Month: October 2024

by Paul Flavell

The annual Surrey Association’s Six and Eight Bell Striking Competitions were held at St Mary’s Caterham on a showery afternoon, Saturday 12 October 2024. 

Many thanks to the Caterham on the Hill ringers for hosting the event and providing wonderful cakes and buns and to Nick Wilkins and Catherine Lewis from Kent for being our judges. The ringing was good throughout and the final results were as follows:

Six Bell Competition

1^st       Kingston                 23 faults
2^nd      Caterham X            37 faults
3^rd       Merton Park           47 faults
4^th=     Caterham Y           75 faults
4^th=     Richmond              75 faults

Eight Bell Competition

1^st       Kingston                62 faults
2^nd      Caterham Z            86 faults

Congratulations to all teams that took part and congratulations to Kingston for winning the Taylor Trophy and the Pat Cannon Trophy.

Andrew Crea Bolton, 30 October 1940 – 23 August 2024

Andrew learned to ring in Newburn, Northumberland, and was a member of the College Youths. He rang extensively in the UK and abroad, including at St Paul’s, Melbourne, and was a founder of the Transvaal Society of Church Bell Ringers in South Africa. Most recently, he rang at All Saints, Kingston upon Thames.

Obituary by Paul Flavell
(with thanks to the Bolton family and Chris Ridley)

Andrew’s family were evacuated from Hong Kong, where his father was working at the time, a few days before the Japanese invasion. As a consequence, Andrew was born in Melbourne, Australia in 1940 despite the family having its roots in the Northeast of England. They returned to the Newcastle area when Andrew was 13 years old, where he excelled in science and maths at school.

He studied electrical engineering at King’s College in Newcastle which then was a federal college of the University of Durham. This qualification led Andrew to a career in high voltage electrical engineering working on the design and building of power stations, high-power distribution networks and the electrification of railway lines. His work took him around the world working in Australia, South Africa, Indonesia and Jordan as well as England and Wales, continuing to work well past retirement age due to his expertise. He very much enjoyed passing on his skills to a younger generation of engineers.

Andrew was a very practical chap (except we believe for gardening) and often made and repaired things. He also enjoyed puzzles and cryptic crosswords and listening to classical music.

Andrew and Shirley were married in snowy December 1963, enabling them to spend their honeymoon on a skiing holiday. Andrew was elected to the College Youths on 12 October 1965 while living in Melbourne Australia. This most probably was the result of him participating in a peal of Kent Treble Bob Maximus (first peal of Maximus rung outside the UK) with the band on the 2nd Great Adventure to Australia. His peal total rung between 1961 and 2015 was 48 peals in total – 40 on tower bells with 8 in hand. His working life resulted in him being a member of many societies around the world, ringing peals in a variety of countries.

He learnt to ring in the Newcastle area at a rounds and call change tower but was soon noticed by Ron Warford leading to him ringing his first peal at St George, Jesmond. Andrew was tower captain at both Newburn on Tyne and Jesmond and taught many ringers there, including Andrew Craddock. His sons remember that before the bells were installed in Johannesburg, ringing involved handbell peals and quarters rung in the living room at their home. Andrew and Shirley formed the Parktown Tune Ringers and arranged much of the music for the team. Andrew and Shirley were also members of the Universities Association.

They had recently celebrated their Diamond Wedding anniversary with their two sons and grandchildren and were pleased to receive a card from the King. Retirement saw him and Shirley living in Surbiton where he became a regular and much-loved member of the Kingston upon Thames band, ringing over 100 quarters there. He particularly enjoyed ringing the tenor to cover odd bell methods.

Andrew died on 23 August 2024 aged 83 after a period of poor health, although he continued to participate in Service ringing, last ringing for the King’s Coronation on 6 May 2023. His funeral was a celebration of his life and well attended by family, friends, members of the UA and local ringers.

A quarter peal was rung in affectionate memory of Andrew Crea Bolton. Thomas recorded the quarter and you can view it on his YouTube channel.

Quarter peals rung In memorian – Andrew Bolton and this quarter in Melbourne.

by Fraser Storie

Twas a sunny, mid-July morning, when I found myself on a trip to the
Flavells’ house, due to me being kindly invited to go on the Kingston bell ringers’ annual expedition, this year – a fast-paced one day trip. Kate Corney was behind the organisation, with Paul Flavell overseeing the operation (most notably making sure the lunchtime menu contained Fish & Chips!). The base was the Cotswold District of Gloucestershire, meaning all towers were grabs for me.

The highlight tower was the ring of 12 at Cirencester. The tower here contains a mid-weight ring, with an extremely boomy 27cwt tenor tuned to Db. Ringing here included several bursts of Rounds on 12, Plain Hunt on 9 & 11, Grandsire Caters & Little Bob Royal.

The pack then began its afternoon circuit getting closer to home as it
went on. Our lunch venue was The Masons Arms, Meysey Hampton. We had the luxury of the longest table in the pub thanks to Kate C informing them of the numbers. Paul gave positive remarks about his Fish & Chips and I gave my positive remarks about the very sizeable burger! Depending on how exhausted we were after our lunch, we either walked or drove to the local ring of 6 in Meysey Hampton. Our method repertoire was exercised here with Grandsire & Stedman Doubles and even Surprise Minor on the menu.

The remaining towers included: Down Ampney, a tricky ring of 5 where we came across Mr Simon D G Webb, someone I’ve seen on the interwebs many times but never in real life! Paul was excited about ringing here as Down Ampney is also the name of a hymn tune, Mark Underwood gave us a jolly recital of it!

Cricklade were next, Ground floor 6 with the rope circle resembling more of a square, with ropes in the corners, complete with an excruciatingly long draught.

Our final stop was Rodbourne Cheney, a surprising coincidence as a recent name in the visitors book was Fred Mills, ex-Surrey Striker who lives in the area now. These were a true delight to ring, a pleasant course of Stedman Doubles was rung, amongst other things. During our visit we were serenaded by a guitarist downstairs! We all made us of the facilities at Rodbourne Cheney before heading home, via a rather wet M4!

My thanks to the Kingston Ringers, in particular Kate C for excellent
organisation and to Paul & Kate Flavell for chauffeuring me around.