These thanks were passed on to us via the church warden in December 2018. We had only been ringing as a band for 3 months and although we were ably supported by some experienced ringers for the Christmas Eve crib service, on Christmas morning we were on our own and for the first time ever rang unsupervised. It was a joyful milestone, both for us as ringers and for the congregation, who welcomed our efforts despite the amateur clanking. Their church had a resident band again.
In 25th December 2019 I passed a personal milestone in that 5 of us rang together and I, the most senior ringer present, was in charge. I was only "senior" by a few weeks, but those few weeks counted.
December 2020 was a different affair. I Jingled for Santa at 6pm on Christmas Eve with my ever supportive husband as wing-man and chimed again before a meagre, socially distanced and masked communion service on Christmas morning. It was surreal more than joyful, but at least no-one could accuse me of crashing my neighbour.
2021 was the year of the Baron Bigod when anyone who joined us in the tower on Christmas Day received a hunk of oozing brie that needed eating. It was compensation for the rather rough ringing. Some of us were out of practice and one was out of sorts.
2022 saw a few welcome volunteers at 10.30am this morning. Were they hoping for more cheese parcels? Possibly not since I had bumped into two of them in the cheese shop less than 24 hours previously and they had witnessed my purchases. We rang Plain Hunt, although no-one dared say "bob" because anything might have happened, and then we made a poor fist of Plain Bob Doubles. One of us was very out of practice and the ropes had done their "let us play a joke and shrink by a foot" trick. But there was a great atmosphere and as that elderly parishioner had said 4 years previously "how lovely to hear the bells again on a Christmas morning…."
And it is as lovely to ring the bells on Christmas morning as it is to hear them. Therefore, thank you to our ringing friends who make such things possible. Same time, same place next year and perhaps we will crack the PB5 or even PB6 by then?
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