Report for the year ending 31 December 2016 (adopted at AGM May 2017).
The past year has been relatively quiet when compared to 2015. The year commenced in January with a very enjoyable service at Westham to mark the recommissioning of their bells. The whole village is pleased to hear them ringing again and I was told that the grant we had offered, and subsequently paid, was the catal
On Saturday, 7th May we held a maintenance awareness morning aimed at those who had an interest in looking after the bells and fittings in their tower. This was held at Southover church in Lewes with a good number attending. I understand that there are other people around the county who would be interested in attending further courses as they were unable to come along to this one. An oddstruckness meter has been purchased and this has been used by a number of towers in return for a donation.
During the year the BRF committee has met to consider two applications for financial assistance. At Twineham the treble had become notorious for slipping wheel due to it being warped. The replacement work was quickly carried out prior to a peal attempt which had been arranged to mark 500 years since the church was built. We offered a grant of £500 towards this work, which has subsequently been paid.
After a routine maintenance visit to Slindon the local ringers decided that the time had come to undertake a major restoration of their bells. The decision was taken to carry out a complete rehanging of the four bells. The committee agreed to offer a grant of £5,000 towards this work which will be carried out by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry in early 2017.
The project at Lindfield has not yet been started; we have offered a grant of £5,000 towards this.
Our fund raising has continued and pride of place in this respect must go to the ringers and friends at Thakeham who have donated over £1,200 from organising a concert by the Brighton Welsh Male Voice Choir. We also had a donation resulting from the Horsham ‘Festival of Bells’ event, along with other contributions from ringers and PCCs across the county.
Unfortunately the Western District has not had a representative on the committee during 2016 and any work required has had to be undertaken by other committee members. Hopefully this situation will be rectified in 2017.
David Kirkcaldy