Despite the poor weather on the day, I arrived at the Church to be greeted by John Cade, Tower captain of Grimsby
Minster and arranged with him to meet the priest and set about the final preparations for the service and the meeting.
John unlocked the tower and waited to commence the ringing. We had the pleasure of welcoming several visiting ringers,
Sue Faull and Chris Turner from the West Lindsey Branch and we had visiting ringers from Chelmsford in Essex who made
the ringing.
There was plenty of variety in the ringing and the standard was good, ringing was varied to suit the individual needs of
people wishing to ring, and ranged from rounds and call changes to Little Bob Royal. Grandsire Triples and Caters were
rung, Plain bob on varying numbers and Cambridge Surprise Minor.
It was then time for the service, the Organist Roger Lord played some entry music while everyone was taking their seats
and the Green service book was used. The service was led by one of the team priests at Grimsby Minster, Revd Katherine
and made the congregation welcome. The address focused mainly on the importance of ringing to call to worship and was a
general thanks to all that turn up to call people to worship within the church.
Hymn�s that were sung were O God, who madest time and space, Unchanging God, Who livest and Glad bells ring loud and
clear, all from the Guild Service book.
After the service, it was time for tea, this was laid out in the back of the Church, refreshments were provided, my
thanks must go to John Cade, Angela Newson, Sarah Newson and David Newson for stepping in at short notice to be able to
serve these, and it was appreciated by all who attended. Joy Lord, as always was selling raffle tickets, and our Branch
Treasurer Roger Lord was in a corner taking money for subscriptions!!
After the tea, Linda Bromfield, the Branch president called the meeting to order to begin the business meeting. It was
fairly well represented by members of the Northern Branch, and of course our visitors from neighbouring branches and of
course counties!!
The agenda was followed. Reports time, Andrew Lord, Northern Branch ringing master gave his report firstly by thanking
towers who had hosted meetings in the previous year, and highlighted that we had a very successful joint branch meeting
with the Eastern Branch with afternoon and evening ringing. Andrew continued through his report and congratulated all
members that had made an achievement in ringing in the branch the previous year and hoped that the success would
continue. Andrew then went on to award the Alan Hewitt shield to the tower that has made a significant improvement over
the past year. This year, the Shield was presented to Grimsby Minster. This tower started the year with no ringing, no
tower captain and very few ringers. Andrew then asked John Cade to receive the trophy on behalf of all the ringers at
Grimsby.
Following this, Roger Lord gave a presentation of the accounts, which were also circulated to members that were present;
thanks went to David Hibbert for checking the accounts. It was a successful year with the welcoming of 19 new guild
members which were elected from Grimsby,Healing and Laceby towers along with new members from Legbourne. All the current
officer of the Branch were re-elected, therefore the list of branch officers is as follows:
President: Linda Bromfield Secretary: Mark Giddings Ringing Master: Andrew Lord Treasurer: Roger Lord Committee members: Colin Disney and Charles Cade Branch Safeguarding Representative: Joy Lord Accounts Examiner: David Hibbert
Discussions took place on upcoming branch events, and also about another joint practice with the Eastern Branch which
appeared to a popular idea of all present. Linda then after the discussions closed the meeting thanking everyone that
was present for turning up, Grimsby for hosting the AGM and providing the tea.
