Central Branch Ringing at Ruskington - 8th October 2016
All Saint's, Ruskington

We arrived more or less bang on time at All Saint's, Ruskington. On entering the church we found several ringers milling about. I spotted Les Townsend up near the organ. Now as you have probably gathered I'm quite fond of church organs, so I waited about a few minutes since it was obvious that Les was going to fire up instrument. And he did too. For a single manual and pedal board with a dozen stops or so it has a fantastic range as Les took it from almost inaudible to ear splitting loudness just on the swell pedal.

In the Ringing Room

Eventually we turned our attention to the task of ringing. I went up the nicely carpeted stairs to the room just above the ground floor. This wasn't the ringing room but a sort of meeting room with a steep set of stairs off to one side. I ascended these and found myself in the ringing room. The ringing room is quite large and the rope circle (more a rectangle) is pretty much in the centre. We rang some Plain Bob Doubles and Minor and some Grandsire, plus Rounds and Call Changes.

Refreshments are served

Eventually I went down stairs to find a table with assorted goodies laid out. Sausage rolls and cakes plus tea and coffee. I snacked on the odd sausage roll and drank my coffee. Chris Jackson was selling Guild Calenders and Christmas cards so I took a look at those. I took a walk outside to listen to the bells. They sounded nice. They were ringing some Stedman. I took some pictures and went back inside.

Back up the tower things were getting a bit more adventurous. I called a touch of Cambridge and we rang some St Clements. We had an unsuccessful attempt at Morning Exercise (Oxford TB above the treble and Cambridge below) and we also had a go at Julie McDonnell Bob Doubles which was equally unsuccessful. Eventually we approached 7:00pm and we rang the bells down.

The church at night

Downstairs we had some more coffee and purchased Christmas cards and Calenders before thanking the local ringers and making our way back to Lincoln.

Jonathan Clark (webmaster)