THE GORDON HALLS RINGING CENTRE – ECKINGTON

I am pleased to report that the Centre has got off to a good start. During the year we have held a significant number of events. At first I was somewhat disappointed with the pace with which we had progressed but at the Ringing Centres Conference, held in Worcester during November, I was pleasantly surprised to find that in comparison to the majority of Centres our first months have been much busier than most.

How the year panned out. On 16th February the Centre management committee held a meeting at Eckington to finalise the management arrangements and formally agree the naming of the Centre as the Gordon Halls Ringing Centre in memory of Gordon. Following the meeting all members of the committee were able to try out the new simulator, as in the previous week John Thorpe of Matlock, ham fistedly assisted by Don Jones, had spent a full day installing sensors, cabling and control boxes to connect all 8 bells to a computer in the ringing chamber to enable the bells to be rung using the Abel Simulator. An enjoyable hour or so was spent with varying degrees of success including two near perfect courses of Stedman Triples rung by John Heaton of the DDA and Chris Bennett of the Sheffield branch of the Yorkshire Association, both ringing the treble whilst Abel rang the remaining 7 bells.

The first formal event, arranged by the centre, was an open half-day held on 29th March. This was well attended with ringers from the DDA and the YA. Since then there have been a number of visiting bands trying out the facilities at the Centre and four formal courses have also been held, two YA and two DDA. The courses have been well attended and by all accounts the students have enjoyed both the facilities and course content. Most months for two hours one Saturday morning there has been an informal training session covering plain hunt and/or plain bob. The small numbers of ringers taking advantage of these sessions have made good improvement and have either rung a quarter or are ready to. Most Monday evenings between 7.30 p.m. and about 9.00 p.m. or later the bells are rung tied using the simulator and everyone is welcome to come to these practices. The first half of these practices is devoted to teaching bell handling and basic ringing. Tower captains are invited to bring their own learners along to either teach themselves or to be shown how the simulator can assist in teaching. One YA tower captain regularly does this.

As well as the simulator the Centre has a camera mounted above the bells to show the relationship between what happens at the rope end and in the belfry. We also have a digital video camera, which allows ringers to be filmed to analyse style and handling faults, invaluable in the early days of bell handling. Plans are also well in hand to provide two dumb bells weighted to fit in with the current ring allowing both handling practice and effective augmentation to ten using the simulator.

The Centre has been provided for all ringers of the supporting Associations to benefit. If you would like to know more about what goes on, would like to arrange a tower visit or just want to come along yourself to try out the simulator or other equipment either come to one of our regular practices or give me a call or email.

Don Jones

Email: don@act-ltd.co.uk 

Tel: 0114 2484206