I start my report with the sad news that Henry Kirk of Burbage passed away during the year. Henry was the longest serving member of the Peak District, having been a member since 1947. He was a kindly and likeable man who was a very capable ringer, and he will be greatly missed. Our commiserations go to his family.
This year’s ADM was held at Bakewell where an excellent meal was provided for over 50 members. After twelve years in the post of Chairman, Philip Mehew stood down, and was replaced by John Thorpe. Our thanks go to Philip for all the years of service he has given to the district, not only as Chairman, but also as our representative on the Education committee and as Central Council representative for the DDA.
The Striking Competition was held at Eyam with a record thirteen teams taking part - six teams ringing changes and seven in the call changes competition. Darley Dale and Tideswell went on to the finals of the Horsley Cup, whilst Ashford, Stanton and Hartington represented the Peak District in the Arthur Ashby Cup. Tideswell and Ashford came a close second in their respective competitions. Congratulations to Stanton and Hartington who made it to the finals for the first time, with Hartington having less than twelve months ringing. Our thanks go to Simon Reading of Sheffield Cathedral who took on the mammoth task of judging both competitions.
The District Outing this year was to the Shrewsbury area where we rang on some excellent bells with St Chads of Shrewsbury being the outstanding ring of the day. Once again our gratitude goes to the Taylor family and Bob Dakin our bell ringing driver.
The Peak District team did us proud by winning the Association eight bell competition, which was held at North Wingfield.
As in previous years, we had our June meeting out of district, this time in South Yorkshire at Bolsterstone and Penistone. Although short in numbers, those who attended enjoyed some delightful bells and did justice to them.
The Quarter Peal Day was another success with nine out of thirteen quarters being achieved during the day at a variety of towers.
This year’s Carol Service was at Hartington followed by a superb Christmas dinner at the Charles Cotton Hotel. A pity more district members didn’t attend after all the hard work put in by the local ringers.
Congratulations to Graham Dawson of Stanton in Peak, who rang his first peal during the year, and also to the following who rang their first quarter peals: Christine Windsor and David Palmer of Brassington, Alistair Hamilton of Bonsall, Sue Bliss of Bakewell, Elaine Radford of Hayfield, Giles Lacey, Stuart Grindley and Chris Dullage of Hartington and to Helen Legood of Matlock who called her first quarter peal.
Throughout the year we have had good attendances at our ADM, Outing, Quarter Peal day and Striking competition, but I am sorry to say numbers at district meetings have been very disappointing, although we have enjoyed a good standard of ringing in a variety of methods. Hopefully we can encourage more ringers to attend next year.
Finally I would like to say thank you to all incumbents and tower captains for use of their bells and to my fellow officers for their valued support throughout the year.