Saturday 22nd March

We were all very pleased to welcome handbell teams from the North West, North East, South West, East Midlands and West Midlands regions of HRGB to our rally in Alton Village Hall. With participants ranging in age from 11 to 85, this rally was a wonderful celebration of music and friendship.

Tea and biscuits were served to all the ringers before the start of the Rally.

The first massed ringing piece we played was conducted by Kate from the North West Region, it was called “Spring”, very appropriate for the time of year. The second mass ringing piece was the “Trumpet Hornpipe” which was conducted by Rowena from the West Midlands. We all enjoyed the malleted rhythms. The other massed ringing pieces were ‘Waltzing Matilda’ conducted by Helen from the NE Region and ‘Golden Slumbers’ conducted by Wendy.

The massed ringing was interspersed with solo pieces played by individual teams. The teams were Dronfield, Kinder, Brailsford, Areley Kings and Alton. Some of the teams were short of ringers.  Some rang 4 in hand and others shared guest ringers to make up numbers. This all added to the sense of community. We enjoyed a lovely array of music including traditional favourites like Cwm Rhonda, Arrival of the Queen of Sheba, Amazing Grace, Knees up Mother Brown, Parade of the Tin Soldiers and Highland Cathedral.

We all took our own lunches and at 3.15 pm we had tea and cake, no fear of us being hungry! Our minds were kept busy with a fun spring / summer quiz created by Ann. The raffle was drawn later and the quiz answers were revealed and called out.

It was all good fun and everyone enjoyed getting together and playing together. Many thanks to Ann for organising it.

Jean Reilly 

We were invited to play our first full team concert for this year at the Alton WI meeting, held in Alton Village hall, on Wednesday February 5^th, at 2.30pm.

The meeting was well attended, and the audience seemed to  appreciate our music.  We played a selection of pieces, which were varied in tone and volume.

We  began with one of our favourites : ‘A grand celebration.’

We all enjoy this piece which which requires us to play both loudly and softly. It does however rise to a rousing crescendo. It’s always a good warm up!

We played some quieter and more sensitive pieces both classical and modern, and finished with another of our favourites ‘Highland Cathedral’. This is a well practiced, but difficult piece which we are proud to perform with confidence. I think that we all enjoyed being able to play our part.

The team is now playing from number and musical score notation which has not always been easy, but we are pleased to have mastered.  It’s always good to rise to a new challenge.

The afternoon ended with  welcome refreshments and thanks from the audience. Although informal, it was a very good run through for performances to come. We all very much enjoyed it.  With thanks to all of the kind members of Alton WI for their warm welcome.

Wednesday 11th December 2024

We were very pleased to be asked to play for the Trentley Probus Group after their Christmas lunch. They were meeting in the Westwood Suite in the Upper House Hotel, Barlaston which was ideal for us to be able to set up with the full team without disturbing their lunch.

We played a mixture of non-Christmas and Christmas pieces. We surprised them a little with the size of the team.  They were very appreciative and a lovely audience and were very interested in the music, bells and chimes.

Cast your mind back 12 months to December 2023, when the annual Christmas concert at Alton was affected by a storm which resulted in a loss of power for half the concert. On Saturday 7 December 2024, who should be sweeping across the country, but Storm Darragh and it was the annual Christmas concert at Alton. Now I am not suggesting a correlation, but it does make you wonder!

Nevertheless, many a hardy soul braved the debris, winds and rain and turned out to share our evening, which was a joint concert with Rhapsody choir, a community choir based in Uttoxeter. This had originally been scheduled to take place in 2020, but events intervened.

The programme began with 7 pieces by the handbell ringers, ranging from pieces very familiar to the audience such as My Favourite Things, My Heart Will Go On and Yesterday to Andante Grazioso by Mozart and the much loved hymn, I Heard The Voice of Jesus Say. 

The choir then sang 5 pieces, including a Bon Jovi Medley and an Andrew Lloyd Webber medley, all of which was much appreciated. After the interval, they performed 5 seasonal pieces, then came the joint offering of Were You There On That Christmas Night, which we had run through together just twice before the start of the evening. It sounded lovely and the bells and choir kept pace with each other, always a bonus!

The ringers then performed 5 seasonal pieces, including the beautiful Austrian carol Still, Still, Still, which was particularly well received, concluding with We Wish You A Merry Christmas, with which the audience were invited to join in.

So, despite the weather, we had a good evening, but perhaps we should consider a summer concert…..

Our heart felt thanks to Wendy (Alton Bell Ringers) and Gina (Uttoxeter Rhapsody Choir) for all their hard work.

Headline news - Alton handbell ringers found speeding in Ellastone!

On Sunday the 17^th November, we gathered in Ellastone for what has become an annual concert.  However, this year the venue was Ellastone village hall and this was much warmer than the church where we had performed previously.  The floor layout provided individual tables and chairs as opposed to rows of seats and this resulted in a more relaxed and social atmosphere.

The team arrived early to have a brief practice session.  This turned out to be one of the most fault ridden pre concert practices we have ever had.  For some reason, our speed of playing was all over the place and we played The Beatles ‘Yesterday’ so fast that someone suggested it be renamed as ‘Tomorrow’!

Soon it was 3 pm and with the audience in place, we began the first half of the concert.  With our interesting pre concert practice behind us, we performed very well and Wendy controlled our subsequent speed of playing perfectly.  After a break for tea and delicious cakes, followed by the draw for the raffle in which Beryl won a teddy bear, we played several pieces on twelve bells, including Pomp and Circumstance, the Royal Fireworks music and a few Christmas pieces.

The second half of the concert went very well and we concluded with ‘Resound and Rejoice’ which is a firm favourite.

The concert was well attended and our audience quite enthusiastic.  The proceeds of the concert are going towards the costs of repairing the church roof.  The original estimate for this work was £100,000 but firm quotations were nearer the £200,000 mark and so a lot of fund raising is necessary.  We wish Ellastone church all the best with their endeavours.

The warmth of the village hall was certainly appreciated by the team.

Thank you to all who provided the delicious cakes.

Dave Jones