News

We were pleased to welcome handbell ringers from across the regions to the HRGB WM Autumn Rally at Alton on 3rd October. Over 40 handbell ringers gathered in Alton Village Hall for a day of ringing and socialising. 

Our guest conductors Rona Gager, Richard Hartnell, Rowena Shipley and Isaac Wan took us through our massed ringing pieces of Vincent, The Water is Wide, Plymouth Sound and Minuets from the Royal Fireworks. We also enjoyed some solo pieces from visiting teams and also ourselves.

It was a very enjoyable and sociable day which we finished with tea and cake and a final run through of our massed ringing pieces.

In August some of us travelled to Aberdeen to join with 600 handbell ringers from around the world for the International Handbell Symposium. This happens every two years and the last one in the UK was in 2012 in Liverpool.

We joined with a group of other ringers from around the North of England. Much of the week was spent ringing 8 pieces of massed ringing music with conductors from each of the handbell Guilds represented. We also had a number of workshops relating to handbells or the culture of the countries represented. We rang a final concert which was live streamed across the world. This can be seen at https://www.youtube.com/live/xMRDALSfd5Y 

In March we travelled to Melbourne School, in Derbyshire, where we were made very welcome by the staff and well organised children. We rang some pieces for the whole school and then the older children had a chance to have a go.

In March we were pleased to be invited back to Bateman House Care Home to ring for them. It was a lovely occasion with a group from St Peter's School in Alton there as well. They had been singing for the residents and then joined us to have a go at handbells.

We then rang a few pieces on 12 bells and invited the residents to have a go as well.

After a busy Christmas we are now rehearsing a new repertoire for 2026, this will include some old favourites as well as some new pieces. Over the last couple of years we have been starting to ring from the stave music rather than our number notation and we have now decided to ring everything from stave music. This has been a challenge but has been embraced by the team and we look forward to our ringing in 2026.

We are always keen to share what we do and will be looking for opportunities during the year.