President’s Blog – April 2026

The second weekend of April was more than busy for me! At 0530hrs I was out of bed for a brisk walk before breakfast then travelled down to Wendron to deliver a rise and fall workshop for their ringers.  Much progress was made with my 4 and 2 approach and all the 6 delegates did very well throughout the 3 hour session. My thanks to Debbie, Hayley, Kathy, Martin, Matthew, Neil, Toby and Bob as without them we would not have been able to have such a successful morning. I do hope that another workshop will be organised in the future for the Western District as a whole, so if you are interested please contact one of the District Officers.

With no time for a lunch stop I travelled on with Tony and Blake down to Madron to ring on their fine 8 and you’ll never guess who I bumped into in the car park………….Wendy Gill, current Master of the Devonshire Guild of Ringers. I haven’t seen Wendy for years and after trying to remember where and when we last met we finally decided it was probably on a Henry Trewin tour on a Bank Holiday Monday.

The following weekend wasn’t much quieter either. On the Saturday Victoria Tucker from the Devon Association of Ringers invited me to deliver a Bell Maintenance course. Victoria chose two towers – a wooden frame and fittings at Spreyton and a cast iron and fittings at Okehampton. Around 30 people over three groups attended and I felt everyone took away something with them as Victoria received many positive feedbacks. The next day was another early start meeting up with Neil C to give Laneast a good tighten up so that ringing could re-start.  Another 6 tower back up and going for Cornwall and beyond.

Saturday, 25th saw me behind the pencil again with ex-TDGR Secretary Hayley Young at the Devon Ringers Council’s 10, 8 and 6 bell competition. This year it was held at Tavistock for the 10, Buckland Monachorum for the 8 and Whitchurch for the 6.  A very full day of ringing for the teams.

 

At Tavistock James and I were sat in a solicitors car part adjacent to the tower enjoying the beautiful sunshine when somebody decided it was the right time to cut their grass! Following on from that a lady drove into the car park and must have wondered what two blokes were doing sat on picnic chairs with books and pencils ……. She said “Are you parking attendants?” to which I answered “What, for 4 spaces!”  Her sister then drove in and just as the bells stood asked what we were doing.  James explained that we were judging a striking competition of church bells and well I can’t really describe the look on her face as she walked off as no bells were ringing!

Hayley joined us at Buckland Monachorum to get the chance to judge for the first time. She already knew somebody in the judging team and introductions were made with James. We were all in the same ballpark throughout the day which is always encouraging!  It was also nice to have a judges peal before the competition began at Whitchurch which, I might add, included some very good striking.

The Northern District were in action again with their Improvers practice on the 28th, under their new format on a weekday evening. Over 20 ringers ventured to Poundstock for a ring with different things being on the menu. Wendy put in her Facebook post that “even the Vicar came and helped with the washing up”.

Up ‘ere in the East we had a District practice at St. Neot which was attended by over 40 ringers making it a busy evening for me in my capacity as Eastern District Ringing Master keeping the Pennington bells going solidly for 1hr 45mins. Many of us went into the London Inn afterwards crowding onto just 4 tables!

So, here it is, the last full President’s Blog of my term of Office.  I do hope you have found these reports interesting and informative and I wish you all the very best for your ringing in the future

Keep ringing and oll an gwella!

Owen J Borlase

Guild President – 2023 to 2026