The East Grinstead and District Guild of Church Bell Ringers
Minutes of the East Grinstead & District Guild Quarterly Meeting
Held at Limpsfield on Saturday, 14 January 2017
The meeting commenced at 6.00pm.
The Chairman, Dave Threlfall, welcomed everybody to the meeting and thanked Fr James Percival for taking the service and playing the organ, and the ladies from the Limpsfield Band, who provided cups of tea and coffee. He wished everybody a Happy New Year and thanked Patrick, Kate, Gail, Ros and Roger for providing an excellent tea.
1. Apologies
These were received from:-
David Cochrane, Andrew Howell, Ruth Goodsir, David Tomsett, Hugo Tracey, Mike Bullett and Helen Goldstraw.
2. Minutes of the Quarterly meeting held at Colemans Hatch on 10th September 2016
Kate Wills read out the minutes to the meeting. The following amendments were agreed:
Item 1 was amended to read “apologies for absence were received from” and Holly Watson should read “Ollie Watson”.
Item 2 should read “Helen Goldstraw” instead of “Helen Goldsmith”.
Item 6 should be amended to read “Sheila Marsh highly recommended the Felbridge Court Hotel”.
Subject to these amendments, adoption of the minutes, this was seconded by Sheila Marsh, and the meeting agreed.
3. Matters arising (not covered by the Agenda)
3.1 Kate Wills apologised re the clothing referred to at Item 5 of the minutes of the meeting on 10th September 2016, and said that she had not had the opportunity to deal with the clothing order but would do so.
3.2 It was confirmed by Patrick Wills that Ian Cochrane’s photograph now appeared on the website.
3.3 Dave Threlfall apologised for not having obtained advice regarding the sealing of the Guild Library, as referred to at Item 8 of the minutes of the meeting.
4. Election of new members
4.1 Sheila Marsh proposed Barbara Taylor of Coulsdon as a new member. This was seconded by Patrick Wills. Barbara was unanimously elected by the meeting and welcomed with a round of applause.
4.2 Dave Threlfall mentioned a ratification of the election of Chris Cooper immediately prior to the peal attempt held on Saturday, 7th January 2017, when Ollie Watson achieved his first peal. This was rung at Withyham, conducted by Alan Pink, and the band comprised Ollie Watson on the treble, Ros Cowsill on the two, Dave Threlfall on the three, Oli Thompson on the four, Hugo Tracey on the five, Simon Lawrence (past Treasurer of the Guild) on the six, Alan Pink (conductor) on the seven and Chris Cooper on the tenor. The peal was achieved in two hours and 48 minutes and a photo of the band had been published on BellBoard. Patrick Wills agreed to post the photograph on the Guild website. The peal was rung to celebrate Ollie Watson’s 13th birthday in November.
5. Visit to Whitechapel Bell Foundry on 18th February 2017
Patrick Wills confirmed that this was now taking place on Saturday 18th February 2017. Patrick had sold 15 tickets as at today’s date. If, in a couple of weeks’ time, those remaining tickets are unsold (there are 25 in total) he will spread the net outside of the Guild. Louise Pink had indicated that she had not rung the bells at St George in the East, and would like the tower to be available on the day of the visit, if possible. The trip to the foundry is booked for 4pm (and those attending have to be at the Foundry by no later than 3.45pm on the day) and Patrick indicated that he would be happy to arrange one or more Towers beforehand for the Guild members to ring the bells there. It was agreed that Patrick would see if he could arrange at least St George in the East. Ian Cochrane, who does not have e-mail access, would need to know in advance what had been arranged in terms of Tower ringing and Dave Threlfall agreed to phone him.
6. 90th Anniversary Guild dinner
Patrick confirmed that this was booked for Friday, 9th June 2017, as requested by the members. The cost will be £35 per ticket for a three-course dinner. Patrick confirmed that he would have tickets for sale at the AGM in March at East Grinstead.
7. Guild Library
Finding alternative housing for the Guild library had not progressed. Ros Cowsill confirmed that she does not ring at Colemans Hatch very often and the Tower is, as a consequence, not heated very often. Patrick said that when we visited Colemans Hatch in September 2016 for the Quarterly meeting, it occurred to him that it would be possible to put up some high shelving to re-house the library but it would involve some cost and that the work would probably require an Archdeacon’s certificate. It was agreed that Dave Threlfall would give Ros Cowsill measurements of the cabinet in which the library is currently housed to see if this will fit at Colemans Hatch and, in the interim, Dave will prioritise getting the library protected, as he had agreed at the meeting in September 2016.
8. Meeting Programme for 2017-2018
Patrick Wills acknowledged that this was not normally discussed at this meeting as the programme is usually determined by the committee at their annual meeting in February of each year. He had, however, put together the following proposals for the programme, and asked for comments:
April 2017 Newdigate (6) (last visited 2003)
June 2017 Maresfield (8) (last visited 2009)
July 2017 Limpsfield Chart (6) (last visited 2006) – this has a vertical ladder to access to the ringing chamber, which is rather small.
Usually the annual outing was arranged in July but as the Whitechapel Bell Foundry trip was going ahead in February it seemed sensible to book another Tower for July.
August 2017 Lindfield (where the bells have now been re-hung)
September 2017 Caterham St John (last visited 2008).
October 2017 Frant (last visited 2004).
November 2017 Penshurst (last visited 1989).
December 2017 Buckland (last visited 2006).
January 2018 Balcombe (last visited 2008).
February 2018 Newick (last visited 2005).
March 2018 Edenbridge - for the AGM (last visited 2010).
April 2018 Horsham (last visited 2008).
Patrick said that he had tried to arrange 8 Bell Towers for Quarterly meetings.
Other than a comment from Gail, who queried whether there would be a Carol service in December 2017, no other comments were made by the meeting. Patrick reminded everybody that the Committee meeting would be taking place on Monday, 6th February at Andrew Brock’s home in East Grinstead and any comments regarding the proposed programme for 2017/2018 would be appreciated by then. It was agreed that the Committee meeting on 6th February would commence at 8pm.
9. Any other business
9.1 Gail Terry commented that she had recently visited the Guild website and thought it was excellent. It included a record of previous events and she congratulated Patrick on having done a super job with the website. The meeting concurred and comments were made that the Guild website was now better than both the Surrey and Sussex Association websites. It was helpful to have details of upcoming events on the main bar on the home page.
9.2 Andrew Brock said that he has recently visited Margaret Large in the Rehabilitation Ward (Plumpton Ward) at the Princess Royal Hospital. Margaret has severe anaemia. Also, she can’t see too well as she had a corneal graft a week before she was admitted to hospital, and she has had two blood transfusions so is currently too weak to come home. Ray has been having difficulty in getting a care package together to ensure Margaret can come home and, in the short term, the plan is to get Margaret into a Respite Home. Ray passed on his thanks to the Guild for the card that everyone had signed at the meeting at Tonbridge in December 2016. It was agreed that when Margaret returns home, which is still a few weeks away, we will arrange for flowers to be sent to her. Andrew Brock indicated that he was due to visit Margaret again shortly and he will keep the Guild members advised. Apparently, Margaret was quite frustrated by the fact that she is stuck in hospital.
9.3 Dave Threlfall indicated his appreciation of the help that Alan Pink had given for Ollie Watson on 7th January.
He went on to say that Alan had been responsible for having made a considerable contribution towards the £7m raised for Julie McDonnell’s fundraising project (Strike Back Against Blood Cancer). Julie McDonnell methods have now spread to Maximus and Patrick commented that a peal of the Royal version had been rung at Bletchingley. Patrick said that Julie McDonnell had done a fantastic effort to raise funds and he felt that she deserved some sort of recognition by way of an award.
9.4 Patrick confirmed that he had made a £10 donation to the Limpsfield tower fund and that there was an £18 surplus from the tea 0which would go to Guild funds.
9.5 Ringing was to continue after the meeting at Limpsfield until 8pm.
The meeting closed at 6.50pm.
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