Branch Spring Outing Report 2008

On Saturday 26th April Daddy made us all get up really early and got Mummy to drive us all to Islip. There we queued up with some other people who looked a bit strange, but smiled at me a lot.

They were the bell ringers, Grace. They're quite nice most of the time.

Oh, ok. Anyway, we all got on a coach I like coach trips.. ok, who's writing this? Anyway, the coach took us a long way so I had a sleep. When I woke up we were in a village called "Lacock" which Mummy & Daddy had been to before. We had quite a long walk to the church Easy for you to say, Daddy carried you! ..ahem.. and Mummy found us lots of toys to play with in the church. Mummy and Daddy took it in turns to ring the 6 bells .. they sounded quite nice, but I was concentrating on working out crawling. Any idea what they rang?

I think Daddy tried some "Bob Minor", but it went wrong. I think they also tried some "Cambridge". Isn't that where our mad scientist Auntie lives? Yes, I think so.

Daddy took a photo of them ringing there too. When did he do that? I didn't see him That's because you were playing with the Fuzzy Felt Oh.Teresa is starring at us, and Simon Cole is on the right. Is he related? No - he just has the same surname. Are you sure? He has the same size tummy!I think you can tell the difference by the speed they drive. Ah.. Simon obviously cannot reach light-speed in his car then. Anyway, moving on...

We went back to the coach to go to the next church, but we had to wait for the french man to buy an ice cream I think he just speaks french.. he's English really.. Oh yeah, I forgot. Anyway, when he finally got back to the coach the driver took us to "Melksham" which the bell-ringers had visited on a previous branch outing before I was born. As you can see, you get into this tower through a door on the outisde. Daddy ran that tower so we stayed outside to listen.

They rang lots of call changes, and plain hunt here, and a plain course of Grandsire Triples too. At the end they tried some plain hunt on all 8 Daddy rang the tenor for that, didn't he? Yes, he is always showing off like that! Really? I've so much to learn!

We went to lunch in Devizes and Daddy showed me the canal whilst Mummy went with Samuel to find some ice creams.

After lunch the coach driver took us to a big playground with a big pond beside it. I think he actually took us to the church to ring Yeah, but we can't ring can we? No, but this is supposed to be a bellringing report, not a report on the slides you found to play on. Grace, shut up, this is my bit of the report!

You're not fighting are you?

No Daddy No we're not

Ok, keep the noise down then

..Has he gone?

Yes

OK, where were we?

Writing a report on the bellringing trip

Oh yeah. That church in Devizes was being renovated or something so we had to be careful in there. We went up to watch and a couple of nice ladies looked after us. You cried during one bit of ringing .. another failed attempt at Bob Minor I think. Well Mummy and Daddy shouldn't leave us alone for more than 5 seconds We did have people looking after us though. That's not the point - they should be at our beck and call every second of the day. Well, I agree with you there.

Our next stop was Avebury where there was another long walk to the church, this time past lots of stones arranged in lines. They were in rings actually. The Avebury stones are famous. There are three rings, the two inner ones built around 2600BC and the outer ring built in 2500BC. BC? Is that "By Cole"? No silly - it means "before children".. Mummy & Daddy set them up before we were born Oh right - I thought the stones looked as though they'd been there a while. Anyway, the ringing there was .. erm.. what was the ringing like? It was another 6 bell tower, so they managed to fail another attempt at "Bob Minor". We got another ice cream on the way back to the coach there - you got one with a chocolate stick in the top Yeah, it was yummy.. only thing for a hot day like that!.

The last tower was .. erm.. I cannot really remember the last one. That's because you fell asleep just before we got there - you slept on Daddy the whole time we were there so he couldn't go and ring. Did I? Oh, well can you tell everyone what happened?

Well it was a nice enough church with a stone font which (so Grandad says) was used to baptise several Princes, and Granny-Ann. The ringing sounded ok, but I didn't really pay attention to that - I was too interested in making a daisy chain, and walking along a dead tree with the other girl who came on the outing. You flirt! What does that mean? I'll tell you when you're older! Get on with the report.

Well that's it really. It was a lovely sunny day, and all 23 of us had a good time. I thought there was 22 No, you're forgetting yourself. Teresa did that a few times too. Oh yeah. It's so much easier playing hide and seek when you're my size!

Are all bellringing outings like that with sunshine, and lots of toys to play with?

Yes, pretty much

Great. When's the next one?