We had been looking forward to this day for several weeks and hoping for fine weather, but only two days prior to Saturday, September 28th, the date selected for our outing I began to have doubts as rain and high winds were the norm. However, St Medard of Noyon, the Patron Saint of Weather, or certainly someone, was kind to us as Saturday was a glorious day, blue skies, broken cumulous clouds, brilliant sunshine illuminating brown and orange turning leaves of early Autumn.
Aided by Janet’s excellent written directions our group promptly arrived at St Mary Magdalene, Brampton whose tower contains six interesting bells, the oldest one (No 4) cast at Leicester in 1520 with No 2, also cast at Leicester dating back to 1600, plus the 13 ¾ cwt tenor cast at Bedford in 1630 by James Keene. I have highlighted these three bells because old castings sometimes produce rather poor sounds, but not at Brampton where the bells were a pleasure to ring despite them being roped from treble to tenor anticlockwise instead of the more usual clockwise arrangement. Some of us had not experienced anticlockwise ropes and initially this caused a little confusion resolved by words of encouragement plus a few laughs. At least we had a really well struck fall in peal on these bells. Of added interest at Brampton is the legend that the diarist, Samuel Pepys (1633 to 1703) buried a hoard of gold/currency in the garden of Brampton House during the Dutch raid on the Medway in 1667. Needless to say, nothing, not even a groat of this supposed hoard has ever been found.
There followed a welcome two hour lunch, preceded by a pre-prandial pint at The Marsh Harrier in St Ives , much appreciated as we had just left nearby All Saints Church, with eight bells rung , thank heavens, from a ground floor ringing room but with a long draught of rope. The stretching of some of these ropes was akin to that of elastic bands which with half a ton of rotating metal on the other end leads to rather tricky ringing, but that is one of the interesting features one encounters in visiting towers other than one’s own.
Arriving at St James Church, Hemingford Grey with its truncated spire (the original collapsed in 1741 but was never rebuilt), there was a problem. Janet’s contact had somehow confused Hemingford Grey with nearby Hemingford Abbots and we found the church locked. Situated on a bend of the Great Ouse, with glorious sunshine, the sound of wind in the reeds, seats on the river bank, what more could be desired as we waited for the key to arrive. Later and as the sun was low in the sky, our final tower , topped by its tall spire was that of St Margarets Church, Hemingford Abbots . As one of our group remarked, the affluent appearance of not mere houses but rather spacious residencies adjacent to the church indicated not as Mr Micawber once said “pecuniary liabilities” but rather wealth in plenty. Our ring here concluded what had been a first class day which hopefully all enjoyed to the full. Thanks to Janet for her hard work in once again organising the towers and lunch arrangements and to Angela for transporting Janice, Phil and myself in her new electric MG which I may add, has not changed her characteristic style of driving!
-- John Bennett