-West District Practice at Lakenheath and South-East District Surprise Major Practice at Debenham are due to run at the same time from 10am to noon, whilst later in the day the NE intend to hold a 'Ringing for All' event from 2.30-4.30pm at Laxfield, an eight that is presumably still a 'grab' for many.

No participation in the exercise for us today though as instead we ended up round the abode of Ruthie's sister to watch Ipswich Town's men's exciting but frustrating and disappointing 3-3 draw at Stoke City on the TV.

I at least had the opportunity to read the latest edition of The Ringing World which arrived with us today and although the only mention - bar the QP columns - of Suffolk was briefly in a letter from Chris Rogers (the son of famous Chediston ringer Harold), there was lots of interesting stuff including a lengthy report on some quite extraordinary goings on in the Dorset County Association.

Troubling ringing times for them, but thankfully better ringing times for Maggie.

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Monday 9th March 2026

It was another foggy evening out ringing as I travelled to Ipswich Minster for the weekly practice and as with my trip to Pettistree last Wednesday it seemed to have an impact on attendance. However, there were still enough to ring Stedman Cinques and pieces of Cambridge & Yorkshire Surprise Maximus, as well as put on a show for two groups of very polite visiting scouts who upon witnessing Hal Meakin calling Stedman dubbed him "Bobs" on leaving!

Afterwards there were still large numbers for post-ringing refreshment in the Halberd Inn where there was much jovial reflection on yesterday afternoon at The Greyhound and at the end of a busy day of ringing in Suffolk.

In the county but under the Norwich Diocesan Association at Lowestoft the 1260 of Plain Bob Triples was Tiger Krykant's first on eight, so well done Tiger! And well done to Rosalind Burrough on ringing her first quarter-peal of Bristol Surprise Royal in the 1280 at Stowmarket, whilst there was also success on handbells with a 1440 of Chester Surprise Minor in Bury St Edmunds and two 1296s of Little Bob Royal in Moats Tye.

I'm glad it wasn't too foggy for them!

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Sunday 8th March 2026

As we all know, the relationship between ringers and the clergy isn't always a good one. Indeed there are extremely and mercifully rare cases of ringers being banned by their vicar from ringing the bells when that relationship has broken down completely, but thankfully more often the opposite is true with the local priest being encouraging and supportive.

That has certainly been the case over the last five years at Ipswich Minster and it's previous status as St Mary-le-Tower with the Reverend Tom Mumford. A young, approachable, normal guy who would usually join in with our social activities, bless pealboards and send messages cheering us on at striking competitions, he has been wonderful with and for us.

Therefore we were keen to show our support to him as he and his wife Laura prepare to move to Yorkshire for her to take up the role of a parish priest and him to become Chaplain to support the Bishop of Selby. Not just with the peal rung yesterday which was part of a framed display brilliantly put together by Claire Culham to present to them that also featured a photo of them and us ringers at our curry just before Christmas, but this morning by joining hundreds of others at his final service here, whilst there were huge numbers at ringing beforehand that allowed us to ring Stedman Cinques amongst other things. And afterwards we had been invited to The Greyhound just across town where a room had been set aside for people to come and go throughout the afternoon and join Tom & Laura for a drink or two. Or three.

We went along for a couple of hours whilst other ringers went later and we would've happily stayed a lot longer if public transport between Melton and Ipswich wasn't so challenging. With Ruthie having sacrificed singing at Woodbridge to join us and ringing running at the later time of 9.45-10.30am we had intended to travel in on the train with trains running early enough to make that later ringing. However it transpired that there was only a bus replacement service this weekend which didn't run in time for us to join our fellow ringers. As a result we had to drive in and I had a few Ghost Ship 0.5s as we enjoyed the company of my mother Sally, former Copdock ringer Derek, some new acquaintances and Tom himself before we decided to spare the boys (who had been really good) more sitting around and me anymore zero percent beer and returned home. I am so glad that we went along to say farewell to a man who was equally comfortable with everyone there from youngsters to the town's MP Jack Abbott though.

Of course it left no time for any further ringing, but others in Suffolk were making up for that with two peals and four quarter-peals rung within our borders. Well done to James Smith, Mary Garner, Tom Scase, Jed Flatters, Mark Ogden, Mike Whitby, Richard Rapior and conductor Alan Mayle on ringing their and the Guild's first of Tintern Abbey Surprise Major in the second-Sunday peal at Aldeburgh and to Mark Steggles on his first quarter-peal of Major in the 1264 of Plain Bob at Stowmarket. Most of all though, well done to Max Thomson on conducting his first quarter and Elizabeth Goodchild on her first behind in the 1280 of Plain Bob Doubles at Bardwell! Meanwhile a 1287 of Stedman Caters was rung at The Norman Tower, a 1260 of Plain Bob Triples at Southwold and a 5040 of seven Surprise Minor methods for the Ely Diocesan Association on The Barn Owl Ring in Norton on a busy day of ringing hopefully benefitting from lots of good relationships between ringers and clergy.

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Saturday 7th March 2026

St Edmundsbury Cathedral's Facebook page was advertising quarter-peal attempts planned at The Norman Tower for March today, but there was plenty of ringing going on in Suffolk on this chilly Saturday.

The South-East District Practice at Wickham Market for example, where there was also a quarter-peal rung, but also a further two quarters and a peal. Well done to Astrid Gale, Josephine Beever, David Steed, Andrea Alderton, Sally Crouch and conductor Stephen Dawson on ringing their first blows of Rosehill Bob Minor in the 1260 at Woolpit, whilst the same number of changes of Grandsire Doubles were rung at Sweffling. Meanwhile a 5042 of Cambridge Surprise Maximus was rung at Ipswich Minster to mark the departure of the vicar there Reverend Tom Mumford and his wife Laura. Well done to Michelle Bird on ringing her first in the method.

We couldn't make any of this ringing though as our day was again taken up with football as we watched Alfie win player of the match with his team and Ipswich Town draw 1-1 with Leicester City.

However, we did see ringers who had been ringing today as we lunched at The Mermaid with mother-in-law Kate Eagle and then met Simon Rudd, with his participation in the 3 hours and 35 minutes on the county's heaviest ring of bells preventing him from meeting us in the FanZone before kick-off.

I was glad to hear about so much ringing within our borders though, as well as reading about how much is planned this month at The Norman Tower.

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Friday 6th March 2026

Today was National Middle Name Pride Day apparently, celebrated by BBC Radio Suffolk as I drove to Lowestoft for another day's training, but disappointingly not marked by any peals which as a medium feature middle initials very heavily!

Something ringing does plan on marking is the departure of the Reverend Tom Mumford as the vicar of Ipswich Minster with his final service in the role there due to take place on Sunday. Precisely 2 hours and 43 minutes into Wayne Bavin's show this morning as I was sat in East Suffolk Council's carpark he is interviewed and although he doesn't mention bells he will be missed by the ringers.

Meanwhile well done to Josephine Beever, Andrea Alderton, David Howe, Sally Crouch and conductor Stephen Dawson on ringing their first quarter-peal of Zylverne Bob Minor and congratulations to Stephen on completing the Plain Minor alphabet in the process with the 1260 at Tostock. And there were also quarters of Plain Bob Minor on the 9cwt gallery-ring six of Earl Stonham and Ipswich Surprise Minor on handbells in Sudbury. With some middle initials thrown in on National Middle Name Pride Day.

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Thursday 5th March 2026

Well done to Maurice Rose, Josephine Beever, Andrea Alderton, David Steed, Sally Crouch and conductor Stephen Dawson on ringing their first quarter-peal of Warkton Bob Minor (not to be confused with Warkton Minor!) in the 1260 at Horringer.

And thank you to them for providing something of ringing note in Suffolk to write about today, especially as there was no time for anyone in our household to participate in the exercise as we juggled Alfie's football training (a spectacular triple save from our goalkeeper son was noteworthy!) and Ruthie's choral practicing, whilst Josh had a fun trip to the library on this World Book Day.

God willing there will be more ringing firsts in the county to note on here in the coming days.

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Wednesday 4th March 2026

It was another eclectic session of Surprise Minor at Pettistree as much like last week much was rung, including some London I was thrust into by mother-in-law Kate to call from the fifth as soon as I got there. There was also a course of Lincoln, spliced Beverley, Durham, Surfleet & York and "some" of the 'Cambridge Twelve' - plus a 'friend' in the shape of Norwich - mixed together. All of which was quite impressive given the attendance was a little lower than usual on an extremely foggy night at this venue where a significant number travel quite some distance.

Those of us who did make it were rewarded with birthday cookies before Stedman Doubles and the lowering of the bells as Mrs Eagle and myself made up an advanced party to the Greyhound Inn at the end of a good evening's ringing on the ground-floor six.

Elsewhere in Suffolk meanwhile, it seems to have been a good day's ringing on The Barn Owl Ring in Norton with a 1312 of Double Norwich Court Bob Major and 1344 of Yorkshire Surprise Major.

And South-East District Ringing Master Hal Meakin put a reminder on the Guild's Facebook page of the SE Practice due to take place from 10am-noon on Saturday at Wickham Market, where there will hopefully be another eclectic session.

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Tuesday 3rd March 2026

The ghosts of employment past were with me today as I went to East Suffolk Council's Melton offices for the first time since I started working for them. It is a building I am extremely familiar with from the outside as it is on the same business park as John Catt Educational were based until their office was shut down eighteen months ago. Therefore I made the same walk as I once made regularly for many years to shadow the team that I am due to work in if all goes to plan.

However, it did mean I had to catch the train into Ipswich afterwards to join my family who had already gone on ahead to The Mermaid before I'd finished work ahead of us watching Ipswich Town's latest match. Dinner consumed (and timed with the rest of my party taking wagers on how quickly I could eat it!) we made our way to the FanZone and then watched the Tractor Boys win 1-0 against their visitors Hull City.

Apart from former South-East District Ringing Master Kate Eagle there were no other ringers met on this occasion though and of course it all left no time for any ringing. Nor was there any from Suffolk or for the Guild noted on BellBoard on a quiet day from a ringing perspective as I faced the ghosts of employment past.

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Monday 2nd March 2026

There were a few regulars missing at Ipswich Minster's weekly practice this evening due to foreign travel (though mercifully not caught up in the travel chaos of events in the Middle East), illness and injury, but after last Monday's pothole issues I'm relieved to say that I made it this time!

The numbers did hinder us to an extent in terms of things like having enough standers behind and other experienced support, which meant that Lincolnshire and Yorkshire Surprise Maximus didn't go well and as soon as I arrived I was tasked with standing behind Ivan Culham on the ninth to three attempts at Stedman Cinques which he did well to fight his way through as things collapsed around him. It did at least allow me to get comfortable as I followed him as at first I was stood on the floor far below him with my coat still on as I hadn't had the chance to remove it. For the second attempt I was able to grab a box to stand on to get level with him and for the third attempt I was finally able to take my coat off and it was just right! All very Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

Not that we should be disheartened by that, disappointed as we were. Although tonight was an anomaly these days, practices are about pushing yourself and trying things you're unfamiliar with as well as honing methods already mastered and there was good ringing too, including a later touch of Stedman Cinques. And importantly it was all carried out in a social atmosphere that continued on into the Halberd Inn for post-ringing refreshment.

Meanwhile, it is worth noting that ringing on Suffolk's heaviest ring of bells is due to be done an hour later than usual this Sunday for the Reverend Tom Mumford's final service, so please be aware if you were planning on joining us or could perhaps now help out.

Hopefully we'll have everyone available!

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Sunday 1st March 2026

Delightful as it is and we really are genuinely grateful for it, parenthood makes it challenging to fit ringing in sometimes. Not just due to the volume of it, although that is an element with regular swimming, football training, matches, etc. It's also the unexpected timings of activities and events that periodically pop up.

An invite for a birthday party at 10.50 on a Sunday morning sounds just about the worst timing when one is a church bellringer then. However, on this occasion ringing and the party logistics actually complimented each other pretty well as Josh was invited to a classmate's celebrations at Superbowl in Ipswich and of course that was where we were heading for service ringing at the Minster.

Therefore having called some call-changes on twelve to Tittums and back and rung in a rerun of the touch of Grandsire Cinques which was the test piece for last week's George W Pipe 12 Bell Competition at Great Yarmouth, we had post-ringing refreshment in Costa Coffee and then wandered the town centre in pleasant conditions, waving to people in Dublin through the portal on the Cornhill and trying to use the binoculars dotted around that are free to use and allow you to view that spot in an augmented reality version of what it would've looked like in Victorian times. Although there's quite a few ringing chambers I've been in that allow to do that in actual reality!

With Joshua safely left with his friends and some other parents, I took Alfie on a walk down to The Waterfront that took us past the redundant churches of St Nicholas', St Mary at Quay and St Peter's, all whilst trying to give a vague history lesson on places we went past as he looked entirely uninterested!

All of which left no time for going to Grundisburgh and indeed there was no ringing for me for the rest of the day.

That said with February just finished, I took a quick look to see how Suffolk ringing is faring compared to this time twelve months ago and the answer - as with the end of January - is still quite well. Extremely well in the case of quarter-peals with 89 rung in the county thus far in 2026 compared to the 75 rung by this stage in 2025, but peals too are doing well with 11 rung for the Guild compared to the 10 by this stage last year.

Numbers were being added to the former as we entered March as well, with Grandsire Triples at Halesworth, five Doubles methods at Rougham and Plain Bob Minor on the front six at Stowmarket, whilst Sixty on 3rds was rung at Ixworth for the funeral of Francesca.

No peals in this month yet, but plenty of ringing within our borders today therefore. I'm glad they were able to fit it in, hopefully without too many challenges!

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Saturday 28th February 2026

5am saw an attempt at 50,400 changes of 420 Treble Dodging Minor in hand start in Willingham just over the Cambridgeshire border. On the Bellringers Facebook page there were photos of George & Diana Pipe's nephew David and his son Henry alongside the third member of the band Alan Reading sat with their handbells in readiness for what would be about seventeen or eighteen hours of ringing if successful, the windows behind them revealing complete darkness outside. It would have been a phenomenal achievement, but sadly it ended prematurely, albeit a standard length peal of Bristol Surprise Major was rung by Alan, Henry's brother Alfred and others presumably there for umpiring duties.

Our day was more successful, albeit in the medium of football with victories for Alfie's team in the morning and Ipswich Town in the afternoon.

The former was achieved despite me being an assistant referee (more traditionally known as a linesman) and my flag blowing away across the pitch at one point, prompting one of the coaches to run off after it and me trying to reattach it whilst also carrying out my lino duties!

Meanwhile the latter saw a slightly different pre-match routine with no tables available in The Mermaid and so we travelled in on the Park & Ride with former South-East District RM Kate Eagle and grabbed food from the FanZone at the stadium. And there was no meeting with Simon Rudd before kick-off as he was making his way from conducting a 5056 of Cambridge Surprise Major at Hethersett in Norfolk, although we did meet him at half-time of the Tractor Boys' 3-0 win over Swansea City.

In between the two footy matches I had the opportunity to read the newest edition of The Ringing World, which included a lovely obituary for one-time North-West District Secretary and Joint Editor of the Suffolk Guild Newsletter Carol Girling, written by her daughter Catherine Colman and son-in-law - and current SGR Ringing Master Julian.

All being well future issues will include the handbell peal at Bacton, but we weren't doing any ringing as instead we followed those exploits in Willingham from afar.

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Friday 27th February 2026

There has been a lot to learn during the first week of training for my new job and it's struck me how similar the process has been to how I learn ringing methods. Repetition, picking up familiar landmarks, working out how aspects fit together and so on. I know a lot more than I did on Monday morning following a productive and enjoyable five days rounded off today at home. However, it has been exhausting so I don't think I would've had the ability to ring a peal of twenty-three Surprise Major methods tonight, no matter how effective or ineffective my learning style. And to be fair not many other ringers could either, so kudos to the band including former Reydon learner Philip Moyse who rang Norman Smith's famous composition in the 5152 at Winford in Somerset where all the ringers reside in the BS3 or BS4 postcode areas.

No ringing at all for Ruthie or me from the IP12 postcode, let alone anything as advanced as that. However, that wasn't the case for other Suffolk ringers as a quarter-peal of Lincolnshire Surprise Major was rung on handbells in Hasketon and they also made up two thirds of the band who rang a 1260 of Childwall Bob & Ipswich Surprise Minor at Clopton. And well done to Chrissie Pickup, Peter & Julie Richardson, Adrian Edwards, Peter Lock and conductor Philip Gorrod on ringing their first QP of Bacup Surprise Minor in the 1272 at Wissett.

Their learning processes clearly worked!

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Thursday 26th February 2026

It was a day of anniversaries.

Most important of all the anniversary of the birth of my mother Sally. My brother very kindly took her out for a meal whilst I was in Lowestoft doing more training, but in amongst a typical Thursday evening of logistics with Alfie at football training and Ruthie at choral practicing I did get the opportunity to have a nice chat with her on the phone. She is of course much appreciated here in Suffolk as someone who has held roles and almost without fail supports South-East District (and often other district) and Guild events, as well as many towers on a weekly basis and when we went to her native Northamptonshire for Len Hallifax's funeral recently it was clear there was still a lot of affection for her there.

Today is also the 300th anniversary of the first ever peal of Maximus, which was of Plain Bob, prompting an unusual flurry of peals in the method for modern times including one on handbells in the crypt of St Bride's in Fleet Street in London by band featuring former St Mary-le-Tower ringer Mark Liebenrood on 11-12, with a video of the last few changes on the Bellringers Facebook page.

Nothing from the SGR which has recorded 304 peals of Maximus, but there was ringing within our borders with three quarter-peals rung as North-West District Ringing Master Joshua Watkins rang his first blows of Lightfoot Surprise Minor in the 1296 at Euston and his first QP of Norfolk Surprise Minor in the 1320 at Troston, whilst he also conducted the 1280 of Turramurra Surprise Major at Horringer. Well done Joshua!

And Happy Birthday Mum!

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Wednesday 25th February 2026

Pettistree has long been a venue for many people looking to practice almost any Minor they want, especially Surprise Minor, but even by our standards tonight's weekly practice saw an eclectic mix of Surprise Minor methods rung. It was preceded with a quarter-peal of Norfolk and I rang Bacup, Cambridge, Durham, Lincoln, London and York, whilst there was also some Ipswich which I didn't ring and the session was rounded off with Stedman Doubles and down as Hollesley ringer Sam Shannon and myself made up an advanced party to the Greyhound Inn to ensure it was open.

Not that we needed to worry on that score as it was doing a roaring trade as we arrived for post-ringing refreshment and conversation that ranged from Sam and I making a verbal trip along the west coast of Britain and over to Ireland to discussion about the technicalities of putting the Annual Report together. Which of course is due to be published and distributed in time for the Suffolk Guild AGM which is due to take place at Drinkstone on Saturday 11th April. Have I mentioned the Suffolk Guild AGM is due to take place at Drinkstone on Saturday 11th April?

God willing in twelve months the next edition will be in the process of being put together and should include today's peal of Magdalen Surprise Royal rung for the SGR at Tollesbury in Essex to a Brian Whiting composition.

Meanwhile, the training for my new job was being carried out remotely and so I was at home all day, although the travelling of the previous two days, the concentration required for all the information being imparted to me and a day of staring at a screen seemed to wear me out sufficiently to require an old man snooze following work.

After all, I needed to refresh my brain cells for that eclectic evening at Pettistree.

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Tuesday 24th February 2026

Lowestoft again for my second day of training with East Suffolk Council and this time I travelled by rail as even without the spare wheel on the car making driving that distance inadvisable, Ruthie needed it to get Josh to his swimming lesson before I could guarantee returning.

After a day of GDPR and Teams training and a more interesting afternoon sitting in on some calls to the Customer Service Department I am due to join and a pleasant journey back as the sun set across the Suffolk countryside and silhouetted towers like Beccles and Halesworth as I passed them, I was back in time to take Alfie to his goalkeeper training before we joined, Ruthie, Joshua and former South-East District Ringing Master Kate Eagle at the home of my wife's sister to watch Ipswich Town's male footballers' victory at Watford on the TV.

Of course that left no time for any ringing but there is much planned in the Guild in the coming weeks. This month is intended to be rounded off this weekend with 'Ringing with Others' at Earl Stonham on Friday evening and the South-West District Practice at St Gregory in Sudbury between 6.30 and 8.30pm, but then March will hopefully kick-off with SE District Ringing at Wickham Market on Saturday morning. After that on Wednesday 11th, past SGR RM Amanda Richmond is penciled in for a talk in aid of Barking Church fabric fund at the Village Hall about when she climbed Mount Everest ahead of what is slated to be an extremely busy day of ringing in the county on Saturday 14th with the North-West District Practice at Lakenheath and SE District Surprise Major Practice at Debenham both booked in on What's On between 10am and noon and the North-East District 'Ringing for All' at Laxfield lined up for 2.30-4.30pm with encouragement to make use of the village's pubs! Then the month is hoped to be climaxed with another 'Ringing with Others' session this time at Barham on Friday 27th, the SW District Practice at Edwardstone the following afternoon and then the the NW District Additional Practice almost exactly twenty-four hours later at a venue to be confirmed. As ever, please support as much as you are possibly able.

Meanwhile a quarter-peal of Plain Bob Minor was rung at Offton ahead of the weekly practice there at the end of another day of training in Lowestoft for me.

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Monday 23rd February 2026

Eventful would be a good word to describe today.

Primarily as nearly three months after I was made redundant by Hachette Learning I began a new job as a Customer Service Advisor at East Suffolk Council. Or at least the training for it, which is due to take a few weeks. God willing, once fully up and running I will be based at their offices in Melton a few minutes walk from home and just in front of where I once worked with John Catt Educational, but today I was required by 9am in their other main building in Lowestoft. With the only train to get me there on time leaving at 6.38am and the next available one afterwards not returning me until after 7pm I opted to drive on this first day and having experienced the mess that the A12 is currently in when we travelled up to Great Yarmouth for The George W Pipe 12 Bell Competition on Saturday I decided to leave plenty of time, which meant an early start!

In the end I needn't have worried as I arrived in the far corner of the county (and of course over the border in the NDA in a ringing sense) with almost an hour to spare for an exhausting but interesting day of introductions to people, systems and procedures that will hopefully become very familiar to me and a tour of the building including the (today bracing!) rooftop garden.

I made it back home in time for tea and a leisurely catch-up with the rest of our household on their day at work and in education and read the latest edition of The Ringing World which arrived with us in our collective absence from the house and features Guild Chairman Mark Ogden and Secretary David Everett in the minutes of the 2025 Central Council AGM (another reminder of the SGR version due to take place at Drinkstone on 11th April!) which was held in September in Sheffield.

Even then I had enough to time to leisurely travel out to Ipswich Minster for the weekly practice. Except having just got past one lot of temporary traffic lights, another new road closure and turned off to assess my options I hit something more crater than pothole and one of the tyres was punctured. In reality it's a blessing worse damage wasn't caused, but it put paid to any hopes of getting out to ringing as I sat waiting to be rescued. Although I was helped by the messages and humour of my fellow ringers and a call from my mother Sally.

Other ringers were more successful in the county though, at least on handbells as a peal of twenty-one Surprise Minor methods spliced was rung for the aforementioned Norwich Diocesan Association in Bacton and a quarter-peal of Little Bob Royal was scored in Moats Tye.

Hopefully both performances were uneventful.

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Sunday 22nd February 2026

Every Lent Woodbridge half-muffle their 25cwt eight, which I rather like. It feels much more likely to elicit curiosity from the general public than not ringing at all during Holy Week, although they also refrain from the exercise during that period. It was certainly a pleasant surprise for those of us who had forgotten the tradition when ringing up for the morning service today! And always very moving.

As mentioned in Wednesday's blog, Lent is followed by Easter and then usually a week later by the Suffolk Guild AGM, which this year is due to be held on Saturday 11th April at Drinkstone where there is now a superb brand new six. I can vouch for their quality as it was where I found myself this afternoon for a peal attempt to welcome their new Rector the Reverend Sarah Hall, who is planned to be licensed tomorrow. Our 5040 was to be rung in the Surprise Minor methods of Ipswich where her previous parish of St Augustine's is, Drinkstone and Woolpit which is the other parish she will be covering, but sadly it came a cropper after about an hour of good ringing. Instead we rang a quarter-peal of the latter two methods before being given a tour of the bells and the intermediate room by local ringer Nigel Gale. Fascinating also to see the unique table made of old sliders and a part of the old fourth in the gallery ringing chamber and the exhibition downstairs on the project and the history of bells in the church on a board framed with bits of the old wooden frame! These really are a wonderful job with a beautiful sound and extremely easy going. If you can come out here for the SGR's showpiece event in thirty-four days then please, please do and encourage others to. They definitely need to be appreciated on what should be an enjoyable, socialable and useful day.

Either side I enjoyed talking about ringing history with conductor Colin Salter as I took him there and back, so much so that I missed the turning off the A14 to his on a significant day in his family. For this weekend his Grandad Neville Whittell has been celebrating his 80th birthday, with a QP rung at Kersey today called by Colin's older brother George to mark the occasion and which was his younger brother Henry's first in the medium. Congratulations Henry and Happy Birthday Neville!

Congratulations as well to Max Thomson who rang his first peal in the 5056 of Plain Bob Major at Bardwell this afternoon. I can't recall the last time a peal was rung for the Guild by a resident member under the age of eighteen, so I hope this is not only the first of many for Max but for other young ringers in Suffolk too.

Meanwhile there was another quarter rung at the home of the twelve-bell champions of the east as a 1320 of Stedman Cinques was rung at The Norman Tower. It has been a great weekend for the ringers of Bury St Edmunds.

In part thanks to the moving sound of the half-muffled bells there, it has been a nice one for us ringers in Woodbridge too.

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Saturday 21st February 2026

Mary Garner introduced 'Mary's Monthly Plate' some years ago to recognise outstanding contributions to the ringing at Pettistree. As the name suggests it was meant to be handed out every month, but unsurprisingly that became impractical and ambitious and as long as I can remember it has been awarded at the ringers' annual dinner. Over that time it has been passed to many very deserving recipients, but tonight it was awarded to the woman it is named after for the first time.

And deservedly so. To the backdrop of much activity and organising with her singing, the church and the South-East District and the Guild, she does so much to ensure there is regular ringing and much more at one of the most active and successful towers in the county. Well done Mary!

The dinner itself was held at The Wilford Bridge in Melton for the second year running and again superbly organised by Chris McArthur with our considerable gratitude and was a wonderful occasion, as is typical for this band that does the important aspect of socialising so brilliantly. There was good food and super company, albeit we were missing Ruthie's mother Kate who was down in London with her other daughter to watch Paddington The Musical as we did a fortnight ago and so we also happily picked up the boys' Grandad Ron for a lovely night out.

Meanwhile Mary wasn't the only ringing winner we witnessed today as earlier in the day we travelled over to Great Yarmouth for the 2026 George W Pipe 12 Bell Competition. This is the striking contest initiated by George and organised by Ian Culham for twelve-bell bands in Essex, Norfolk, Suffolk and last year's hosts Bishop's Stortford from Hertfordshire. Congratulations to Bury St Edmunds who won this competition for a record-breaking fourth time, but again it was a victory for twelve-bell ringing in the east of England as bands and friends gathered in number on the coast of the North Sea for a morning of well-struck twelve-bell ringing on this enjoyable twelve. Fantastic to see many youngsters taking part and to that end it was announced after the results from the judges Gill & David Sparling that in 2027 - which is penciled in to be held at Grundisburgh - it is intended for there to be a young ringers band. Well done to all who took part, especially the hosts who were entering for the first time and thank you to them for some magnificent hosting, especially on the cake front! Thank you also to Ian for again organising it and to Gill & David for taking the time to assess our ringing.

We returned back down the increasingly challenging A12 happy with our third place finish to prepare for our evening out, whilst on the 8cwt ground-floor six of Bacton a 1260 of Doubles was rung which was Ricky Paterson's first quarter-peal away from his home tower of Stowmarket. Well done Ricky!

And well done Mary Garner on winning 'Mary's Monthly Plate' this year!

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Friday 20th February 2026

Today seemed very much one of preparing for tomorrow, with the plan being to be in Great Yarmouth in Norfolk for the 2026 George W Pipe 12 Bell Competition. Amongst other things it gives us the opportunity to be useful to the Suffolk Guild by taking some new member certificates for SGR Ringing Master Julian Colman to sign and so we received a visit from Membership Secretary Mary Garner to hand over the certificates to us.

There is also a contest to compete in though and if truth be told us in the Ipswich Minster band haven't practiced for it as much as we would've liked. As with any competition like this when travelling a long distance to an unfamiliar venue it would've been preferable to have a session on the bells, which all competing bands are entitled to, with Bury St Edmunds having rung a quarter-peal on the 30cwt coastal twelve last Saturday. However we just haven't been able to get everyone's diaries together for that in even practices full-stop, in large part because Ruthie and I have been distracted by my employment situation at the critical time. Therefore after a practice on Sunday and then a few attempts at the test piece of 264 changes of Grandsire Cinques on Monday night we felt it prudent to squeeze in another focus session tonight. It felt useful, especially with Hawkear to hand, but I guess we'll find out for sure tomorrow!

Not that today was all about tomorrow as we did a bit of a clear out of old books and clothes, although trips to the vets and the RSPCA at Martlesham with old duvets was unfruitful.

Thankfully not all ringers in the county were as unsuccessful though. Well done to Peter Richardson, Chrissie Pickup, Julie Richardson, Adrian Edwards, Peter Lock and conductor Philip Gorrod on ringing their first quarter-peal of Bamborough Surprise Minor in the 1272 at Wissett, whilst there was a 1320 of Oxford Treble Bob Minor rung at Tostock.

For some today was all about today rather than preparation for tomorrow.

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Thursday 19th February 2026

Yesterday saw a new venue added to the ringing columns with the quarter-peal of Plain Bob Minor rung on handbells in Bury St Edmunds.

Today saw all the band but David Steed ring their first QP of Hereward Bob Minor in the 1260 rung at Horringer. Well done to Clare Gebel, Andrea Alderton, Josephine Beever, Sally Crouch and conductor Stephen Dawson. And beyond our borders well done to Suffolk ringer Jenny Croft on ringing her first quarter of St Clement's College Bob Triples in the success on Lundy Island.

Meanwhile, on a date once marked by celebratory ringing for his birthday but today dominated in the news by Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor spending the 66th anniversary of his birth in a Norfolk police station, we weren't adding to the ringing columns as we balanced getting Alfie to football training and Ruthie to choral practicing.

Who knows what tomorrow will bring though?

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Wednesday 18th February 2026

It is Ash Wednesday, the start of the liturgically important period of Lent which traditionally ends with Holy Week before the Easter weekend. This year it is due to begin on Monday 30th March and sees bells silenced. For example, Ipswich Minster won't be practicing and instead intend to have their annual spring clean followed by the ringers' AGM and they will likely be in the majority. However, many towers will be planning on continuing to ring as usual, such as Pettistree. Therefore my annual reminder to check with towers that week in particular to avoid being disappointed or leaving anywhere short, especially if you find yourself in an unfamiliar area.

Additionally, as has almost always been the case the Saturday after Easter is slated for the Suffolk Guild AGM. For 2026 that is 11th April and is lined up for the centrally placed Drinkstone with ringing beforehand intended for Hitcham and Rattlesden. Keep the date free please and support the day which is always about far more than just a meeting, with opportunities for ringers of all stages of their progression to ring together and much socialising.

Being Ash Wednesday, Ruthie was singing at St Mary the Virgin's in Woodbridge for the service there and so the boys and I were grateful for a lift from her mother Kate to the aforementioned Pettistree for the session there. My wife had hoped to join us for ringing that included Surprise Minor of the Lincoln and London varieties and was preceded by a quarter-peal of Durham Surprise Minor wishing Bredfield Ringing Master Mike Pilgrim a speedy recovery, but in the end she just couldn't get there in time.

She did make it to post-ringing refreshment at the Greyhound Inn though, along with quite a few others at the end of a successful night of ringing that I hope was worthy of Ash Wednesday.

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Tuesday 17th February 2026

It was a memorable day, especially for the boys as their Granny Kate and I took them to Portman Road to meet and get the autographs of some of Ipswich Town's men's team. Excitement impressively got them through an hour and a half of queueing before they met their footballing heroes, got their signatures and posed for photos with them and they were still buzzing as we left. Along with lunch at ASK Italian beforehand it was a fun day out in the county town for them and my mother-in-law and me.

That energy carried them into a now typically busy Tuesday evening of swimming for Josh and goalkeeper training for Alfie, but it left no time for any ringing. I did get the chance to read the newest edition of The Ringing World which featured interesting articles such as one about a talk on how AI could help ringing and a report on the inaugural South East 12 Bell Competition which is timely with the George W Pipe 12 Bell Competition due to take place at Great Yarmouth on Saturday morning with bacon butties and cake available for participants and non-participants!

There was ringing within our borders today though, as the weekly practice at Offton was preceded with Elizabeth Goodchild's first QP of Major inside with the 1344 of Plain Bob on the ground-floor 8cwt eight.

Well done to Elizabeth on what was hopefully a memorable day for her too!

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Monday 16th February 2026

Half-term gives us the leeway for more flexible bedtimes for the boys, allowing for them to come out ringing in the evening and therefore both Ruthie and I to jointly attend weekly practices where usually only one of us can.

That meant that this evening we all came out to Ipswich Minster for a session that largely focused on ringing the test piece of 264 changes of Grandsire Cinques for Saturday's planned George W Pipe 12 Bell Competition at Great Yarmouth. It did mean having to forgo a trip to the Halberd Inn as understandably they don't let children in that late in the evening, but it was lovely for me to have my family with me on what is normally a lone trip and hopefully beneficial for others to have my wife there too.

Earlier in the day a quarter-peal of Little Bob Royal was rung on handbells in Moats Tye, but it was a quiet day at home for the boys and me. That was a pity to an extent as it was one of the nicest days of weather we've had for some time, but the boys didn't seem keen to do much after a busy day of being dragged to ringing yesterday. And of course more this evening!

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Sunday 15th February 2026

Travelling around Suffolk at the moment is a difficult and frustrating experience at the moment.

On another wet and dreary morning, the boys typically unenthusiastic about coming out the house, it was already slow work getting to Ipswich Minster for service ringing. When as we were about to leave we discovered a neighbour had died suddenly and unexpectedly the urgency of getting out disappeared as I took in the news in shock. Having also sat at traffic lights for the roadworks on the road out to Grundisburgh and diverted around the closed bridge at Great Bealings I eventually got to the heaviest twelve within our borders to participate in some call-changes on twelve and Stedman Caters and witness the unveiling of a new pealboard from the peal rung here last year when St Mary-le-Tower became a Minster, before joining my fellow ringers in Costa Coffee for refreshment.

Remarkably then my journey out to Grundisburgh was devoid of any hold ups, only to discover that Joanna Crowe was the only other ringer there. Quite a few are away and others are suffering from ill-health, so hopefully this is a one-off, but any help here on a Sunday from 10.15-11am would be greatly appreciated if possible.

Later on, having taken Ruthie out to Easton to sing with the Jubilate Choir for Evensong there the boys and I then made our way back to the county town via the badly flooded country lanes between the two locations.

This was for a practice ahead of Ipswich's entry into The George W Pipe 12 Bell Competition due to be held at Great Yarmouth on Saturday. As we saw at Bishop's Stortford a year ago today, this is a contest that has grown and now attracts more than just the participants and I would encourage everyone to pop along to take in the event. There is planned to be bacon butties, the first team is intended to start at 9.10am and with seven teams hoping to take part there should be lots of good twelve-bell ringing to take in. Please do come along and support ourselves and Bury St Edmunds (or indeed anyone you want to support!) and take in what ought to be a wonderful occasion.

Our practice today was useful to get to grips with the test piece of Grandsire Cinques, especially with Hawkear to hand to study any areas we could improve on and the boys were well behaved in the corner, but of course we then needed to make the return journey to Easton. This time we took a more convoluted but flood-free, closure-free and roadwork-free route (such a route does exist everyone!) and made it in time to hear the end of the service, chat with Pettistree ringers Chris & Mary Garner and discover my wife had helped with ringing on the 12cwt ground-floor six beforehand.

Earlier and between my ringing activity we had hosted overlapping visits from mother-in-law Kate and the boys' Grandad Ron and then our bridesmaid Fergie and her husband Dan, whilst elsewhere in Suffolk there was even more ringing being done. Well done to Juliet Griffiths on ringing her first quarter-peal of Plain Bob Major in the 1344 at Hopton, to her, Sally Crouch, Katie Abraham, Martin Kirk and conductor Joshua Watkins on ringing their first of Little Bob Major in the 1296 at Bardwell and to Clare Veal on conducting her first of Caters in the 1259 of Grandsire at The Norman Tower on a day of ringing achievements in our soil.
Hopefully the bands didn't find travelling to their venues too difficult and frustrating!

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Saturday 14th February 2026

It was a quiet day for us. No football with Ipswich Town having played last night and no fixture for Alfie and his teammates. And no ringing as after a long day yesterday we took a rare opportunity for a lay-in and thus the morning ringing events in the North-East District thirty miles away at Southwold and in the North-West District over twenty miles away at Eye were impractical for us to get to, especially with two reluctant boys in tow. Hopefully both were well attended by their respective members and were a success.

Nor were there any performances from Suffolk noted on BellBoard, but further afield fair play to former Bardwell ringer Louis Suggett on pulling in the 40cwt eleventh at Exeter Cathedral to a peal of Stedman Cinques in 4 hours and 6 minutes.

Instead, our day was one of unusual laziness apart from collecting our weekly shop and popping into Ruthie's Gran's for a cuppa with the Winter Olympics playing out on the TV in the background before enjoying a low-key Valentine's Day meal at home.

It was a quiet day indeed.

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Friday 13th February 2026

Thrapston in Northamptonshire and the area around it is somewhere that is held with as much affection by me as Suffolk, somewhere that I visited regularly in my childhood when we stayed at my maternal grandparents in the town. Although now sprawling with identikit housing estates like most other places in the UK, at it's centre it is still a market town serving a rural community where so many know each other and around it pretty villages with ancient cottages built of local limestone. And a big ringing character in that area was Len Hallifax, someone who was also a close friend of our family.

Today was his funeral, being held at Lowick where he was born, grew up, worked and spent most of his 81 years, as well as being the tower captain of the 13cwt six and with me able to go along without asking for time off work I picked up first Mum and then my brother Chris for a moving afternoon. A packed church, extremely heartfelt eulogies and lots of ringing, much of which our carload participated in, including ringing Len into the church he so loved and ringing him out one final time. Hopefully we produced a sound worthy of the man we were all there for on bells that are mildly challenging, being meaty for a six, anti-clockwise and very oddstruck. They are a delightfully rustic ring, in a dark, timeless ringing chamber where the clock mechanism makes ringing the fifth awkward. For all that the draughts made it cold, I love ringing chambers like this, places that feel unchanged in an unchanging environment, an escape from the changing world beyond. It all seemed apt for a man who was a reassuring constant in this area and for those who knew him.

Even in such sad circumstances it was lovely to see familiar ringing faces, like local ringers Mary & Murray Coleman, Brenda & Simon Dixon, Alan Marks and Paul Mason, as well as Len's wife Lesley and Birmingham ringer Steph Warboys. Whilst Paul, Simon & Steph stuck around to ring an acrostic peal, we continued on to the wake at the Working Men's Club in nearby Islip where another peal was rung in memory of Len yesterday on the 12cwt there.

Mother was in her element meeting up with lots of longstanding friends, whilst Chris and I enjoyed seeing people we haven't seen in many years, but we needed to get back to Suffolk. For my brother that was getting out to Rougham for the weekly practice shared with Pakenham, for me - once I had diverted round the closure of Westerfield, waited at the level crossing there, got around the broken bridge at Great Bealings and avoided the roadworks on the road to Grundisburgh where the traffic lights seem to change every ten minutes on the way back from Mum's - joining Ruthie for a meal out at The Wilford Bridge with our friends and near neighbours Verity & Jade before returning home to be reunited with the boys who had been looked after by Granny Kate.

Meanwhile it was a reasonably busy day of quarter-pealing within our borders, with three rung. Two of those were in Hasketon, one of Lincolnshire Surprise Major on handbells, the other of Cambridge Surprise & St Clement's College Bob Minor on the church's 9cwt six, whilst at Ashbocking a 1320 of Cambridge Surprise Minor was rung on the ground-floor six.

It was an active day of ringing in two areas I hold with much affection.

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Thursday 12th February 2026

I never want to lose a peal attempt, but if one is to then this morning's at Grundisburgh isn't a terrible way for it to occur. The loss an hour and a half in means it felt worthwhile having come out to ring it, especially as there was a lot of good ringing, but it wasn't so close to the end that we felt we had snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. It has given me something other than chores at home to focus on during this pleasurable but strange period of prolonged time on my hands, in the organising and in the learning of the composition for what was planned to be a 5024 of Superlative Surprise Major. And it gave me an opportunity on a fairly nondescript Thursday morning to meet up with friends in a pretty village doing something we enjoy and then have a drink together in The Dog across the picturesque green.

Our efforts were scuppered by too many mistakes creeping in and ultimately a melee that was too much to recover from, but I am incredibly grateful to the band for indulging me.

Once back to our abode I still had the chance to get various chores done around the house and do the school pickup, whilst it was another evening of juggling different activities for different members of our household, albeit a familiar routine now for Thursdays, as we got Alfie to his team's football training and Ruthie to her choral practicing.

Even though we didn't get it though, I am therefore glad we went for that peal attempt.

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Wednesday 11th February 2026

It was another evening where we needed to be in two places at the same time due to our household's activities. Tonight Alfie needed picking up at 8.30pm following a birthday party at a friend's house which of course was before the end of Pettistree's weekly practice, where one of Ruthie or me had committed to the quarter-peal beforehand. On this occasion the only option was for the one who travelled out to the ground-floor six to leave early to collect Alfred.

This week that was me as I rang the fifth to a QP of Norwich Surprise Minor before John Horsnell very kindly brought homemade cakes for his birthday, I stood behind him on the second for a plain course of Grandsire Doubles and then rang more Surprise Minor of the London and Surfleet varieties and Stedman Doubles.

Elsewhere in Suffolk meanwhile, well done to South-East District Ringing Master Hal Meakin on ringing his first quarter of Glasgow Surprise Major in the 1280 at Elveden and congratulations to those involved in the project that saw Horringer gain a wonderful new eight a decade ago as the fiftieth peal on those bells was rung today with a 5184 of Dordrecht Delight Major.

Hopefully nobody involved needed to be somewhere else at the same time.

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Tuesday 10th February 2026

As has become familiar it was another wet, grey day, apparently a result of a weather phenomenon called a 'blocking pattern' which has stopped the rain from moving on in recent weeks and is expected to continue into the foreseeable future too. Yet the small village of Falkenham on the Felixstowe Peninsula not on the way to anywhere was endearingly busy as I arrived there this morning, with many walking dogs, others seemingly taking a wander and a couple having a chat on the edge of one lane as I drove past.

Hopefully they all enjoyed the peal that I was there to ring, a relaxed arrangement born of an approach to Ian Culham for an attempt I am arranging to take advantage of this rare period of lengthy leisure for me. Ian asked if I'd like him to arrange one for today and asked what venues would be feasible to fit in with the school run to which the aforementioned 5cwt ground-floor six was one and next thing I knew it was arranged!

The laid-back approach extended to deciding a conductor from a band of potential conductors and with me being least resistant to the task I ended up calling the 5040 of seven Surprise Minor methods. Not that I had much to do with a group that could've rung much more but instead set about a very nice 2 hours and 20 minutes of ringing. Despite suffering as so many other towers are currently with stiff ropes, these were as ever a joy to ring.

We were also more than willing to dedicate it local ringer Lesley Barrell's brother Bill, whose passing we were very sorry to hear of. Lesley said she would be recording some of our efforts so I hope we did Bill justice and produced something she enjoyed at this difficult time.

Even after our success there remained time for me to return home and get various chores done around the house before a typically hectic Tuesday evening of activities for the boys, with the logistics further complicated by Alfie's goalkeeper training being brought forward to clash with Josh's swimming practice. However, prompted by an email from Hal Meakin following the setting up of the new Hawkear software at Ipswich Minster, I did eventually get the opportunity to watch a video on YouTube of a video talk that David Pipe gave to The Norman Tower ringers a couple of years ago about how to interpret the data from it. David himself admits that there are elements that a lot of people don't need to worry about and that you can overwhelm yourself with stats, whilst it is important to note that it is at its most effective the better ringing is. He demonstrated how beneficial it has been for the ringers at Great St Mary's in Cambridge though and I certainly learnt some useful stuff. If you are interested in having Hawkear in your tower or already use it, then it is worth setting aside an hour and a half to watch.

Hopefully it would've given us a good rating on our peal in the busy village of Falkenham on another wet, grey day.

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Monday 9th February 2026

In almost precisely a month the Reverend Tom Mumford is due to lead his final service as vicar at Ipswich Minster. Whilst at the end of our previous weekly practice seven days ago we were visited by churchwarden David Matthews to very kindly gauge what we would like to see in a new priest, tonight we were met at the end of our ringing by Tom himself to join us in the Halberd Inn as part of a sort of farewell tour of the various elements of the Minster. It really is wonderful that us ringers are being recognised as part of the church, which as most of us will know isn't always the case elsewhere.

The session that preceded was another useful one too. Not perfect, but then not many practices anywhere are and arguably nor should they be as those present look to progress and step further into the unknown. On this occasion Lincolnshire Surprise Maximus - which up until a couple of months or so ago we could only attempt every few weeks depending on numbers - was the best piece of the night, but there was also some Yorkshire Surprise Maximus and Stedman Cinques rung in another socialable atmosphere. At one point after discussing how jolly South-East District Ringing Master Hal Meakin is, he set some Plain Hunt off by booming "ho ho go Plain Hunt on Eleven" and another ringer caused chaos in some Little Bob Maximus when they mistook a single for "that's all" to much amusement. This is a very happy place to be at the moment, which can only be good for the ringing. Nice as well to welcome Suffolk Guild Treasurer and Bury St Edmunds ringer Tim Hart to set up and test our new Hawkear software as well as to benefit from his ringing expertise and a reminder that The Norman Tower intend to have their monthly focus practice on Thursday where Bristol Surprise Royal is the method of the moment.

During the course of the evening it was great to hear of a fantastic turnout for the SE District Practice at Burgh on Saturday where Offton ringer Elizabeth Goodchild won the Bake-Off (well done Elizabeth!), which seems a good point to remind readers of Saturday's planned ringing in the county with the North-West District Practice at Eye and North-East District Ringing Get Together at Southwold. If you are able to support these then please do, it would be much appreciated.

My night out ended with a detour with the road shut just by Great Bealings church where a 7cwt five are hung dead, but earlier in the day I had a leisurely read of the newest issue of The Ringing World which arrived with us today and features a letter from former SGR Secretary Andrew Beckwith about the intangible benefits of ringing and the 5040 at Pettistree I was in just before Christmas appears in the peal columns.

Who knows what will be in there in a month's time when we say farewell to Tom.

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Sunday 8th February 2026

It has been a busy weekend of peal-ringing in the county. Following two peals yesterday, a further brace were rung today and although both on Saturday were for other organisations one of them on this grey Sabbath was rung for the Suffolk Guild. Unsurprisingly on this second Sunday of the month that was at Aldeburgh where the 5152 of Old Chopper Surprise Major was a first in the method for the SGR and for all the band. Well done to Mary Garner, Simon Smith, Mary Dunbavin, Jed Flatters, Tom Scase, Mark Ogden, Richard Rapior and conductor Alan Mayle! Additionally it was the 400th in the medium on the bells, which isn't surprising for a set of bells so regularly pealed but still an achievement for this coastal eight, especially as on the basis of the five peals I have rung there they will have featured a lot of excellent ringing. Meanwhile the other peal was a repeat of the early morning 5040 of 324 Treble Dodging Minor methods of twenty-four hours earlier rung on handbells in Risby, only with former Central Council President Simon Linford replacing Philip Earis.

Not to be outdone, quarter-peals were also rung with our borders, with a 1275 of Grandsire Cinques at The Norman Tower and a 1260 of St Clement's College Bob Minor at Brandon, the latter of which was a first in the method for Max Thomson. Well done Max!

Although we enjoyed listening to Ruthie's ringing with the winning Ipswich Minster band from May's South-East District Striking Competitions at Easton on BBC Radio 4's 'Bells on Sunday', we weren't contributing to any ringing today as we awoke in The Goodenough Hotel in London. I did explore potential options for joining ringing for morning worship, aware that there will have been plenty within easy reach of us. However, the logistics of squeezing in breakfast which is usually more expansive than the rushed bowl of cereal typically consumed at home, booking out of our accommodation and dragging a reluctant Alfie & Josh out via public transport in an unfamiliar area in time to make ringing that by it's nature will usually be finished by 11am at the latest were largely impractical. Particularly as getting to our first meal of the day was more complicated than we had envisioned.

Our hotel is a really nice place, far better than it's name suggests (which appears to relate to a former Chairman at Barclays Bank Frederick Craufurd Goodenough rather than a selfdeprecating title), but it's set-up is unusual in that it is located in a row of lovely Georgian terraced houses with access between each one via the street outside. Whatismore, with the dining room booked out for a function we'd been given rather vague instructions on arrival last night about breakfast being served in another building, we thought on the same side of the road. After walking up and down the road aimlessly for a few minutes we checked back in with reception to be told that it was in fact on the other side of the road in Goodenough College via various twists and turns. It was at least entirely worth it by the time we made it there!

Instead of ringing therefore, my wife had come up with the great idea of visiting The British Museum. We were particularly drawn to the Sutton Hoo exhibition, not to mention the displays for the Hoxne Treasure and the Mildenhall Treasure, all of which demonstrates the wealth of history we are blessed to have around us as we traverse our county ringing. However, we also enjoyed the huge range of other exhibits covering vast swathes of geography and time and which included the occasional bell, such as one from a French monastery and another as part of a clock mechanism in a section dedicated to the history of clocks.

Tiring limbs eventually curtailed several hours of fascinating knowledge gathering with much more to explore if we get the chance to visit again in the future, so we jumped on the Underground, retrieved our car and made our way back to the open skies of Suffolk filled with the sound of peal-ringing.

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Saturday 7th February 2026

There was another early peal this morning and in Suffolk at that, but this time I was up earlier than it finished. Indeed I was probably up at the same time as Philip Earis and Henry & David Pipe rose for the peal at Risby on handbells of 324 Treble Dodging Minor methods including ones with a local theme such as Benhall Treble Bob, Bacton Green, Elmswell, George Orwell and Needham Market Surprise. For I got out of bed at 5am to take Mason to Portman Road to get on one of the supporters coaches travelling to Derby County for Ipswich Town's male footballers' 12.31pm kick-off (the reason for the extra minute before starting is for a very worthwhile reason) in the East Midlands.

It was an early start to a long but enjoyable day as once I had got back home and grabbed another hour or so of sleep, we travelled down to London to watch Paddington The Musical at the Savoy Theatre. Along with our accommodation tonight at The Goodenough Hotel it was a Christmas present gratefully received from mother-in-law and former South-East District Ringing Master Kate Eagle. Thank you Kate!

The performance was extremely enjoyable (buoyed by news of the win for the Tractor Boys in the presence of my eldest and a couple of drinks!) and the hotel was nearby and lovely, whilst we also had the chance to do a bit of atmospheric sightseeing as darkness fell as we took in Trafalgar Square, Buckingham Palace, the Palace of Westminster and Downing Street, along with the churches with bells along that route, such as St Martin in the Fields, Westminster Abbey and the neighbouring St Margaret of Antioch. However, it did mean Alfie unusually missing a fixture for his football team and us missing the South-East District Practice and Bake Off at Burgh, which was starting at the same time as the bear from deepest, darkest Peru and chums were getting underway. As much as it is a pity to miss proceedings on the 9cwt ground-floor six and especially the cake (!), it sounds like it was a successful event with Paul Sharples taking to the Guild Facebook page to impart gratitude for the opportunity for some of the Rushmere St Andrew's band to ring Union Bob Doubles successfully with the help of the numbers present. Well done to all involved in what is the perfect example of how important these occasions are and that all who can attend should do, even if we couldn't this time.

Meanwhile, whilst we didn't hear any of them, there were plenty of peals being rung around us down in the capital for the Cumberland Youths Not the Dinner Day, including by past Ringing Master of the North-East District Maggie Ross at Hackney and one-time Exning learner Jimmy Yeoman who was ringing his 100th for the Society in the 5056 of Bristol Surprise Major at St Lawrence Jewry. Congratulations Jimmy!

And well done to the SGR Ringing Master of 2016-2021 Tom Scase on conducting his first peal of Surprise Royal in the 5040 of Cambridge at Peterborough Cathedral and also to Edward Groome on his first on ten.

Back within our borders the success in Risby wasn't the only peal rung in the county today and like that one it was also for another organisation as a 5000 of Bristol Surprise Royal was rung at Stowmarket for the College Youths.

I imagine a few of the band had to get up really early this morning too.

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Friday 6th February 2026

Work or no work we don't get the opportunity of a lay-in when the boys need to get to school, but even then today a peal had been rung before we rose with a 5016 of Little Bob Maximus scored at Wellington Cathedral in New Zealand. Although that was obviously helped by them being thirteen hours ahead of us on what is a summer day there!

Once Suffolk had fully awoken on what is a winter day here though, there was ringing on our soil too. At Tostock, well done to Josephine Beever, Andrea Alderton, Ruth Suggett, David Steed, Sally Crouch and conductor Stephen Dawson on ringing their first quarter-peal of Josh Bob Minor, which was dedicated to the twenty-fifth birthday of North-West District Ringing Master Josh Watkins. Josh himself was busy ringing down in Hampshire for the occasion of the Southampton University Guild Dinner Day Weekend with a handbell QP and conducting a peal which was the most methods rung in the medium by Juliet Griffiths. Well done Juliet!

Back here within our borders, well done also to Colin Salter on ringing his first peal in hand on an inside pair in the 5040 which additionally was Cherril & Jeremy Spiller's 900th together. Congratulations Cherril & Jeremy! Meanwhile there were quarter-peals of Doubles at Earl Stonham and of Bourne Surprise Minor on handbells in Sudbury.

It was a good day of ringing and whilst we didn't do any ringing we did meet up with a ringer as having missed out on our lunch earlier in the week, Pete Faircloth and myself finally got together for a bite to eat. Although our original plan of eating at TheRed Lion in Woodbridge was scuppered by the chef being off ill, we did dine at The Coach & Horses in Melton with the bonus of Ruthie being able to join us on this occasion.

I imagine back in the day we may well have made an afternoon and most probably an evening of it, but we all had children to pick up, plus I have a very early morning planned for tomorrow, so it was an early night.

Those lay-ins will have to continue waiting.

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Thursday 5th February 2026

Whilst yesterday was bright and sunny, today was the opposite as it was grey, dark and damp from constant drizzle throughout the day. The perfect day for ringing therefore. And some in Suffolk did just that.

Most notably so on the 12cwt six at Wickham Market where Barbara Harrington was ringing her first quarter-peal. Well done Barbara on what is hopefully the first of many!

Well done also to Josephine Beever, Andrea Alderton and Sally Crouch on ringing their first quarter of Jacobs Ladder Bob Minor in the 1260 at Horringer, whilst there was a QP on handbells in Sudbury.

No ringing for us though, with choral practicing for Ruthie and football training for Alfie as at least one of our household braved the outside.

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Wednesday 4th February 2026

Ruthie went to Pettistree's weekly practice this evening, participating in London Surprise Minor and some spliced amongst a typically eclectic repertoire of methods, before retiring to The George in neighbouring Wickham Market after finding the Greyhound Inn shut.

Meanwhile I was at home looking after the boys and reading about Ardleigh ringer - and wife of Ipswich Minster Tower Captain Ian - Claire Culham's fundraising efforts for Macmillan Cancer Support. It seems she and her friend Jenny are planning on undertaking a gruelling sounding race called the HYROX Doubles challenge (sadly there doesn't seem to be a method called Hyrox Doubles!) next month, so she will have truly earned what she raises, not withstanding what a great cause she's doing it for. If you can, please do donate.

Ringers here in Suffolk weren't being quite so energetic today, but they were still active in the exercise. Most notably at Troston where former Guild Peal Secretary Alan Mayle was not only ringing a peal at his 200th different tower in the county, but also his 1300th in the medium for the SGR. Congratulations to Alan who is third in the list of leading peal-ringers for the organisation behind Past Ringing Masters Stephen Pettman on 1484 and David Salter on an incredible 1813.

That 5040 of seven Surprise Minor methods in 2 hours and 25 minutes on the delightful 5cwt six wasn't the only ringing within our borders on this bright winter day as a 1280 of Rutland Surprise Major was rung on TheBarn Owl Ring in Norton and back at Pettistree a 1320 of Bourne, Cambridge & Ipswich Surprise Minor spliced preceded that practice which Ruthie attended this evening.

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Tuesday 3rd February 2026

It was a day of cancelled plans.

Primarily because Alfie had a mercifully rare day off school due to illness. It meant that I had to postpone a lunch date with local ringer Pete Faircloth who was on annual leave and Alfred couldn't go to goalkeeper training. Additionally it put in doubt our intention to go round Ruthie's sister Clare's house to watch Ipswich Town's men's football match at Portsmouth on TV, but that was rendered academic by the postponement of the fixture due to a waterlogged pitch, a month on from it's previous postponement due to a frozen playing surface.

After all that there wasn't any ringing for us, nor any from Suffolk noted on BellBoard. Indeed, the 5152 of 23 Surprise Major methods spliced at Cholsey in Oxfordshire was the only peal worldwide submitted to BB until a late night flurry.
Hopefully it wasn't a sign of cancelled plans.

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Monday 2nd February 2026

The Reverend Tom Mumford's final service as the vicar of Ipswich Minster is due to take place on Sunday 8th March and he will be missed. He has been fantastic for St Mary-le-Tower as it became a Minster (which he was a driving force behind), Ipswich's churches generally and the diocese, a young down-to-earth and normal man to be the face of church in the local media. And he has been great for the ringers, being really supportive of us and involved in our social side as he chaired our AGMs, joined us for our curries at the Maharani, came along to our BBQs and invited us to his home for events. It is brilliant then that as part of an effort to create the ideal profile for his replacement that the various people and groups of the Minster are being consulted, including us ringers.

Therefore churchwarden David Matthews very kindly took the time to join us at the end of the weekly practice on the heaviest twelve in Suffolk and then in the Halberd Inn afterwards as he strove to find out more about us and what we'd like in the next vicar here. It is very reassuring to see us considered and I hope that our input is helpful to the process.

The session before this evening's consultation was also hopefully helpful, with much rung from Plain Hunt on Eleven to Cambridge, Lincolnshire & Yorkshire Surprise Maximus spliced.

Meanwhile earlier in the day a quarter-peal of London Surprise Major was rung on the 28cwt eight of Clare celebrating the fifth anniversary of the induction of the Reverend Mark Woodrow as rector here, just as we ringers at Ipswich Minster contemplate the departure of our vicar.

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Sunday 1st February 2026

Suffolk ringing enjoyed a good January. In the same month in 2025 there were five peals rung in the Guild's name, this year there have been six. Even more impressively, whilst there were 38 quarter-peals rung between 1/1/2025 and 31/1/2025 within our borders, there were 45 rung between 1/1/2026 and yesterday.

February 2026 started in similarly encouraging fashion. No peals for the SGR, but on 1/2/2025 two quarters were rung in the county, today there were five. Well done to Max Thomson who rang his first of six Doubles methods and principles in the 1260 at Bardwell (where he also called Sixty on Thirds for the annual carol service), Gavin Edwards for his first of Grandsire Triples in the 1288 on the front eight at Ipswich Minster and Clare Gebel on her first of the Caters version in the 1332 at Stowmarket, whilst there was a 1340 of Stedman Caters at The Norman Tower and 1280 of Plain Bob Major at Halesworth.

Although neither Ruthie or me were contributing to those totals, I did attend ringing for morning worship at Woodbridge, first looking after my Godson Jonathan whilst his mother Susanne rang and then ringing myself before the boys and I joined the service that their mother was singing at.

On a day that my wife returned there later to sing at the Evensong, my participation on this occasion was limited to confirming - alongside many others - that a screenshot of a church from an early episode of the 1980/1990s TV series Lovejoy shared on the Bellringers Facebook page was Hadleigh rather than Chesterfield.

Thankfully others were continuing a fine January for Suffolk ringing into February.

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Saturday 31st January 2026

It was a full-on day of football but featuring ringing content and ringers.

Before being an assistant referee as Alfie won the Player of the Match award for his team's fixture this morning my weekly email from Ringing Forums prompted me to take a look at some of the highlighted topics, including one about Recruitment and Development 2030 briefings, the other about the "views and effects of Victorian Ecclesiologists on bell ringing" as the site covers the future and past of the exercise.

In between getting back from Alfred's performance and before heading out to Ipswich to watch the Town's senior men's team draw 1-1 with Preston North End, I had enough time to have a decent read of the latest edition of The Ringing World which arrived with us whilst we were out.

And our afternoon out for the footy was spent with other ringers, as food and refreshment was taken at The Mermaid with Ufford Ringing Master Kate Eagle, we were met by Suffolk Guild Peal Secretary Caroline Goodchild as she carried out her job at the stadium, had a drink in the FanZone with Norwich ringer Simon Rudd ahead of him going to the annual St Peter Mancroft Guild Dinner this evening (and for which a peal attempt of Stedman Caters was sadly lost after 3 hours and 25 minutes) and Lincolnshire ringer Keith Brown and sat with my brother Chris for the game.

Ironically one ringer we didn't share the occasion with was Ruthie who needed to attend a safeguarding course in Lowestoft for work, but we were eventually reunited at the end of this full-on day of football, ringing content and ringers.

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Friday 30th January 2026

It's funny where one word or name can take you.

Having just been to the Foxhall Road Recycling Centre this afternoon, I saw the peal of Foxhall Surprise Royal at Exeter St Mark's in Devon which was the first of Royal in the method and wondered if there was any local connection to the naming of the method. Therefore I searched BellBoard for previous performances of the Major version and found that there was a local connection of sorts. Just not in the way that I imagined or even to the naming of the method as I discovered the first peal of it ever rung was on what was then the eight of Rothwell in Northamptonshire by a band including my mother Sally!

In other ringing history news, Josephine Beever shared an archive photo from the East Anglian Daily Times of a band of ringers and their vicar posing for the camera from what looks like many decades ago. Alan Mayle apparently believes it was taken in the ground-floor ringing chamber of the 8cwt five at Acton, but more information on the date and who the ringers were is being sought. Do take a look and see if you can help, it would be fascinating to find out more!

In the here and now it was interesting to see Suffolk representation in the quarter-peal at Southwark Cathedral following the memorial service for Dame Jilly Cooper, whilst there were also three QPs scored today in the county that Mark Liebenrood and Alex Tatlow once lived and rung in. Well done to the aforementioned former Guild Peal Secretary Alan on ringing his first quarter of Cambridge Surprise Major with the 1280 in Bury St Edmunds and to Chrissie Pickup and Peter & Julie Richardson on ringing their first of Westminster Surprise Minor in the 1272 at Wissett and Beverley, Durham and Surfleet Surprise Minor were rung spliced at Tostock.

No time for any ringing for us as we were doing things like going to Foxhall Road Recycling Centre and getting taken deep into ringing history by a name.

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Thursday 29th January 2026

Tower Talk's latest edition was published in September, but I only had my first read of it today. It's not unusual for it to take a few weeks for me to get the opportunity to read it, but even my spare time over the last couple of months has been rather occupied!

However, I really enjoy reading this as it is such an upbeat publication full of stories of those at the beginning of their ringing progression having fun! And on this occasion the editor and founder of the newsletter and Bardwell Tower Captain Ruth Suggett is rightly celebrated as it is a decade since she started publishing it. She has done so much for learners not just in Suffolk but also across East Anglia and through Tower Talk across the world. Congratulations and thank you Ruth!

Meanwhile I also filled in the petition shared by Alison Edmonds on the Bellringers Facebook page supporting ringing's bid to be added to UNESCO UK Intangible Cultural Heritage Inventory. At the very least it's hard to see what bad can come of this, but at best it could help with conservation, give the exercise wider recognition and more publicity and give it credibility that could help in recruitment and dealing with the various parties that one has to deal with things like fundraising for restoration projects for example. All signatories would be gratefully received and it doesn't take long so please do find a moment to sign it.

For now though, ringers were getting on with ringing, including here in Suffolk where a quarter-peal of Superlative Surprise Major was rung at Horringer and there is much lined up for the Guild's ringing in February.

Such as the BAC meeting pencilled in to be held in The Crown in Stowupland on Friday 6th, the following day the South-East District Ringing and Bake Off is planned to be held at Burgh and then the day after that the North-West District intend to hold an Additional Practice at Rougham ahead of their regular one slated for Eye on Valentine's Day, the same day as the North-East District plan to hold a Ringing Get Together at Southwold if you're looking for something romantic to do, whilst then the next day the intention is for GMC to meet at Stowupland Church Hall to round a busy couple of weekends. All being well that won't be the end of next month's ringing within our borders, with the hope being that the Beccles 10 Bell Practice is held at the eponymous tower on the evening of Wednesday 18th, the George W Pipe 12 Bell Competition at Great Yarmouth on Saturday 21st, the bellsashen Training Hub's 'Ringing with Others' event at Earl Stonham on Friday 27th and the South-West District Practice at St Gregory in Sudbury the following afternoon. A lot potentially packed into the shortest month!

God willing there should be plenty of scope for us to do more ringing than we did today as our focus was on Alfie's football training and Ruthie's choral practicing. As well as finally reading Tower Talk.

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Wednesday 28th January 2026

It was a big day for the Church of England as Dame Sarah Mullally was confirmed as Archbishop of Canterbury at St Paul's Cathedral, an occasion marked by ringing there with a band including former St Mary-le-Tower ringer Mark Liebenrood and at Canterbury Cathedral where a 1350 of Grandsire Caters was rung.

Meanwhile it was the busiest day of ringing in Suffolk in 2026 thus far, with five quarter-peals and a peal rung. The peal was a 5184 of Alford Delight Major rung on the 10cwt ground-floor eight at Rendham, whilst four of the quarters were rung by the same band. Well done to David Steed, Ruth Suggett, Deborah Blumfield, Sally Crouch, Issac Johnson and conductor Joshua Watkins on ringing their first blows of Doxey Bob Minor in the 1260 of that spliced with Rising Brook Bob Minor at Dennington and congratulations to Sally and Joshua on it being their 200th together in the medium and to Sally and Ruth on their 75th together in the Carlisle Surprise Minor at Tannington. Well done again to Deborah and North-West District Ringing Master Joshua on ringing their first blows of Annable's London Surprise Minor in the 1320 at Earl Soham, whilst five of them also rang one of Doubles at Badingham.

Meanwhile a 1274 of Cambridge Surprise Minor was rung at Pettistree ahead of the weekly practice which Ruthie attended and where she rang Stedman Doubles and Surprise Minor in the form of Beverley and London, as well as calling a course of Lincoln before leading the bells down and retiring to the Greyhound Inn.

Hopefully others were enjoying well earned refreshment following a big and busy day of ringing in the Church of England and Suffolk.

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Tuesday 27th January 2026

Happy Birthday Mason! I don't tend to think too much about how he has grown from a tiny fragile baby with turned in feet, via operations, wheelchairs and trips to Great Ormond Street Hospital suffered generally with admirable cheerfulness. Rather I simply enjoy his company as a polite young man.

However, the 27th January is a celebration not just of the anniversary of my eldest son's birth but increasingly what he has become. Keen to work, knowledgeable football fan and wonderful big brother, although sadly his ringing progress was halted by the lockdowns just as he was starting to show some real promise and even a little enthusiasm and never picked up again. God willing at some point in the future if circumstances allow he may take it up again, although this year was the first - bar the pandemic when I couldn't - I haven't arranged a peal for his birthday, now that he is an adult.

And thanks to my current status as a 'man of leisure' I was able to help him celebrate his big day and pass on presents and cards as he came to The Coach & Horses for breakfast with his mother, before they continued on to Ipswich to visit Planet Blue and then his Nana and my Mum Sally, whilst I returned home to read the latest issue of The Ringing World which arrived with us this morning.

It is an issue that features mention of Hoxne in the report of the Keltek Trust's activities in 2025, albeit just to say there is no further update on the project. Former St Mary-le-Tower ringer Mark Liebenrood writes an interesting article about Benjamin Annable and his compositions, whilst an interview with Chris Bell from Fordham just over the Cambridgeshire border recounts the tale of the first peal for Gill Sparling who does much ringing in Suffolk and with Suffolk's ringers.

That was a nice dry indoor activity whilst outside it rained almost all day, although we escaped the worst of Storm Chandra as it heaped just about every conceivable negative weather condition one can imagine on the rest of the country.

Not that it seemed to have an impact on ringing with almost exactly the same number of peals and quarters rung as last Tuesday according to BellBoard and within our borders the weekly practice at Offton was preceded with a quarter-peal of Plain Bob Triples dedicated to treble ringer Elizabeth Goodchild's birthday.

Happy Birthday for recently Elizabeth and Happy Birthday for today Mason!

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Monday 26th January 2026

I am forming the opinion that standards in the Ipswich Minster ringing chamber have gone up a notch and real progress is being made.

Not everything goes of course. After a successful course or two of Plain Hunt on eleven at tonight's weekly session the conductor attempted to change some of the bells round before going again, a not unusual or unreasonable practice. Except in the process some of the band thought they had been given the instruction to go again, meaning that some were ringing rounds, some were following the call-changes and others were ringing Plain Hunt! Yorkshire Surprise Maximus had to be called round prematurely as well as too many people were going wrong.

However, we rang a couple of really rather well-struck touches of Stedman Cinques and even with just enough to ring it and with no warning, we're now at the stage that we can casually drop Lincolnshire Surprise Maximus into some spliced with Cambridge and Yorkshire and ring it extremely well. There will be downs as well as ups of course, but it is very encouraging.

It was all accompanied with a welcoming, social atmosphere, which continued on to the Halberd Inn for some post-ringing refreshment where conversation included preparations for our planned entry into the George W Pipe 12 Bell Competition due to take place at Great Yarmouth on Saturday 21st February and constructing eBells and earlier in the day real handbells were being rung in Suffolk as two quarter-peals of Little Bob Royal were rung in Moats Tye.

Hopefully they too are forming the opinion that their standards have gone up a notch and real progress is being made.

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Sunday 25th January 2026

As the boys and I arrived at Ipswich Minster for a later ringing time of 9.45-10.30am for morning worship which the Right Reverend Dr Joanne Woolway-Grenfell's was attending in her first act as Bishop of the St Edmundsbury and Ipswich Diocese following her enthronement yesterday, the eight of St Margaret's were ringing out across the town centre. Just as we were climbing the stairs to the famous ringing chamber from where the 34cwt twelve are rung, the bells pulled off meaning that we ended up being at the end of a lengthy queue waiting to get in! Sometimes it's nice to listen to ringing.

I was pleased to participate in some ringing too though, as I trebled to some Grandsire Cinques conducted by South-East District Ringing Master Hal Meakin from the tenor, called some call-changes on twelve and pulled the eleventh in to pieces of Stedman Cinques and Yorkshire Surprise Maximus before some stayed on for a session on the training bells and a sizeable proportion of the rest of us retired to Costa Coffee where we were met by George & Lucy Heath-Collins and their daughter Zoe. Lovely to meet little Zoe and great to see her parents doing so well.

That was it from a ringing perspective from me for the rest of the day, but others in Suffolk continued their ringing. Well done to Sylvie Fawcett on ringing her first quarter-peal of Plain Bob Major in the 1344 rung at Bardwell, whilst a 1311 of Stedman Cinques was rung at The Norman Tower and a 1260 of Plain Bob Doubles was rung at Wissett.

Glad to hear of bells ringing out across the county, not just in Ipswich.

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Saturday 24th January 2026

There has been many a ringing outing when we've found ourselves in a motor convoy searching for the next tower, only for the lead driver to go the wrong way and end up leading us all up a narrow lane with grass growing down the middle or into a farmyard or similar. It doesn't usually happen on the way to Alfie's football matches as we don't typically end up arriving at the same time, but this morning at an unfamiliar venue Alfred and myself found ourselves coincidentally behind one of his teammates who in turn were following another one of the players, with more behind us as we all had to take it in turns to turn round in the entrance to a house behind the pitch! All's well that ends well though as we eventually made it and our son and his team won their fixture.

Despite the flashback to ringing outings past there was no ringing for us as instead with the help of Ruthie's mother Kate and sister's fiancé Chris we focused on reconstructing a new bed for AJM that they had kindly brought over.

Other Suffolk ringers were busier in the exercise though, both within our borders and beyond. For example, on the occasion of the lady due to become the Guild's President the Right Reverend Dr Joanne Woolway-Grenfell being enthroned as the twelfth Bishop of the St Edmundsbury and Ipswich Diocese in the Cathedral, a peal of Grandsire Cinques was being rung at The Norman Tower and sounded very nice in the clip that you may have heard if you are friends on Facebook with Halesworth ringer Jason Busby.

Meanwhile, well done to Sproughton ringer Tristan Shaw on ringing his first peal on eight in the 5056 of Cambridge Surprise Major at Bristol Cathedral as part of the celebrations for the University of Bristol Society's annual dinner being held this evening, whilst Sudbury ringer James Croft was ringing in the 3 hours and 1 minute of Coniston Bluebird Delight Major at Bromley in Kent, county resident Phillip Orme was in the 5016 of six Maximus methods spliced at Great St Mary's in Cambridge and Stowmarket ringer Ainsley Gilbert was in quarter-peals of Grandsire Caters on the back ten at Aston, Yorkshire Surprise Major at St Chad's Roman Catholic Cathedral in Birmingham and Cambridge Surprise Minor on the back six at Selly Oak with the Welsh Colleges Society. And hopefully the North-West and South-West Practices at Great Barton and Little Cornard were well attended and successful.

Hopefully they weren't led in the wrong direction on the way to their venues!

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Friday 23rd January 2026

For us it was a day about ringing rather than doing ringing, from the frivolous of The Marlow Murder Club and the bizarre full circle ringing representing a clock chiming and the vicar's wife having church bells as her phone message tone (much like Mary Garner from whose phone Pettistree bells ring out when someone calls her!) to the important announcements about the Dorothy L Sayers Award for Young Ringers and the replacing of the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme with the Places of Worship Renewal Fund. I shan't go into detail on those announcements (not least because I don't fully understand the latter!), so do take a read of both.

That wasn't all I did with my day, as although I'm not due to start my new job for a while yet, I needed to pop into what is intended to be my office soon and in the process met some of who those slated to be my future work colleagues.

No ringing, but other ringers in Suffolk were busier. Most notably at Blythburgh where the first quarter-peal was rung from the new ringing room floor for what was previously a ground-floor six, whilst a 1280 of six Doubles methods was rung at what is still a ground-floor six at Tannington. And well done to Sally Crouch, Josephine Beever and conductor Stephen Dawson on ringing their first QP of Bluntisham Bob Minor.

Bluntisham's rectory was also where Dorothy L Sayers apparently first fell in love with bells, as I found out on my day about ringing.

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Thursday 22nd January 2026

Bumping into occasional Ufford and Woodbridge ringer Pete Faircloth and his son - and my Godson - Jonathan in the street and arranging a proper meet-up and musing on the timing of the lovely dedication to son of Suffolk Harold Rogers in the footnote of the peal at Huntsham in Devon was as close as I got to ringing today.

On a day that was otherwise mainly focused on getting Alfie to and from football training and Ruthie to and from choral practice, other ringers in the county were busier, especially at Horringer where a quarter-peal of Cambridge Surprise Major was rung on the lovely 8cwt ground-floor eight.

God willing I'll have busier days of ringing too.

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Wednesday 21st January 2026

Having walked there yesterday, I decided I ought to drive to Pettistree this evening to ring on the ground-floor six there.

Once there I rang in the quarter-peal of Lincoln Surprise Minor that preceded the weekly practice, much to the fury of Hilary Stearn who is keen to ring one in that method herself! I expect she'll get that opportunity having rung it well during the session that followed and which also included other Surprise Minor including Cambridge with a 'boy' band (or an "old boy band" as one scallywag quipped!), London and Norwich, as well as some Stedman Doubles and a plain course of Grandsire for John Horsnell to ring the second to. All followed by a drink in the Greyhound Inn which was open for the first time since it's usual January closure.

Meanwhile our earlier 1272 wasn't the only QP rung in Suffolk today, with a Hertford County Association band ringing 1344s of Yorkshire Surprise Major rung in 53 minutes at Long Melford and Ajax Surprise Major in 50 minutes at St Gregory's in Sudbury on a day when they also rang the same number of changes of six Surprise Major methods spliced at Halstead in Essex.

Presumably they didn't walk there either!

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Tuesday 20th January 2026

Last year saw me do a lot of walking, usually in my lunchbreaks from work. However, I let it slip when I was made redundant. Every possible moment felt like it ought to be used to find a new job and so although it probably would've actually helped me in my endeavours to take the occasional walk out in the countryside to clear the mind and get away from the relentless nature of my search, another handful of emails with lists of vacancies would come through or there would be a phonecall of some sort and so it never happened. Released from that now though and before I am due to gladly return to the working routine, I decided to take advantage of this pleasant winter's day and not only take a walk, but a long one.

Thus I found myself meandering along the country lanes and footpaths of the beautiful countryside to the north of Melton as I went on a circular route which took me all the way up to the six of Pettistree and back through Ufford and past the eight there, spotting familiar local towers from unfamiliar viewpoints.

It was all very peaceful and a complete contrast to my evening which was a noisy one as we went to Ipswich Town's men's latest football match at Portman Road, the fourth one here in 2026 just twenty days in, which hasn't helped in getting my ringing going this year so far. As per usual though it did involve seeing ringers, such as food with mother-in-law Kate Eagle in The Mermaid and a drink with Simon Rudd and my brother Chris in the FanZone ahead of our 2-0 win against Bristol City.

There was no ringing noted anywhere else in Suffolk on BellBoard either. Perhaps lots of other Guild members were busy walking too.

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Monday 19th January 2026

I am now in a not unpleasant in-between period where I don't need to spend every spare waking moment searching for work, but also have a wait until my new employment gets underway. Ruthie has understandably dropped hints about getting various chores done around the house, whilst there may be scope for midweek ringing providing it fits in with the school run, but today it allowed me to help my wife's sister's fiancé Chris in clearing out the home of mother-in-law Kate's Uncle Gerald following his passing a few months ago. And after a couple of dump runs and with it being Chris's birthday we felt we had earned a drink and so I treated him to a pint in the Coach & Horses back in Melton.

We could've spent all day in there, but we stopped short at one as we were both out tonight, Chris with his fiancée for a birthday meal and me to the weekly practice at Ipswich Minster. A jolly good one it was too, with Stedman Cinques and Yorkshire Surprise Maximus amongst the repertoire before I joined many others in the Halberd Inn for an alcohol-free Doom Bar.

Ours wasn't the only ringing being done in Suffolk today of course. At Stowmarket 660 changes of Plain Bob Minor was rung before the funeral and service of thanksgiving for Lesley Mayes, a Town and District Councillor who was a big supporter of the project to rehang and augment the bells there, whilst in Sudbury a quarter-peal of Allendale Surprise Minor was rung on handbells.

Good to see ringers using their spare time so productively. I hope to use my new found spare time just as productively.

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Sunday 18th January 2026

Stiff ropes are a common affliction for bellropes currently with the damp conditions, but Woodbridge's seemed particularly so this morning! With a relatively long draft here that combination makes things challenging, so very well done to the local band on their ringing for the service that the boys and I joined afterwards and Ruthie sang at. We even managed some Grandsire Doubles!

Earlier I had chatted with them about ringing at Campsea Ashe where the weekly Saturday morning practice was especially well attended yesterday, whilst even earlier than that I listened to Framlingham bells on BBC Radio 4's 'Bells on Sunday' as I lay in bed.

Later though, my wife and I were at Ipswich Minster for a 1346 of Lincolnshire Surprise Maximus. Despite a couple of false starts our success was an impressive one with a local band and it was a first quarter-peal in the method for Jill Birkby. Well done Jill!

And well done to North-West District Ringing Master Joshua Watkins on ringing his first QP in the method and to Ainsley Gilbert on ringing his first of Royal in the 1260 of Plain Bob at Stowmarket. Meanwhile on a busy day of quarter-pealing within our borders a 1282 of Yorkshire Surprise Royal was rung at The Norman Tower for the Epiphany Carol Service in the Cathedral.

We followed our ringing by picking up the boys from my Mum Sally who had very kindly looked after them while we rang and then made our way straight to the Red Lion in Martlesham for a meal to celebrate the anniversary tomorrow of the birth of Ruthie's sister Clare's fiancé Chris.

It was a happy way to finish a happy weekend, from that job offer, a school trip, footballing success and all those Suffolk ringing achievements. Including the Woodbridge band's handling of those stiff ropes!

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Saturday 17th January 2026

Well done to Craig Gradidge on ringing his first peal of Royal in the 5040 of Cambridge Surprise at The Norman Tower today.

The ringer of the third Brian Meads also features in this week's edition of The Ringing World which arrived with us today, with the former Ringing Master of the Essex Association writing 'Thought for the Week' in his role as a Licensed Lay Minister.

By the time I was able to read it we had been out for another Saturday of football and a very successful one at that, starting with our goalkeeper son Alfie keeping a clean sheet in his team's fixture this morning and then watching Ipswich Town's men winning their game against Blackburn Rovers 3-0. On the club's Memorial Matchday where they remember ITFC fans who have died in the last year, it was lovely to see former Falkenham Tower Captain Brian Aldous remembered in the video they released for the occasion.

The 12.30pm kick-off meant there wasn't time for Alfred and me to join Ruthie, Mason, Josh and mother-in-law and one-time South-East District Ringing Master Kate Eagle for breakfast in The Mermaid, but we did catch up with them and Norwich ringer Simon Rudd in the FanZone before the latest victory for the Tractor Boys.

Well done to the Superblues on their win, but especially well done to Craig Gradidge on his first peal of Royal.

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Friday 16th January 2026

Pretty much every time I have picked Josh up from school since I was made redundant he has asked me if I've found a new job that day and of course I've had to reply that I have not. This afternoon though I had to prompt him to ask the question, which was ironic as today my answer was "yes, I have!"

Yes, that's right after a stressful, relentless and occasionally depressing and frustrating few weeks I was phoned up whilst I was having my lunch and informed that I was being offered a job on the back of a successful interview. Sheer joy and relief washed over me and Ruthie too when I told her, for this has been as difficult a time for her as it has been for me and I am eternally grateful for her keeping my chin up when I needed it.

With my start date to be confirmed but not likely to be for a few weeks it also gives me some time to hopefully relax a bit and prepare myself for what is planned ahead. Perhaps even a bit of midweek ringing!

It was big news on a big day for others in our house, as I dropped Alfie off at school in darkness before dawn for a trip with his fellow Year 7s to the Tower of London. And picking him up in darkness after sunset was preceded by a meeting at Josh's school in preparation for his residential trip in the next academic year.

All of which meant I had to turn down a kind offer to replace a last minute dropout for a peal attempt, but others in Suffolk were busier in their ringing as a quarter-peal of Cambridge Surprise Minor was rung on handbells in Sudbury.

For us though the closest we got to ringing was trying to fathom how they expected to move a fallen tree in an episode of The Marlow Murder Club with a bellrope.

Not that it stopped us celebrating being able to answer Josh's question in the affirmative.

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Thursday 15th January 2026

Oh I do like to be beside the seaside...

On a day like today it may surprise you to know that I wasn't visiting Lowestoft for a bracing walk along the promenade or even to ring on the most easterly ring of bells in the UK. Rather I was here for the latest development in my search for a job, as I travelled to a place so far to the north-east of Suffolk that it is to the north-east of the North-East District of the Guild for an interview.

I'd opted to travel up by train, primarily to allow some extra preparation for the interview but also to take a more relaxed journey ("let the train take the strain!") and along the way take in the familiar surroundings from a less familiar angle. That included spotting towers with rings of bells. Not so easy with raindrops rolling down the windows and the still beautiful countryside of our county draped in grey mist and murk and even less so trying to take photos of them, as my efforts to capture Campsea Ashe's on film demonstrate! I'm not Mike Whitby!

Nonetheless, as well as that sighting of the tower which holds the lovely 6cwt gallery-ring six, I caught glimpses of Ufford, the top of Saxmundham's tower, Halesworth and Beccles from the train, before spying the spire of St Margaret's from the new Gull Wing Bridge in my ultimate destination.

The actual interview itself seemed to go well, although I have thought that of other interviews which have thus far come to nothing and so I shall have to wait and see if it was enough to secure me full-time permanent employment again.

Later on the weather put paid to Alfie's football training, but not Ruthie's choral practicing and nor did it stop the band ringing a 1260 of Braeside Place Minor at Horringer. Well done to Andrea Alderton, Sally Crouch and conductor Stephen Dawson on ringing their first quarter-peal in the method on a day when they were probably sensible to stay away from the seaside!

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Wednesday 14th January 2026

My jobhunting is getting slightly less monotonous now, with responses coming in, phonecalls with agencies and potential employers and interviews happening, but I am still grateful for any opportunity daytime ringing can offer me to take a break from the necessary relentlessness of it all.

Therefore when volunteers were recently sought to ring at Ipswich Minster this afternoon for the funeral of Hilary Norman who had served this church for over fifty years as a Lay Elder, Deacon, pastoral visitor, church warden and in the PCC, I jumped at the chance. With the seven we were able to gather on a workday we didn't do anything exciting as first I and then James Smith called some call-changes, but it got me out of the house and more importantly it was apparently much appreciated by Hilary's family.

It was also the other ringing I managed today as I returned to the county town with my Ruthie, Mason, Alfie & Josh to watch this year's Rock 'n' roll panto at the New Wolsey Theatre opposite the 10cwt six at St Matthew's. As with last year this was with my wife's family including Ufford Ringing Master Kate Eagle, but coincidentally we found ourselves sat next to occasional ringer Steve Saunders and his wife Margy. Additionally, the beauty from this performance of 'Beauty and the Beast' was called Belle Ringer, which meant lots of bellringing jokes!

All of this left no time to get to Pettistree's weekly practice, but they at least had a good start with a 1320 of Beverley Surprise Minor beforehand. And that wasn't the only quarter-peal in Suffolk either as Katie Abraham rang her first of Belfast Surprise Major in the 1344 at Elveden. Well done Katie!

I'm glad ringing was able to give others a reason to take a break too.

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Tuesday 13th January 2026

A thread on the Bellringers Facebook page today led to a fascinating discussion on when full circle change-ringing got going and saw mention of Suffolk rings Horham where the youngest bell is the treble from 1673 and St Lawrence in Ipswich which is the oldest five in the world, with all the bells dating from the fifteenth century.

No ringing for Ruthie or me on this damp winter Tuesday as once again my day was taken up with jobhunting, including having to turn down a couple of potential jobs following phone calls. After seventeen and a half years in my previous role it has occurred to me that if I could give a similar length of service to my next job that - ridiculous as it sounds to me - it could conceivably take me up or at least very near to retirement and so this decision could be one of the most important of my life.

Partly that is because if I can help it I really don't want to have to go through this stressful, relentless process again. But also partly because I'd like to retain as much of the work/life balance I was very content with at John Catt Educational and what it then morphed into. Mainly to enjoy time with my wife and children, especially watching Ipswich Town which has become a wonderful family activity. When Josh recently exclaimed "yay, I get to spend weekends with my Dad" when I mentioned that I was looking to avoid anything that required me to work Saturday or Sunday, it reinforced my desire to get something Monday-Friday, 9-5, give or take a half hour or so.

However, being able to go ringing is also important to me. It has been a reassuring constant through good times and bad with it's friendships and traditions and is something that I can be useful with, even good at, which I have particularly come to appreciate during this period of unemployment when I don't feel particularly useful. Therefore, although I can't afford to be too picky of course, a job doing door-to-door fundraising for charities with unsociable hours or one I'd have to commute to Colchester and back everyday for have had to be put on the discard pile.

Mercifully such things aren't an issue for other ringers, especially those who rang in the pre-practice quarter-peal at Offton, a location that probably hasn't changed all that much throughout the history of change-ringing. However long that is.

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Monday 12th January 2026

The first edition of The Ringing World for 2026 arrived with us today and included an obituary for Lowestoft ringer David McLean, written by his ringing son Christopher. Although his home tower was part of the Norwich Diocesan Association and therefore he was more associated with them (including being their longest serving General Secretary), he was of course also involved in ringing and ringers on our side of the border. Indeed, Christopher mentions that his father held Suffolk ringer Jeremy Spiller in high regard and felt fortunate to ring with ringers such as Pat & Trevor Bailey and former SGR Ringing Masters David Salter and Martin Thorley. And I was fortunate to ring eight peals with him and found him a lovely chap, so I was very interested reading his obituary which - as often happens even with people I knew very well - revealed information about his life that I wasn't aware of.

Sadly it wasn't the only ringing passing on my mind today as I discovered that Northamptonshire ringer Len Hallifax died over the weekend. Len was someone who rang with my mother Sally when she was ringing on the 14cwt eight in her home town of Thrapston and he rang on the 13cwt six in his village of residence of Lowick a couple of miles away. Nine of his thirty-seven peals were rung with Mum and he rang one with my Dad Alan too. When we were on Rambling Ringers round there in 2011 we visited the home of him and his wife Lesley for a meal and they attended many a Munnings family event from funerals to birthday parties, whilst they also knew ringers from our county with Ralph Earey, Joan Garrett and Diana & George Pipe among those he had rung peals with.

This sad news was relayed to me by Mum this evening at an otherwise highly enjoyable and productive weekly practice at Ipswich Minster where amongst much else we rang Stedman Cinques and Yorkshire Surprise Maximus, whilst Neil Pasmore showed that Essex ringers can call three leads of Kent Treble Maximus unlike another ringer formerly from south of the River Stour who has gone down in folklore here for their attempts to call it a few years ago!

It was all followed up with another large number of ringers retiring to the Halberd Inn to discuss the ASCY's line of succession and Gavin Edwards covert enquiries about replacing the Reverend Tom Mumford when he is due to leave at the Minster in March!

Meanwhile, amongst the dozens of emails relating to my jobhunting, I received one from Mike Cowling making me aware that Framlingham's eight are due to be be broadcast on this week's 'Bells on Sunday' programme on BBC Radio 4 with a clip from a peal of Plain Bob Triples a couple of years ago.

Earlier in the day there was ringing at Stowmarket ahead of a celebration for the life of Gerard Brewster who was a supporter of the augmentation and rehanging of the bells here and added to quite a reflective day as I remembered David McLean and Len Hallifax.

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Sunday 11th January 2026

The ringing family is a wonderful thing. At refreshments in Costa Coffee following service ringing at Ipswich Minster that included Stedman Cinques and Yorkshire Surprise Maximus this morning, Hal Meakin was telling me about one of the learners benefitting from the training bells back in the ringing chamber. They commute daily to London for work and so evenings here in Suffolk's county town aren't really practical once they get back from the big smoke and so they are having to grab sessions at the weekend. Except, such is the ringing network that they have also been able to go along to St James Garlickhythe when down in the capital where Guild PR Officer Neal Dodge and former Great Barton learner Alex Tatlow ring regularly.

The 9cwt eight was also the scene of a peal this afternoon that demonstrates another of ringing's selling points, it's almost limitless opportunities for achieving something new, as a Philip Saddleton composition of twenty-three Surprise Major methods named after colleges at the University of Cambridge was rung in 2 hours and 56 minutes. Apparently St John's College "is not a thing of loveliness!"

There was a peal within our borders too, with the 5056 of Huancayo Delight Major at Aldeburgh the first in the method for the Guild and all of the band. Well done to Mark Ogden, Mary Dunbavin, Jed Flatters, Ben Keating, Alan Mayle, Richard Rapior, James Smith and the conductor Tom Scase.

It was also the third SGR peal of the year, already putting us well ahead of where we were by this date in 2025 when we hadn't even got started!

Quarter-peals have also been plentiful in our part of the world with another couple rung today as a 1287 of Stedman Caters was rung at The Norman Tower and an appropriate length of 1299 changes of Plain Bob & Grandsire Doubles was rung at Rougham for the 99th birthday of local Ted Williams.

I did some more ringing too after my efforts on the county's heaviest twelve as I made my first visit of 2026 to the county's lightest twelve to ring for morning worship at Grundisburgh. Not unusually we didn't have enough to ring all twelve and the repertoire was more limited with call-changes on six and Plain Bob Doubles (all done on the back six as is the norm) the order of the day, but importantly we were ringing. And it was nice to catch up with ringers like the Twissells after a difficult Christmas and New Year as I enjoyed the ringing family.

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Saturday 10th January 2026

Congratulations to Gavin Edwards on ringing his first peal, achieved today with the 5040 of Bourne, Cambridge, Ipswich & Norwich Surprise Minor at Brandeston in 2 hours and 32 minutes. It is a landmark well earned for someone who has enthusiastically pursued the exercise in Essex where he lives as well as here in Suffolk. Such enthusiasm is something we could always do with more of in the art.

I was very kindly invited to ring and would've dearly loved to but this Saturday was one of football, with Alfie's team's first match of the year and then Ipswich Town's men's team beating Blackpool to reach the next round of the FA Cup. In between we had a meal at The Mermaid with Ufford Ringing Master Kate Eagle, before being welcomed at the stadium by Guild Peal Secretary Caroline Goodchild and meeting Norwich ringers Simon Rudd and his partner Ros Burroughs in the FanZone for a drink and then at halftime.

Meanwhile back in Woodbridge a quarter-peal of Plain Bob Triples was rung on the 25cwt eight on a good day for ringing in the county and especially for Gavin Edwards. Congratulations again Gavin!

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Friday 9th January 2026

The thread on the Bellringers Facebook page enquiring about the closest pub to a ring of bells brought forth thoughts for me of the Greyhound Inn at Pettistree and elicited disappointment from Colin Salter that the six of St Mary at Quay in Ipswich are now unringable and the Seahorse pub that was directly opposite the tower was long demolished.

Just across the town centre from there the Halberd Inn is not close enough to The Minster to justify an entry in this discussion, but is the tavern of choice after ringing during opening hours and so it was this evening following the South-East District Surprise Major Practice at the church formerly known as St Mary-le-Tower.

Not for us though, as we had the boys with us who understandably aren't allowed in this public house so late, but whose presence allowed both Ruthie and me to join the ringing. We also brought Mary Garner along with us, as we did at the previous Surprise Major practice here a few weeks ago. However, unlike that time we had the support of greater numbers, which allowed for more breathers, more standers behind, more experienced bands and a greater repertoire this time around.

That included touches of six and eight methods spliced and three leads of Bristol on the 34cwt back eight, which climaxed a session begun with David Lugg getting wet when he pulled the eighth off! Not the first time the bell has filled with water with heavy rainfall, so check the weather forecast before you next ring it!

Ours wasn't the only ringing within our borders though. Well done to Juliet Griffiths on ringing her first quarter-peal of Primrose Surprise Minor in the 1320 at Tostock and to Erika Clarke, Peter Richardson, Julie Richardson, conductor Philip Gorrod and tenor ringer Peter Lock on ringing their first of Allendale Surprise Minor in the 1272 at Wissett.

Perhaps they celebrated in a pub afterwards, however close it was.

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Thursday 8th January 2026

We have an extensive range of printed publications delivered to us. Dilly Dallying Daily, Fromage Fortnightly, Mould Monthly, Woman's Weekly and Yoga Yearly. Well OK, we only get The Ringing World, but of the others I would recommend that you take a look at the latest edition of Woman's Weekly. Partly because the others don't actually exist, at least as far as I'm aware. But also because they feature an article on three ringing women - Ringing Master of the Oxford Diocesan Guild Catherine Lane, Lucy Chandhial of Chingford and Sue Robinson from Worcestershire. If you can't get a copy you can see the article on the Bellringers Facebook page.

No ringing for us ("quelle surprise" I hear you mock), but I was reminded of how fortunate we are that ringing is a predominantly indoor pursuit as with Ruthie practicing with her choral colleagues, Josh and I were outside at Alfie's football training as Storm Goretti was taking hold. So bad was it that Josh eventually requested that we return to the car to get out of it and we were closely followed by Alfred as proceedings were brought to a premature end as the persistent cold, wet conditions only worsened.

Mercifully others in Suffolk were taking advantage of the inside nature of the exercise with a quarter-peal of Cambridge Surprise Major rung on handbells in Hasketon.

I was just glad to get back indoors and read all those publications.

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Wednesday 7th January 2026

I am conscious that I haven't done much ringing this year or indeed in the last fortnight, especially for someone who writes a ringing blog! Since Christmas Day Sunday mornings, weekly sessions and the South-East District Practice have been missed due to various otherwise enjoyable reasons that have unfortunately clashed due to the way everything has fallen. Having finally made some ringing at Ipswich Minster on Monday, the recent normal order was restored this evening as we missed the first Wednesday night Pettistree practice of the year to meet with Ruthie's best friend and her husband Dan for a curry at Shapla in Woodbridge.

The occasion was to celebrate new jobs for them both, their recent move up here and the recent birthday of our bridesmaid and Godmother to Alfie and with busy diaries for both them and us, tonight ended up being the only time we could gather together all in the same place at the same time!

Still, I expect they managed without us at the ground-floor six, with the tower that has led the quarter-peal columns in Suffolk every year since 2006 getting their 2026 totals underway with a 1296 of Caithness Surprise Minor. Currently though, it is sharing the leaderboard with several other towers on one quarter thus far this year, including the Barn Owl Ring in Norton where a 1312 of Yorkshire Surprise Major was also rung today.

In between jobhunting and the like, I did find myself doing my bit for the exercise as I responded to a question on the Grundisburgh Village Facebook page about after-school clubs in the village. Of course ringing isn't an after-school club (at Grundisburgh at least), but having commented in my ramblings before about residents in villages across the county moaning about children not having anything to do when there is a band of ringers on their doorstep crying out for recruits, I felt I ought to make them and others reading the thread about the opportunity for a lifetime activity in their midst.

Meanwhile there is plenty of ringing planned within our borders. Such as the South-East District Surprise Major Practice due to be held at Ipswich Minster on Friday night. Or the North-West District Practice penciled in for 10am-noon on Saturday at Stowmarket which is the first of a programme for this year shared on this website last month but which I didn't come across until today. Much is lined up including their 6-Bell Striking Competition at Bacton in April, hosting the Guild competitions at Wickham Skeith & Gislingham on Saturday 16th May a week after ringing at The Norman Tower in Bury St Edmunds followed by chiming on the glorious sounding eight at St Mary's down the road, an outing to the Braintree area in Essex in August, ADM at Ixworth in October and Quarter-Peal Fortnight in November.

It is part of a busy programme across the Guild in 2026, so God willing I'll have plenty of opportunity to do more ringing than I have done recently.

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Tuesday 6th January 2026

Recently Membership Secretary Mary Garner forwarded me an email she'd been sent by former Suffolk Guild Secretary Sandra Pereira. Sandra had read my blog entry of a week ago about the first peal of the appropriately named James Peal, very kindly filling us in on the lovely background to his success, witnessing his progress firsthand as she is now down in Hampshire. Apparently he has only been learning a couple of years and is an extremely talented and enthusiastic youngster. Indeed he only rang his first quarter-peal in August and he rang his second peal - and his first on ten - just two days after his first on New Year's Day and seems to be ringing with other young pealringers. All very encouraging and hopefully we'll be seeing more of his ringing exploits in the future! Lovely to hear from Sandra too!

Meanwhile my jobhunting has made some progress as I had my first couple of job interviews today. One of them came back later with a polite "thank you but no thank you" which underlines just how tough this process is, whilst the other one was really nice as the interviewer and I realised we had numerous mutual acquaintances and friends, including a former work colleague of mine and a number of ringers! Whether it will help me get the job or not, ringing and ringers are proving a wonderful icebreaker in these tentative initial conversations.

They were also both by video, something that simply wasn't a thing when I was last searching for work eighteen years ago. It was great not to have to leave the house for these on a day when most of yesterday's snow and ice was still about and causing disruption, with Bramford and Offton both announcing the cancellation of their weekly practices due to the conditions via the SGR Facebook page.

There was some ringing going on in the county though with a 1300 of Grandsire Doubles at Great Barton rung to celebrate the 100th birthday of local ringer Doug Rood's mother Aileen.

Happy Birthday Aileen and congratulations again to James Peal!

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Monday 5th January 2026

Let it Snow, as the song goes. The first proper snowfall here in the east of Suffolk for years was a pleasant surprise for the boys in particular who have long been bugging me about the lack of the white stuff for many a winter, as if I had any responsibility for it! Ironically, it also provided a festive backdrop as I took down our Christmas tree and decorations on this twelfth night.

However, it inevitably caused disruption and uncertainty. BellBoard was noticeably quieter with only two peals recorded from across the whole of the UK, whilst there was nothing from within our borders at all, which is unusual in recent months. Woodbridge have cancelled their weekly Tuesday night practice tomorrow too.

Ipswich Minster's maiden Monday night session of the year went ahead, but as the ringers' WhatsApp group filled up with people saying they wouldn't be coming due to the conditions and of course others (entirely reasonably!) not going due to looking after a one-day old child, I was worried we were going to be quite short. So much so that when offered to join Ruthie, her mother and sister at The Wilford Bridge for dinner following a spot of bridesmaid dress shopping for the latter's wedding planned for later this year, I passed on that to go to the county's heaviest twelve.

Therefore with the boys picked up by their mother, gran and aunt to go to the pub, I made my way into the county town, treated myself to a McDonald's and went ringing for the first time since that first morning of Christmas. The lengthy break from the art certainly hasn't been intentional. I'd like to think I am good at parenthood and raising the boys is the most important thing I'll ever do, but in recent weeks especially ringing has given me something to be useful at in the wider world, whilst my friendships up the tower have been a much needed outlet of support beyond my wonderfully patient family. However, over Christmas everything seems to have happened at the same time as ringing I would've done, from oddly timed football to family trips to weekends away and New Year's Eve falling on a Wednesday when we would've otherwise gone to Pettistree.

Tonight then, I was particularly glad to get out to participate in the exercise. Despite the understandable absences we were able to ring Cambridge & Yorkshire Surprise Maximus and Stedman Cinques, but without me we wouldn't have had the numbers for Abby Antrobus to have someone standing behind her for Lincolnshire Surprise Maximus or to ring all three Surprise Max methods spliced.

A large number of us then retired to the Halberd Inn where Jonathan and Sue were in a celebratory mood after becoming grandparents, before I went Driving Home for Christmas in the snow.

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Sunday 4th January 2026

We're used to new beginnings in the New Year, but Ipswich Minster ringers Lucy & George have taken it to new levels with the ultimate of new beginnings with the birth this morning of their first child.

It was wonderful news to begin our day with as we vacated New Moze Hall after a lovely couple of nights here. Thank you to mother-in-law Kate for a hugely fun weekend which was just the thing to counter what is usually quite a depressing point in the calendar.

Although following a flurry of packing and eating up leftover food we had finished our stay here and we weren't too far from home, we continued our family trip with a visit to the famous and fascinating Tiptree Jam Museum and Tearooms, a bit of retail therapy for some of our party at the nearby Perrywood garden centre and Poplar Nurseries in Marks Tey before eventually getting back to our abode.

None of which left any time for ringing for the second Sunday in a row, but again Suffolk's ringers were picking up the slack, including at Halesworth where a quarter-peal of Plain Bob Triples was rung on the 18cwt ground-floor eight.

Well done to them on that success and congratulations to Lucy & George on their new beginnings!

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Saturday 3rd January 2026

A thread started by Norwich City fan but friend of Suffolk ringing and general good egg Sue Marsden on the Bellringers Facebook page last night asking who alive today has the earliest first peal date was already generating copious amounts of responses when I awoke this morning to that glorious Essex countryside surrounding New Moze Hall, with Daphne Pegg coming up in the conversation. Although no longer ringing, Daphne is still going strong at 96 and rang her first peal on 29th November 1946 at Burgh, conjuring up an idyllic scene that has probably altered little at this isolated church. Although hopefully the 8cwt six rung from the porch were hopefully easier going eighty years ago! Incredibly though, she was pipped to the post by 101-year old Lucile Corby who rang her first peal on handbells in Enfield (ironically in Suffolk Road!) on 28th April 1945 and then rang her first towerbell peal a few days later on the original VE Day at Edmonton. As an aside, according to the wonderful Pealbase, John Thomas on the sixth rang his first peal in 1899. Amazing ringing history.

No ringing for us though, including missing the South-East District Practice at Hollesley this afternoon. However, it sounds like they had a super turnout, whilst others in the county were also busy in the exercise, including the first Guild peal of 2026 as Philip Erith was remembered with a peal at Grundisburgh composed and conducted by twice Past SGR Ringing Master Stephen Pettman who he taught to ring. That wasn't the only peal rung within our borders on this bright but freezing Saturday, with a 5040 rung in hand in Bacton for the Ely Diocesan Association, whilst the quarter-peal of Plain Bob at Woolpit was Chris Graham's first of Minor. Well done Chris!

Pity as it was to miss the first SE event of the year, we were having a fun and interesting day as we made the short journey from our fantastic base in Great Oakley to Colchester where we took in a visit to the castle that included a bell cast by Richard Bowler in 1591 for East Bergholt, a cuppa and cake at Roots & Grooves Cafe, a spot of shopping and a meal at The Camulodunum before wandering past the 21cwt eight at St Peter's on the way to the Charter Hall to watch Shrek The Musical. It was lovely to see the children so excited to watch this and as is usually the case with these productions there was much to entertain us adults too, including star of TV Danny John-Jules starring as Donkey!

Meanwhile it has been a super start to the year for women's ringing as following on from Eleanor Linford's exploits at St Paul's Cathedral on New Year's Day she was today part of the first all-female band to ring David Pipe's classic 11-part of six Maximus methods spliced in the 5016 at Melbourne in Derbyshire, which also included Suffolk resident Liz Orme. This is something that most and probably all of the band will have done as individuals, but along with Eleanor's ringing of a 61cwt bell to a peal on Thursday it further undermines the once traditional perception of women in an art that in the past would attribute their husband's name to their performances and wouldn't allow them membership of societies like the College Youths or even to attend their annual dinner.

Appropriate too on a day when Daphne Pegg and Lucile Corby's peal-ringing was being celebrated!

Friday 2nd January 2026

Someone on the radio described today as being "simultaneously like a Monday and a Friday". Even in my current circumstances I thought it summed it up perfectly as many returned to work before then almost instantly finishing for the weekend.

Ruthie and I both skipped the work bit as once we'd picked Mason up we joined mother-in-law and Ufford Ringing Master Kate Eagle and others from my wife's family at New Moze Hall at Great Oakley in Essex. This huge property is to be our home for the next couple of days and my wife and I were fortunate to be allocated a room in the attic with a balcony. It is a bit too chilly to take advantage of that, but we do at least have a stunning view over the countryside surrounding this isolated old house. And there was plenty of space to enjoy a sociable evening of food, drink, the hot tub and - once my eldest son had worked out how we turn it on - TV.

No ringing for us though, but back in Suffolk another quarter-peal was rung as a 1260 of Buxton Bob Minor was rung on the 5cwt gallery-ring six of Tostock. Well done to Serena & Mark Steggles and Simon Veal on ringing their first in the method on this Monday-esque Friday.

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New Year's Day 2026

As mentioned in yesterday's rambling blog entry there were numerous towers in the county ringing 2026 in and I was delighted to read of a couple of other places doing likewise. And quite notable ones at that, with the entirely unique five at East Bergholt welcoming the New Year and Fornham St Martin doing so for the first time.

The latter was later also the scene of one of the first quarter-peals in Suffolk for this year, with the 1260 of St Alkmund Bob Triples accompanied within our borders by the same number of changes of Somersham Bob Minor on the back six at Horringer. Well done to Max Thomson on ringing behind to a QP of Triples for the first time in the former and to Martin Kirk, David Steed, Dee Smith, Sally Crouch, Louise Whitehead, Deborah Blumfield and conductor Stephen Dawson on ringing their first blows in the method, whilst in the latter well done to Sally, Stephen and David again and also Andrea Alderton, North-West District Ringing Master Joshua Watkins and Josephine Beever on ringing their first blows in the method too.

Meanwhile Josephine was part of a group of Suffolk ringers who have been quarter-pealing in Kent this week with a 1296 of Grandsire Caters at Ash next Sandwich on Saturday and at Bekesbourne on Monday a 1320 of Kent Treble Bob Minor which was Josephine's sixtieth and Adrian Edwards's one hundred and twentieth in the medium of 2025. Congratulations Josephine and Adrian!

That was a great end to last year for them both, whilst beyond our borders it was a great start to this year for many peal-ringers with David Pipe's 'Particles' composition rung at York Minster with a band featuring former Exning learner Jimmy Yeoman, whilst at St Paul's Cathedral the 61cwt tenor became the heaviest bell rung single-handed by a woman as Eleanor Linford rang it to 5009 of Stedman Cinques. Phenomenal efforts all round.

Whilst not expecting to achieve anything like these, one of my ringing ambitions for 2026 is to improve on my peal totals. I managed eleven last year with a couple called off and a couple more lost, so hopefully it is achievable. Of course my current circumstances make it harder to plan peal-ringing too far ahead, especially during the week, but it also opens up opportunities for some potential last minute filling in! There is the extra motivation that my next peal for the Guild would be my 500th!

More generally from a ringing perspective I hope that both Ruthie and I are able to support ringing locally on practice nights and on Sundays (albeit the latter is pretty much impossible most weeks for my wife due to her choral duties) and also get along to more South-East District events. On a similar note we hope to be able to enjoy the SGR AGM planned for the South-West District on Saturday 11th April and the striking competitions pencilled in for Wickham Skeith and Gislingham in the North-West District on Saturday 16th May, but there is so much lined up that I pray we and many others can support, so please keep an eye on What's On and join as much as you can. People put a lot of time and effort into these events and they can be so useful and enjoyable, so it is always a big pity if not many turn up.

Beyond ringing though and apart from the obvious aim of getting back into paid employment as soon as possible, my main hope for this year is good health and happiness for our family and friends and that I can enjoy even more time together with Ruthie and the boys, such as on Rambling Ringers which is intended to go not too far away in Hertfordshire and West Essex this summer. And of course in watching Ipswich Town play.

That was something we were able to get underway straight away this year as feeling hungover and tired after last night's celebrations we had a rare dry afternoon at Portman Road to watch the men's senior team move into second in the league with a win over Oxford United and take a stunning red sky. We still managed our usual pre-match meal at The Mermaid, but this time surrounded by teapots and met up in the FanZone and at halftime with former St Mary-le-Tower Ringing Master Simon Rudd, although our sobriety was a considerable shock to him!

Nonetheless it was a lovely way to start a year rung in so memorably at East Bergholt and Fornham St Martin.

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The views expressed in this blog are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of The Suffolk Guild of Ringers.

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