News

Handbells Report October 6th 2023.

We played our first full team concert of the Autumn season at St Johns Church hall in Ashbourne, for the Dovedale Women’s institute on Thursday October 5th.

The hall was warm and welcoming, and there was a large and appreciative audience. We were a little depleted in numbers – 5 members down, so we played a selection of pieces chosen for 3 octaves… some of which we had not played for some time. However, we settled quickly, and acquitted ourselves well.

We began with Ode to Joy, and varied the programme by playing the chimes (Chime Lullaby) and demonstrating various techniques in God’s Train and Shepherd’s Hay. We ended with one of our favourites – a rousing rendition of Resound and rejoice.

We also demonstrated some of the 12 bell pieces using the Haythorne Bells which we have borrowed.

The evening ended with a quiz – 20 questions based on a bells theme, cleverly compiled by a WI member, along with tea and cakes.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening, with many of the audience expressing interest and wanting to have a go themselves. Many thanks to all involved.

Lynne

 ALTON HANDBELL Ringers had four new ringers join at the beginning of 2022 to make a team of 16 members. We leased a two-octave set of handbells from HRGB last year, which has enabled us to double up on some parts to help with training and provide extra volume if needed. We enjoyed three full team concerts in November and December2022.The final one in Alton village hall was our fundraiser for the local hospice when we raised£775.The evening included Peter Walker, one of our team, leading a rousing sing-along of the Twelve Days of Christmas, on his accordion. We were even asked for an encore of Frosty the Snowman, at the end of the concert! A twelve-bell team rang at Chatsworth House on two occasions over Christmas. We were under a gazebo in the courtyard, donning Christmas hats and being full of Christmas cheer in spite of the cold! We had an appreciative audience and we always ask the children to join us for Jingle Bells on some small sets of jingle bells. We were pleased to be asked back into nursing homes for the first time since COVID. We had so many requests that we visited some after Christmas. We go with a twelve-bell team for these. We recently rang twelve bells at the beautiful Bethesda Chapel in Hanley. It is one of the largest non-conformist chapels outside of London and was built in 1819.There is a long, ongoing campaign to restore it. The acoustics were wonderful and we especially enjoyed playing 'Sheep may safely graze'. We continue to meet weekly and enjoy our monthly tea and cake sessions! We are working towards our autumn and Christmas concerts

A team of seven ringers plus Wendy, our Leader, visited Brookfields nursing home, Derby. We commenced with some old songs and were really pleased to hear the audience singing or humming along to Loves Old Sweet Song, Puff the Magic Dragon. Then we played a selection of hymns and ended our bell ringing with what we call our last night at the proms selection, which includes Trumpet Voluntary and Rule Britannia. These always seem very popular and make a resounding end to our performance.

After chatting with the residents we were very kindly served tea and biscuits which made a lovely end to the afternoon.

Beryl

Thank you to those who rang at Ellastone. It went very well. We rang under a gazebo on the terrace and the sound of the bells carried across the garden. Fortunately it stayed dry.

Wendy Walters

Bethesda chapel is one of the largest nonconformist chapels outside of London and was built in 1819.

The chapel ceased to be used in 1985and quickly fell into the hands of vandals and home to hundreds of pigeons. In 2002 it was acquired by the Historic Chapels Trust (HCT) and there has been a long campaign of fund raising in an attempt to restore what is a wonderful building.

Most of the organ pipes were illegally removed and sold for scrap and a replacement organ was sourced from another church in Manchester.

It can seat 2000 people and has a vast single span ceiling which was fully restored in 2007, following the acquisition of the chapel by HCT.

Sadly now, HCT has run out of funds and is due to close in the near future, putting the building at further risk and it is currently on the market.

We have performed there a few times and are delighted to help a handful of dedicated people raise funds for this building which was once a jewel in the potteries. We were invited to return to Bethesda following our annual Alton Christmas concert last year.

Since our last visit, the chapel can now boast its own toilets where previously such facilities were only available at Hanley museum – a short dash away!

So on a warm and sunny afternoon, we arrived at the chapel and set our stall out. Ever optimistic, Peter left his coat in the car, not having performed there before and despite being warned in advance how cold it can be inside the building. Within five minutes, he was back to the car for that extra layer.

We were treated to an organ recital on our arrival and then we began to play at 12.30pm and played a wide variety of music for 50 minutes to a very appreciative audience.

Wendy had previously been very busy transcribing several new pieces for us to play, including a few hymns and a version of ‘Sheep may safely graze’ by J S Bach. This was played with great feeling and is a very expressive piece of music. I hope this becomes a favourite in future.

Overall, I think we played very well, with just a slight hiccup in ‘When the Saints go marching in’, when about half way through, some of the saints took a tumble and after a while, so many were down that we had to stop playing and restart the piece!

Unfortunately and somewhat typical these days, audience numbers were very low. At one point, several people got up from the ground floor seating and left. However, it turned out that they had simply gone upstairs to sample the acoustics there. Acoustically, Bethesda chapel is truly amazing. It would be great to do a full team concert there, but the chapel restoration committee worry that they might not be able to draw in enough people to justify this.

Bethesda chapel, struggling for sufficient funding to complete its restoration, is a shadow of its former self and is rather symptomatic to the decline of the potteries and particularly Hanley, in recent years.

Dave