by Paul Flavell
Wells was the venue for the Kingston ringers’ weekend outing held in stiflingly hot conditions in July. We didn’t ring at the Cathedral but some wonderful bells made up for this, starting with Ditcheat and magnificent Shepton Mallet on Friday afternoon. Fraser managed to get a ring at the Friday practice at St Cuthbert’s Wells before joining the rest of us for dinner.
On the Saturday, we rang at Wookey, where ringers were banished to the naughty corner on the 5th bell hidden by the clock case, Westbury sub Mendip and the challenging eight at Cheddar, where there was a lock in rather than a lock out, fortunately Charlotte had a mobile signal and we were able to get the local back to let her out! Ali and Willow were very relieved to see her!
We were joined by some old friends for the day – Philip Pratt and Anna Bayley, Chris Jenkins and locals Jack Pease (the Somerset one) and Paul Wotton and were very grateful for their help as some of the bells were quite heavy. We took the opportunity of giving Philip a rope to repair.
Driving up Cheddar Gorge was a challenge due to cyclists cycling up the Gorge at five miles per hour but whizzing back down the descent. It was worth the detour to get to the Somerset Wagon where we enjoyed a pleasant lunch.
We were joined at Chilcompton by locals Adrian and David, and this meant we were able to ring a passable course of Stedman Cinques on this lovely ground floor 12 in beautiful surroundings. We can see why Chilcompton was chosen as the venue for the National 12 Bell Competition in 2024.
At ground floor Binegar a little boy playing in his paddling pool heard the bells and demanded that his father take him to the church to watch us ring! He was very excited – a future recruit there I’m sure. We finished on the heavy and extremely loud six at Croscombe and earned a very enjoyable drink at the Full Moon pub and a good curry in Wells in the evening.
Sunday morning we had arranged to join the locals on the ground floor 12 at Midsomer Norton and between us did some quite acceptable ringing. The church goers were most interested and wondered who the visitors were. We also rang for a service on the gallery ring at Radstock and were given a round of applause by the congregation which was a very good end to our tour!
Next year’s outing will be a more local affair – any ideas or suggestions welcome but I’m thinking of Romsey Abbey and the towers in Southampton might be a good idea.