The East Grinstead and District Guild of Church Bell Ringers
Minutes of the East Grinstead & District Guild Quarterly Meeting
Held at Colemans Hatch on Saturday, 10 September 2016
The meeting commenced at 17:43.
Before commencing with business, the Chairman announced that Kate Desbottes and Patrick Wills were now married. The Chairman thanked Helen, Roger and Ros, Ros’s parents, Gail and Patrick and Kate for the provision of tea.
1. Apologies for absence were received from:
John Harriyot, Susan Hollyman, Jane Wroe, David Cochrane, Ollie Watson, Margaret Funnell, Gavin Bennett, Ros & Roger Cowsill (who had to leave partway through the meeting)
2. Minutes of the quarterly meeting held at Chiddingstone on 11th June 2016
Kate Wills read the minutes to the meeting.
Julie McDonnell’s name at paragraph 9.3 was incorrectly spelled and this was duly amended.
Sheila Marsh proposed adoption of the amended minutes and Helen Goldstraw seconded the proposal. All those who were present at the last meeting were in favour of adopting the minutes.
3. Matters arising
3.1 Mike Bullett confirmed that a Rope Fund grant of £200 had been made to Bletchingley. He had recently receiving a thank you letter from the Bletchingley Tower Captain, Ed Muller.
3.2 David Finch apologised if he had caused any offence as a result of the criteria that he had laid out for choosing the band for the proposed 90th anniversary peal attempt, as set-out in the minutes.
3.3 Roger Cowsill thanked the Chair, Dave Threlfall, for a brilliant outing organised in July.
3.4 Re Item 8 - Patrick Wills apologised and said that he had trouble downloading the photo of Ian Cochrane. Candy suggested a resolution to this.
3.5 Re Item 9.5 - It was agreed that the secretary would bring a supply of membership application forms to the next business meeting.
4. New Members
Mary Burr from Seaford, wished to become a member. She was proposed by David Finch and seconded by Robin Grant. She was unanimously elected by the meeting and welcomed with a round of applause.
5. Guild Clothing
Kate Wills apologised for the fact that she had not made any progress with the proposed clothing order, although she had already been in touch with the clothing supplier. She agreed to e-mail details of available clothing to members.
6. 90th Anniversary Guild Dinner
Patrick Wills said that he had visited the Felbridge Hotel and had a look at the venue. The room was available on Friday, 9th June at a cost of £100. To have the same room on Saturday, 10th June, would cost £1,500. As regards prices of meals, there was a set meal with no choice for £25 per person. For £35 per person there was a degree of choice but this had to be notified to the hotel in advance. There will be three choices per course – the same as the Guild dinner this year. The Chairman indicated that he would like the Guild to subsidise the £100 booking fee, assuming that we agreed to hold the dinner on the Friday, plus a further £10 per head. Mike Bullett, the Treasurer, indicated that he needed to investigate the affordability of a £10 per head subsidy.
Patrick confirmed that the venue was a pleasant one, which the Guild would have to themselves, with a bar to one side, self-contained toilet facilities, and French windows looking on to a patio.
Patrick said that there were other places that we could look at. However, if we wanted to book the Felbridge Hotel we needed to reserve the date by paying a deposit of £300.
Sheila Marsh highly recommended the Felbridge Court Hotel.
Further discussions followed: it was agreed that Barnsgate Manor was not central and the food one year had been particularly poor; Andrew Brock said that Rowfant House has closed down; The Brambletye Hotel at Forest Row was limited for space and would probably be too small for this sort of dinner. With regard to the peal attempt, this had been planned for Saturday. It was suggested that perhaps this could be brought forward to the Friday, particularly as this would be nearer to the actual anniversary day (6th June). It was pointed-out that if we elect to go on the Saturday with a much higher booking fee, there would be several members who would not be prepared to attend.
Robin Grant proposed that we adopt 9th June for the dinner and this was seconded by Mike Bullett. The decision as to whether there should be a per capita subsidy was to be left to the Treasurer to ascertain and the committee would then make a decision.
Patrick commented that we needed at least 40 guests because this is the minimum number for which we would be charged.
7. Trip to Whitechapel Bell Foundry
Patrick confirmed that he had phoned the Foundry first thing on Monday, 5th September, this being the earliest date that this could be done. There were no tours available on Saturday, 2nd July 2017. However, he was offered the second Saturday in August, which he had booked. He has already received a cheque for the full amount of £375 from the Treasurer and this will be paid to the Foundry. This is the cost for the maximum number of people, being 25. The tour commences at 1.15pm and therefore those people who wanted to attend needed to be there by 1pm. Patrick suggested that there should be ringing at a local Tower from say, 12 noon to 12.45pm, with a late lunch after the tour at say, 2.30pm, plus one or two other Towers to follow after lunch. Patrick will print some tickets for sale at £15 each which will be sold to members on a first come, first served basis. If the tickets are not sold within the Guild then he will spread the net. The 10am tour slot was considered by Patrick to be too early, hence choosing the 1pm slot. He felt that this fitted well with the dinner in June, an ordinary ringing meeting in July, with the Foundry trip in August.
8. Guild Library
This remains with Dave Threlfall. It is in no danger being housed in Dave’s garage. This is adequate and not leaky but it would be nice to have the library housed somewhere else. Nobody has come up with any workable suggestion. Did the meeting have any ideas about where it could go? If the library is not re-housed, Dave Threlfall will have to have it sealed to protect it. This, however, means that it would be difficult for members to access the library. It was suggested that perhaps the library could be kept at Colemans Hatch, which is one of the founder Towers as more Guild peals have been rung there than anywhere else but the general view was that the ringing chamber was too small.
Dave Threlfall indicated that as the matter of re-housing the library had not been determined today, he would take professional advice so that the library does not deteriorate in his garage.
9. Any other business
9.1 Dave Threlfall had brought along a copy of the Blue Line for Julie McDonnell Doubles and would like the Guild to attempt a quarter peal. He said that if 100 quarter peals are rung in Julie McDonnell’s name by the end of 2016, there is a benefactor who will donate £35,000 to the Anthony Nolan Trust. Over 60 quarter peals have been rung so far. It was agreed that a quarter peal in the method should be attempted prior to the evening meeting at Cowfold on 8th October. Patrick Wills agreed to conduct the quarter peal. Members volunteering for the band were Patrick and Kate, Dave Threlfall and Helen Goldstraw. Clearly, this arrangement was subject to agreement with the Cowfold ringers, and it was left that Patrick would make the necessary arrangements.
9.2 Dave Threlfall informed the meeting that Roger Cowsill will be having surgery at the end of this month and Roger will be unable to ring until the New Year.
9.3 It was noted that we could continue ringing at Colemans Hatch until 8pm.
The meeting closed at 6.40pm.
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