Team-Tadpole Tower-Grab!

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Bell Ringing Outing:

On Saturday 6th September, Team Tadpole proved that they had well and truly developed into frogs when they hopped out of the comfort of their home pond to experience the outside world – yes, the bell ringers had their first outing!

Undaunted by the liquid sunshine, fifteen ringers in total set off to the first scheduled stop; the lovely village of Brede. St George’s tower has six bells, the tenor being 13cwt, cast in 1909. The church has on display an old bible which they refer to as “The Vinegar Version” due to a misprint in which the Parable of the Vineyard is written as “The Parable of the Vinegar”. Brede was able to claim the title of being home to the oldest bell we rung that day – one cast in the 15th Century.

We moved on to the village of Burwash where we found St. Bartholomew’s, another beautiful village church with eight bells, the tenor, cast in 1892 and weighing in at 10.1 cwt. The taller ringers among us found this tower, with its very low ceiling, a rather interesting experience.

At Wadhurst we stopped for some welcome refreshments in the local hostelry, where we were joined by two more ringers. We then headed to the church to take over from the home team who had just finished ringing for a wedding. At Wadhurst the bells are rung using exceedingly long ropes from the ground floor of the bell tower – a stark contrast to Burwash. There are eight bells, with their tenor weighing12 ½ cwt.

We finished our day at St. Alban’s, Frant, a lovely church (now home to James & Sarah Packman) with a marble pulpit and ornately carved wooden viewing balcony. The tower has six bells but with the tenor only weighing in at 8 cwt a light touch was certainly needed.

The experience of ringing four very different sets of bells was one that we all found extremely useful and interesting and the whole day was a wonderful experience.

I am sure all the ringers will agree when I say that we were made to feel very welcome at each of the churches and are very much looking forward to our next adventure!

Melanie Churchyard