Bristol Rural Branch
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A brief introduction to the development of branch meetings since 1996 by Tony York.
When I became secretary of the branch in 1996 the branch held four management meetings a year
we had two quartely meetings in February and September and a half yearly meeting in June, the AGM was still held in
November when officer reports were required. Each of the other three meetings had
a practice as we do today but also had a tea as well and a meeting. These meetings were  not well attended so
quarterly meetings were discontinued at the half yearly meeting in 1998 at Olveston. The half yearly meeting
 was discontinued in 2006 at the half yearly meeting at Abson. Leaving us with just the AGM in November.
The advantage of the the meetings was we were able to elect new members at these meetings, however we can

elect new members at any meeting if we have four branch officers present!

 

Year 2023
Put on in the order received!
25 November 2023

Treasurer’s Report

My fourth year as your treasurer has been almost as quiet as the first three and our finances are still
largely unchanged.
The membership numbers are down again, but only a little, with several members being lost
following the abolition of the concessionary rate for seniors. A number of people swapped to being
non-ringing associate members, which is still £10 and we did have some new recruits.

Membership
                2019         2020         2021         2022         2023
Senior         73             73             78             74         107
Junior          13             17             17             14         12
Retired         64             64             55             40         0   
Associate       5               2               3               2         7
Honorary Life  2               2               1               1         1
Total             157         158             154         131       127

Interest rates have remained low for most of the year but our account balances are OK:

➢ the Business Instant account balance at 31 October 2023 is £2,487.52
➢ the Treasurer’s account at 31 October 2023 has a balance of £85.54
➢ and the Virgin Money Charity Deposit Account stands at £538.78
I arranged in the year to have the Virgin interest paid into Lloyds so the Virgin balance will not
change, unless we close the account.

At the March MC meeting, the Association Treasurer stated that Branch accounts should not hold
more than £100 unless the monies are earmarked for grants. Quite how we manage this when no
grants have been requested is a mystery, but any ideas are welcome.

We do (hurray) have a grant request this year which the 2023 AGM will vote on. If anyone else
needs funds for anything, please do not hesitate to ask.

I am happy to answer any questions on the accounts either at the AGM or via email.


Alison Holliday


Association Representative
The G&B Management Committee had its usual three meetings this year.
The January meeting was on zoom where we agreed the 2022 accounts and trustee report.
The March and September meetings were in person and did have tea and cakes.
The discussions were wide ranging and interesting but the main points of interest to you are probably the following:
1.
Ian Bucknell has been reappointed as the Youth Team leader.
2.
We are encouraged to supply our ‘What 3 Words’ location identifiers for inclusion in the Annual report. We have mentioned this before but have not made huge progress so perhaps this could be our project for 2024?
3.
Syston’s application for a grant was agreed and they have been awarded £1,474.68, which is 20% of the cost on the application. Bristol Rural will vote on a grant from their funds but I suggest that we try to match the G&B award.
4.
Subs (£15, £10 and £2.50), peal fees (50p) and Affiliation fees (£20) are unchanged for the coming year.
5.
The AGM will be on April 13th in the Stroud Branch. The meeting and tea is to be at Kings Stanley. The two striking competitions are to be at Bisley (14-1-16)(8) and Leonard Stanley (13-3-1)(6).
6.
As mentioned by the Treasurer, the outgoing Association Treasurer has said that Branch Funds should not exceed £100 unless they are specifically destined for a grant. Our payment to Syston will help us with this target but I encourage everyone to apply for grants to improve their bells so that we can reduce our funds on hand.
Alison Holliday


Chairman 

Last year I reported on the encouraging response from ringers following a cautious return to Branch activities in Spring 2022.  This year has seen further post-Covid firsts, with the annual quiz resuming at Iron Acton and the May Day bank holiday outing, this time to Wiltshire.  Both were very well supported.  Our monthly Branch practices have continued, as also have cross-Branch practices for more advanced ringing, though attendance has been variable.  The monthly Far-cited outings have also continued with different ringers responsible for organising each month, a good way of sharing the load.  There was a special outing to ring the bells at Imber, a deserted village in the middle of the Salisbury Plain military training area.  This is open only on a few days a year and involved catching a vintage London bus from Warminster station, since other vehicles are not allowed.  Unsurprisingly, the novelty of this one attracted a good crowd of ringers, as well as thousands of non-ringers keen to see an area usually closed to the public.  Ringing at individual towers remains mixed, with some thriving whilst others have to rely on ringers from other towers to remain viable.The Branch hosted the Association AGM this year.  There were several towers open for general ringing in the morning, striking competitions at Frenchay and Warmley, and a meeting at Coalpit Heath.  I am pleased to say that everything seemed to run smoothly, thanks to the efforts of a good number of Branch ringers.
The Branch managed a good turnout for the coronation of King Charles III, with 3 peals, 3 quarters and general ringing at 5 other towers at least.
The structural problems in the tower at Dyrham reported last year have now been assessed and repairs will be very costly, so there will be no ringing there for the foreseeable future.
  Early this year a crack was discovered in the 4th bell at Syston.  Ringing was stopped, but owing to a very proactive tower captain, a replacement bell has been identified from the Keltek Trust and with luck ringing will restart by the end of the year.
The Branch CCTV cameras have been used just once.
  Please consider borrowing this Branch facility whenever you have an open day as visitors are always totally fascinated to see what ringing is about.  It is also a good way of attracting potential new recruits to bellringing.
Thanks are due to all who have helped with tower, Branch or Association events this year, and also to Committee members.
  As I said at our last AGM I am standing down as your chairman this year after 18 years in the post.  I have enjoyed my time and I am grateful to all who have supported me over the years, helping to make the task a real pleasure.  I wish my successor all the very best.
 

Chris Greef

Secretary
Duties this year have included arranging the Branch Programme, checking tower availability and keeping an attendance record for meetings. The meetings this year which included a barbecue at Bitton and a cream tea at Abson were mostly well attended. Also the annual Branch visit to Gloucester Cathedral in September was restarted having been cancelled during the Covid Pandemic and, last year, for the passing of Queen Elizabeth II, it was well supported.
As the Bristol Rural Branch hosted the Gloucester and Bristol AGM and Striking Competition this year, I dealt with any related correspondence and also arranged the towers for the striking competition.
A tower Captains meeting was arranged in October. The main items for discussion were the programme for 2024, Branch meetings and safeguarding issues due to photographs being taken during the Gloucester Cathedral visit
.
Other duties have included receiving and dealing with email correspondence, and forwarding it to towers as necessary. Also making sure the annual return is kept up to date for the association report.

Bill Liebow


Ringing Master Report
Having been newly elected into this role of ringing master at last year's AGM and now writing my first officers report I am pleased to be looking
back at what I feel has been a positive year of ringing in the Rural Branch. Being the first year back with a full Branch programe following
COVID restrictions I felt a little uncertainty as far as the support for branch events especially being new to the position, fortunately my worries
were unfounded as there has been good support at any of the ringing I have been to.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Geoff Pick for his support as Assistant Ringing Master as I am sure we all know Geoff was
newly elected to the position at the AGM at Olveston last year and has made a real impact over the year, with making an excellent job of organising the
May day outing for the branch and a trip to Imber that we were invited to as well as being a great support to branch ringing in general. Many thanks
to Geoff.

The branch striking competition held at Clapton-in-Gordano was entered by 8 teams and it was great to see so many towers entering. Coalpit Heath were
judged to be the winners and went on to represent the branch for Croome Trophy at the Association competition. I hope to see all of you again, and
any one who would like to come along at next year's competition.

A band made up of ringers from across the branch also entered into the Penn Trophy competition and a real effort was made to practise beforehand to
give the band the best chance especially as the event was held in our own branch. Even though it did not yield us the result we were looking for this
year it has led to more ringing being organised throughout the year to try and improve skills for next year. I have been greatly assisted by Catherine
White-Horne in the organising of these events and she has been a really driving force behind them, I would like to thank her for her continued
support for this.

As I previously mentioned Geoff organised this year's Rural Branch outing to the Devizes area visiting the towers at All Cannings, Bishops Cannings,
Potterne, Marden, Chirton and Urchfont. There were a mix of bells throughout the day with my personal highlight being the lovely 8 at Bishops
Cannings, the visit to Urchfont was also particularly memorable not only because of the challenging bells but the vast crowds of people in the
village for the scarecrow festival. Again my thanks to Geoff for organising it and to everyone who came along, I hope we have another successful day
out next year.

With the association AGM being hosted by the Rural Branch this year at Coalpit Heath there has been an extra event and ringing in the branch. With
the ringing for theAGM as well as the associated striking competitions held at Warmley and Siston and having towers open for general ringing for
visitors on the day. My thanks to all involved and to the towers who hosted any part of the day.

This year also saw the return of the opportunity to visit Gloucester Cathedral to ring for the evensong service in September, thanks to Bill for
getting in contact with the authorities and actually getting this event back on the program again. This is no small feat as I was surprised to
learn that the Rural Branch is the only one to have rung at the Cathedral since before COVID and is a real credit to our members to support the event
thanks to all that did. I know some were not well enough to come this year, hope to see you next. A good standard of ringing was achieved by the
branch, ringing rounds and call changes on the 12 and one piece of Major on the back 8. I received compliments from the Cathedral Ringing Master at the
end that I would like to extend to you all.

There has also been good support of branch practices when I have been there which would suggest the decision to hold all practises in the afternoon
throughout the year has been generally well received again I would like to thank Geoff for running a large number of the practises.

Thank you to everyone for a successful year and I look forward to ringing with you all in the future.

Matt Johnson.


Web Site Report.
For many years the web site has been with 4UH hosting and has  worked well, this site has been taken over this year by
a company called Hostpresto, to date I have had no problems ,they did say said there would not be any price increase,
but wait to see when we have to renew the web site fee about March 2024.
Other than the monthly changes I have made update for the newsletter, updates for the FarCited section,
and the branch striking competition, the Ringing Master arranged for photo's of the teams to be taken, with one change for
the Branch Program I have had no input from anyone, only change s I have made that I have seen and have thought might
be useful for example Imber.
Tony York


Year 2022
Bristol Rural Branch – Chairman’s Annual Report -2022
Following a survey of the towers in the Branch and their approach to post-Covid ringing, we decided at last year’s AGM to make a start with Branch activities in the Spring of 2022.  This we duly did, starting with a Far-cited outing and a Branch practice at Coalpit Heath, both in March.  Attendance since then has been encouraging; perhaps ringers were keen to get back to meeting together after a long absence.  The average attendance at Branch practices has been 15, no doubt boosted by the popularity of the cream tea at the Syston practice in August.  Similarly, Far-cited outings have had an average attendance of 17.  Cross-Branch monthly practices have also resumed this year, providing good opportunities for progression with both six and eight bell ringing.  The picture at individual towers is mixed: some are currently doing well but others are struggling, with some sharing practices and others unable to raise a band at all.
Sadly, ringing at Dyrham has had to stop, due to structural problems with the tower.  Detailed structural assessment is required before the scope of works can be identified and a date for a return to ringing identified.
The Branch CCTV cameras have been used four times this year at different towers, enabling visitors to see bells and bellringers in action live from the safety of the church, rather than having to venture into a sometimes cramped and not readily accessible ringing chamber.  Please do make use of this Branch facility whenever you have an open day as visitors are always totally fascinated to see what ringing is about.  It is also a good way of attracting potential new recruits to bellringing.
Sadly, two long term ringers in the Branch have died in the past year: Derek Wilkins-Smith from Warmley died in April and Bryn Shackleton, most recently ringing at Wapley, died in September.  We send our condolences to their families and give thanks for their years of devotion to ringing.Thanks are due to all who have helped with tower, Branch or Association events this year, and also to Committee members.

Chris Greef

Bristol Rural Web
Few changes this last year apart from the two monthly input of the Branch News letter, a couple of updates to the obituary pages, may I remind anyone who does an obituary for a deceased tower member to send me a copy for the obituaty pages! Also a couple of queries about tower email contacts which were easily resolved. A reminder that the Branch web site containss a lot of I think useful information.

Tony York
Bristol Rural Web


Treasurers Report
My third year as your treasurer has been almost as quiet as the first two and our finances are still largely unchanged
Although we did not lose a lot of members during the pandemic, we have seen quite a drop off this year with the main losses being our unattached members from Keynsham.
I am aware of a few new recruits within the Branch so hopefully our numbers might bounce back for 2023.
It would be lovely to reverse the downward trend of members which has been going on since 2016.
Membership 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022
         Senior     78     73     73    78      74
          Junior     13     13     17    17      14
        Retired     62     64     64    55      40
     Associate 
    5       5       2       3        2 
Honorary Life  
 3       2       2       1        1
             Total 161   157   158  154    131

Interest rates have remained low for most of the year but our account balances are OK: ? the Business Instant account balance at 31 October 2022 is £2,031.98 ?
the Treasurer’s account at 31 October 2022 has a balance of £96.79 ? and the Virgin Money Charity Deposit Account stands at £538.78.
For the 2021/22 year we raised £1,612.50 in subscriptions of which £1,464.00 was paid to the G&B, and £148.50 retained by Bristol Rural Branch for our funds.
A number of our retired members have voluntarily paid the full £15 in the past: from 2023 the concession has been withdrawn so all senior members will pay £15.
There has been only one expense this year: website maintenance and we received a donation from Avon Ropes for including their logo in the newsletter.
Our balances therefore remain adequate and in a reasonable position to support the Branch.
I am happy to answer any questions on the accounts either at the AGM or via email. 

Alison Holliday 6 November 2022
alisonholliday1@btinternet.co

Mc Rep Report

The Management Committee held its three usual meetings this year.  In January and March they were on Zoom but in September we had the joy of an actual meeting with real people and cups of tea.
A lot of time is dedicated to agreeing the G&B accounts and talking through Belfry Grants.  There were no Grant applications from Bristol Rural but the discussions are always interesting.
The Association Treasurer (soon to be ex-treasurer) expressed concern about the lack of contributions by Branches to local projects.  As far as I know, there have not been any Bell Projects in Bristol Rural but, if you are planning anything, don’t forget that the Branch has funds to help.  I am advised by the Bristol Rural Treasurer that we have plenty of funds available to make grants to allowable projects. 
Rule 20 of the G&B rues says:
The Belfry Repair Fund shall exist to provide grants towards repairs, renovations (excluding ropes), or augmentations of existing rings of bells, installation of new rings and similar purposes, and to provide for instruction.
Local funds held by our Treasurer are to be spent bearing in mind the above rule though we do have a little more flexibility. 
Other issues from the various meetings are:
All ringers should complete the Church of England online Basic Safeguarding training.

  1. This doesn’t take long and its completion is growing in importance so it’s worth spending half an hour getting it done.
     
  2. The £10 concessionary membership fee for retired members has been dropped following a vote at the 2022 AGM.
     
  3. There has been no Autumn training day but the dates for Spring and Autumn next year are agreed at 11 March 2023 and 14 October 2023.

Alison Holliday 

Secretary's Report
Towards the end of last year with Covid restrictions being lifted and under guidance received from the Central Council, many towers have started ringing in some form. Either for practices or Sunday Service ringing only or both.

Also with the lifting of Covid restrictions, it was decided the Branch Programme should be restarted in March. Towers were contacted to make sure they were able to accommodate the Branch Practices and most were able to with some minor changes. A Branch visit to Gloucester Cathedral had been arranged for September but had to be cancelled at the last minute due to the passing of Queen Elizabeth II.

The Branch were the winners of the Association Achievement of the Year Trophy with a joint effort from Abson and Frenchay Towers to keep ringing going through the pandemic. This started with on line ringing using Ringing Room As restrictions were eased, allowing people to meet in small groups outside, ringers were meeting in churchyards to ring handbells.

A tower Captains meeting was arranged in October. The main items for discussion were the programme for 2023 and the G&B AGM which is being hosted by the Branch.

Other duties have included receiving and dealing with email correspondence, and forwarding it to towers as necessary. Also making sure the annual return is kept up to date for the association report.

Bill Liebow

Ringing Master
Thank you to all ringers who have supported their Tower and Bristol Rural Branch over this year. 

Congratulations to all the ringers who have rung their first quarter this year and those who have rang a ‘first’ in a method, well done.
Unfortunately due to Covid, Branch practises did not start up again until March this year and due to the uncertainty no May day outing was held. I hope that in 2023 a full Branch programme will be resumed.

It is lovely to see that the G&B youth team have been going from strength to strength enjoying monthly trips and entering striking competitions. If you are a young ringer and would like further information on the youth team please contact ianbucknell@gmail.com

You will need to be competent in handling a bell and be able to ring call changes and plain hunt.

Sadly, Operation London Bridge was activated, thank you to all towers who rang for Queen Elizabeth II and for King Charles III. 

G&B Striking Competition, Coalpit Heath who won the branch striking competition back in February 2020 represented the branch in the Croome Trophy April 2022. The branch also entered a team in the Penn Trophy, its all about taking part. 

At the Officers meeting we discussed whether branch practises would be better on a Saturday afternoon or Saturday evening please share your thoughts with us so we can arrange practices accordingly.
 
Thank you.

Sue Elliot

 

Year 2021
Bristol Rural Branch – Chairman’s Annual Report -2021
There has been no Branch-organized bell ringing this year, as a result of Covid.  The Branch committee have been keeping the situation under review as restrictions have been progressively lifted, paying particular attention to the approach at individual towers as an indicator of the general attitude towards a resumption of normal ringing activities.  Over the summer months, towers have been progressively returning to service ringing with suitable precautions, so that the majority are now back to service ringing.  The approach to practices has been more cautious, with some towers choosing not to practice at all and most others, at least initially, restricting practices to specific groups of tower members only.  As with service ringing, these more cautious approaches are being gradually relaxed.  The resumption of a Branch programme will be a major discussion point at this year’s AGM.

At a more local level, there have been a number of initiatives to keep bell ringing alive.  There have been Ringing Room practices set up and these have proved successful, enabling ringers to progress to learning a wider range of methods.  There has also been at least one hand bell group practising change ringing outside.  The bimonthly Branch newsletter has continued throughout, providing updates on Covid guidance and including articles of general bell ringing interest.  On a broader front, the on-line training schools organized by the Association have proved very popular and have benefited a number of Branch ringers.

I am hopeful that something like a normal programme of Branch activities will be resuming in the near future.

Chris Greef

Ringing Masters Report 2021

 Bristol Rural Branch Secretary’s report for 2021
This year, much like 2020 has been restricted by COVID regulations and the big impact it has had on the ability to ring church bells.
 That said it has not impacted on my ability to forward messages!! And I feel that much of the year has been spent in trying to keep you in touch with matters from the centre and to keep your committee in touch with matters from

yourselves.
 It appears that, by now, many churches are ringing in some form or other with

some open to all and others still being cautious and keeping to their closed bubbles. One

thing that I did notice was how, that as soon churches were permitted open up the numbers

for weddings, without practice or trial runs, it was assumed we would be there.

During the shutdown we did hold various zoom ringing session which I feel encouraged

some to look at methods they would not have attempted in the tower and I am grateful to

John Payton and Bill Liebow for their assistance with my lack of computer skills to see this

through, although it came to a natural close in the summer. On a wider note regarding

zoom, it was a brilliant tool for the summer and winter school sessions run by the

Association which I know both Chris and Gill Greef played a big part in.

We should also be grateful to Bill for his time and the use of his own personal handbells to

keep sessions going when the fine weather (of which we seem to have had plenty) allowed

for us to ring outside in various churchyards. Whilst there was no church bell ringing these

sessions were well attended and whilst it might be frowned upon by some purists it worked,

and to the extent that due to infirmity some of our members are looking for it to continue

far into the future.

This is my last year as secretary, I did say 2 years ago that you needed someone local to the

area, and so whilst I intend to remain a member of the team at Abson I will not be the

secretary after the forthcoming AGM so I would say a huge thank you to those who have

supported me in this role and it is only the physical distance between me and the branch

that tells me this is right (it is nothing you have said!)

Linda Gittings


Treasurer’s Report

Treasurer’s Report

My second year as your treasurer has been as strange as the first and our finances are still largely unchanged.
I am happy to report that membership numbers are stable and although still on a downward
trend, we did not lose vast numbers through the pandemic:

Membership

 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
Senior 84 78 73 73 78
Junior 12 13 13 17 17
Retired 65 62 64 64 55
Associate 5 5 5 2 3
Honorary Life 3 3 2 2 1

MemberTotal        169 161 157 158 154

I hope we can keep our membership numbers up and return to something like full ringing in the next

year.
Interest rates remain very low but our account balances are OK:
? the Business Instant account balance at 31 October 2021 is £1,942.01
? the Treasurer’s account at 31 October 2021 has a balance of £97.35
? and the Virgin Money Charity Deposit Account stands at £538.78
For the 2020/21 year we raised £1,792.50 in subscriptions of which £1,638.00 was paid to the G&B,
and £144.50 retained by Bristol Rural branch for our funds. The level of funds remained around the
same because a number of retired members previously paying the concessionary rate chose to pay
the full fee of £15: many thanks to them for that.

There has been only one expense this year: website maintenance. And Tony managed to sell some
books raising £14 for funds.
Our balances therefore remain adequate and in a reasonable position to support the Branch
I am happy to answer any questions on the accounts either at the AGM or via email.
Thank you.

Alison Holliday

Bristol Rural Web 2021
Maintained the web site, repaired or fixed any problems that I was made aware of, there was one problem, the link to the G & B Gift Aid Form had become lost, I reinstated the link.
Tony York

Management Committee Rep Report 2021

Well, another exciting year with not much ringing and all the meetings on Zoom.
The G&B have purchased another Zoom license to see us all through next year so if you would like to use it,
please contact Steve Coleman.
The Management Committee had its usual three meetings in 2021. Unfortunately, this meant that we didn
t get to attempt another QP but we have covered all the necessary business.
The headlines are

1. Training
The online Winter School in January 2021 was an outstanding success with over a thousand participants. TheSummer School was almost as successful with around 850 participants including some from overseas.
We are hoping to have some actual ringing training days next year but there will also be Winter and Summer
schools online held between 24 & 30 January and 22 & 28 August respectively. Check the website if you want to sign up.

2. AGM
The 2021 AGM had to be held on Zoom and so we did not get our chance to impress the Association. It was not well attended but this may be because it coincided with the funeral of Prince Philip. Most of the Association officers remain the same as usual but we have since received notice that Steve Coleman is stepping down after the 2022 AGM. If you have always wanted to be the secretary of a big organisation, this is your time so let Steve know.
Steve has served as Association secretary for 18 years and, in my view which I know most of you share, he has done a splendid job. We send our grateful thanks to Steve for everything he has done and wish him a long and happy retirement.
For
2022 the AGM is planned to be in the Wotton Branch and then on April 22nd 2023 we will get our chance as the AGM will be coming to Bristol Rural.

3. What3Words
We were reminded that many years ago the Association had obtained and distributed the post codes of all Association towers in order to assist the Emergency Services if an emergency occurred. Our very own MartinPearson did much of the work for this.
The Management Committee agreed that it was now time to obtain and distribute the
“What3Words” for each tower for the same reason. Each tower would need two locations the place to which the ambulance would drive, and the door that led to the ringing chamber.
I have agreed to collate these but it would be really helpful if any Tower that already has these could send me
a note. It should be easier than finding the postcodes as, apparently, the What3Words app is very easy to use: I never
saw myself saying that!

Thank you
Alison Holliday

 

________________________________________________________________________
Year 2020
Bristol Rural Branch – Chairman’s Annual Report -2020
Well, what a year, I’m not quite sure what to say.
The year started off with a first peal on the Almondsbury bells since rehanging last year: all the ringers were from the Branch.  As usual there was a January Branch practice and a couple of Far-cited outings.  We also had a Branch striking competition, held at Abbot’s Leigh with eight teams entering, of whom Coalpit Heath won.  Our quiz night in February, won this year by Almondsbury, was also a great success.  Then it stopped.
Since then we’ve had several months of no ringing at all, followed by some tentative steps back to the tower with big restrictions.  As a result of the restrictions and many ringers’ natural concern about the current health risks, only some of our towers have got back to ringing in any form.  On the encouraging side, the Association organised a very successful Summer school conducted over Zoom, with several hundred participants and calls for more of the same.
I hope that next year’s report can be more positive.  In the meantime, please stick with us until we can meet again.
Chris Greef

 

 

Ringing Masters Report 2020
Thank you once again to all ringers who have supported their Tower and Bristol Rural Branch this year in these most unprecedented times.
In January this year the first peal was rung on Almondsbury bells, following their rehanging, by an all Bristol Rural Branch team, many congratulations to them.  5040 Grandsire Triples in 3hrs 4 mins.
I would like to congratulate all the ringers who have rang their first quarter this year and those who have rang a first in a method, well done.
One of the last ringing events was the six bell competition held at Abbots Leigh on a miserable day in February but with beautiful cakes to keep us all smiling. 8 Church Tower teams took part with Coalpit Heath running out winners for the second year. A mixture of Doubles, Minor and Call Changes was rung. I would like to thank Matt Johnson for his help and support this year in running the striking competition.
Unfortunately Branch Practises, along with other events were brought to an abrupt end in March with very little ringing done in the last 8 months. Although some towers have been fortunate to ring on a reduced number of bells, this has not been the case in many of our towers.
I hope that the students who attended the zoom G&B summer school enjoyed the seminars, they were greatly received and it is hoped to run more at the end of January 2021.
I am aware that many towers and ringers have not rang since March and may require some help in making sure their bells are in good order and then with returning to ringing.  If you need our help please ask.
I look forward to ringing with you all in 2021, fingers crossed.
Sue Elliott


 Bristol Rural Branch Secretary’s report for 2020

 Well this year has certainly been different!

Everything went according to plan until March when suddenly the country was in ‘lockdown’ and all ringing suspended. From the emails I received it is fair to say that some felt this was not the right message for the Church to give out as it was felt that it should be there for all those who were seeking solace from the devastating effects of COVID-19. Also that an opportunity was missed with regard to no bell being rung for the ‘clap for carers’ events.

During the time of closure there has been the odd message of guidance coming forth from the Central Council following their discussions with the ‘House of Bishops’. All correspondence concerning these discussions have been circulated to tower contacts and in some cases have finally lead to some churches being able to put into place some ringing activity but certainly not all and for those that have it is nothing like the norm.

Ringers, being ever inventive, have found ways of trying to retain not only interest but also the necessary personal contact required for well-being via such forums as ‘Zoom’ combined with ‘Ringing Room’ as well as outside, socially distance handbells (great during the summer) but this now has been further restricted by the rule of 6.

As for 2021 and the events of this Branch; it is less confusing for all if no calendar of events is published but we leave things as –

“We will meet again somewhere when the time is right and the rules allow”

This also goes for the ‘Farcited’ Group

Until that time I would encourage anyone who has not partaken of Zoom and Ringing Room to have a play around with the computer program as this might well be the future form of ‘practice’ and contact for many for some time to come.

I would just finish by saying I have found it even more difficult this year to be an ‘effective’ secretary to the Branch as I have been unable to keep regular contact with many of you and again I would urge you to consider someone who is local to the area as a necessary replacement.

Linda Gittings

 

Treasurer’s Report

My first year as your treasurer has been a strange one and our finances are largely unchanged from last year.

I am happy to report that membership numbers are stable:

Membership 2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

Senior

77

84

78

73

73

Junior

10

12

13

13

17

Retired

76

65

62

64

64

Associate

6

5

5

5

2

Honorary Life Member

3

3

3

2

2

Total

172

169

161

157

158

                   

 

 Account balances remain healthy:

? the Business Instant account balance at 31 October 2020 is £2,088.23

? the Treasurer’s account at 31 October 2020 has a balance of £69.21

? and the Virgin Money Charity Deposit Account stands at £533.74.

 

For the 2019/20 year we raised £1,797.50 in subscriptions of which £1,648.00 was paid to the G&B, and £149.50 retained by Bristol Rural branch for our funds.

There has been only one fund raising event this year: the annual quiz contributed £298.40 to the coffers. The principle expenses once again are hall hire and website maintenance.

Our balances therefore remain strong and in a good position to fund a project to support training.

I am happy to answer any questions on the accounts either at the AGM or via email.

Thank you.

Alison Holliday

 

Bristol Rural Web 2020
The web site has been updated as and when required. I have updated on 28 separate days with an average of 5 changes per day which Includes the now two monthly newsletter. Posters, the web calendar with any changes notified to me. The striking competition pictures, I did not have pictures for the quiz night to include?
Updated the “access” membership database which I have done since 2007 with the membership forms collected at and after the 2019 AGM, produced the annual return forms for 2021 which are on the web site.
Tony York

Management Committee Rep Report 2020
I want to start by thanking you for electing me to this role.  It has been an odd year but I have met lots of interesting people, learned much and had the opportunity to ring a quarter peal with the G&B Officers: a very interesting introduction to the work of the Management Committee.
Although ringing has been a bit thin, the Management Committee has followed its full programme of 3 meetings: one short, one longish and one on Zoom.  There were no biscuits at the Zoom meeting.
At the February meeting we discussed, in detail, the arrangements for the AGM which was due to be held in the North Cotswold Branch but was subsequently cancelled.  It was a useful meeting for me however as in 2021 the G&B AGM is due to be held in the Bristol Rural Branch.  We have a lot to prepare and a lot to look forward to.  If a physical meeting is still not possible, the AGM will be on Zoom and the striking competitions will be for fun and held in Ringing Room.
Ian Bucknell (Bisley) was formally appointed as the leader of the G&B Youth Team and we discussed and agreed the investment policies.
September saw our first Zoom meeting.  This was hosted by Roger Haynes our new Chairman and he did a good job in tricky circumstances.  Much of the discussion was about Belfry Repair Fund grants and reappointment of Belfry Advisors.  Bristol Rural had no applications on the table this year but we still have a very good proportion of the Belfry Advisors within our Branch.
The two issues for everyone to think about are:
Training
Following the great success of the Summer School, there will be a Winter School between 25 and 31 January 2021.  Details will be on the G&B website and places will likely go quite fast so don’t hesitate if there is a session that you want to try.
There will be another Summer School next August.
If we get to have our normal Training Days next year, there is a plan to precede the day with theory sessions on Zoom, which will cut down on standing around in the cold.

1.    Finance
You may be tempted not to pay your subs for 2021 on the basis that the resumption of regular ringing seems to be a long way off.  The plea from the Treasurer is that we all try to pay as usual because our subs are the main source of income for the Association. 
It is possible that the number of grant applications will go down but the monies received from subs can be invested wisely and be available in future: and who knows what work might be needed to get all our bells going again after a year off!
Thank you.

Alison Holliday
19 October 2020
End
Version 3

 

______________________________________________________________________

Year 2019

Bristol Rural Branch – Chairman’s Annual Report -2019

Our Branch programme this year has again been well supported in the main, though your Committee has concerns for the erratic attendance at routine Branch practices. One this year was even abandoned when not enough ringers turned up. We hope discussion at the AGM will enable us to address this problem in the 2020 programme.

It is pleasing to see that so many of the events on our programme do get a good level of support. The annual Branch Quiz is close to being oversubscribed for the size of the Iron Acton hall where we hold the event. Our Branch striking competition was held at Caldecot – thanks to Matt Johnson - on a beautiful February day and attracted a total of 9 teams to have a go: Coalpit Heath won this year and went on to represent us at the Association striking competition. Ringing with food seems to guarantee a good attendance too, so the post-Christmas practice at Frampton Cotterell (with mince pies), the barbecue at Syston and the cream tea at Dyrham all saw good numbers of ringers turn up.

Our outings have also done well. Over 30 ringers came on the May Day outing to towers in Herefordshire and Monmouthshire. Thanks for organizing this are due to our ringing master Sue Elliott. Sue also organizes a very successful annual multi-day trip to Cornwall and this year, as a special to commemorate the centenary of the end of World War 1, we had a coach trip to ring the bells at the St. George’s memorial chapel in Ypres. We rang at Aylesford in Kent on the way to the Shuttle, rang at St. George’s, had a tour of some of the war cemeteries and a section of preserved trenches, and finally attended the daily ceremony of remembrance at the Menin Gate.

The monthly Far-cited outings continue. Mary York retired as organizer this year – thanks to her for all her work - and now various Branch members take it in turns to organize them.

The past year saw the completion of a successful rehanging project at Almondsbury, with the bells being 1/8th turned and new fittings installed. The project involved a big fund-raising effort and as part of this, the ringers organized a number of imaginative ways to get the village involved. Their work was well- rewarded with a newly refurbished set of bells and the honour of winning the Association Tower of the Year award. Well done!

The Branch CCTV cameras have been in demand for tower open days, enabling visitors to see bells and bellringers in action live from the safety of the church, rather than having to venture into a sometimes cramped and not readily accessible ringing chamber. The cameras had several outings this year, including outside the Branch and a first outing to Dyrham to encourage some local people to take more of an interest in the bells. I thoroughly recommend making the effort to install the cameras whenever you have an open day as visitors are always totally fascinated to see what ringing is about.

My thanks go to all who helped with tower, Branch or Association events and also to Committee members. Of course, none of this would be possible without the support of our members, so thank you for your loyalty. And please let a member of the Committee know if there is some particular thing you want help with.

Chris Greef

 

Ringing Masters Report 2019

Thank you once again to all ringers who have supported their Tower and Bristol Rural Branch this year.

We have rung a variety of methods at Branch Practises from call changes to surprise methods, again with the practices being led by various committee members.

The six bell competition was held at Caldicot and what a glorious sunny day that was. In the competition there were 8 Church Tower teams and Ada’s team which consisted of 5 young people and one older person with 2 of the team being part of the ‘Ringing Remembers’ recruits. A mixture of Doubles, Minor and Call Changes were rung on the back 6 bells of the 8 bells.

Coalpit Heath went on to represent us in the Croome Trophy in April, where they came 4th and awarded a Ringing Masters Clapper for ‘meritorious performance’ in the competition. Although we didn’t do so well in the Penn Trophy we were able to enter a band.  Thank you to everyone who took part to represent our Branch.

The Branch May Day Outing to Hereford and Monmouth was very well attended taking in  Llantilio Crosseny , Llantilio Pertholey, Abbey Dore, Ewyas Harold , Clodock  and Trevethin.  Next year it is suggested the outing is on Saturday May 9th to the Salisbury area.

At Gloucester Cathedral we had a good turnout and excellent ringing on all 12 bells, once again there was a tour to the roof to admire the beautiful surrounds.

We have held a couple of training days for Plain Bob Doubles and Plain Hunting as requested by members. If you would like a training day, any method, please let us know.

I would like to thank Matt Johnson for his help and support this year in running the striking competition and several branch practises and all the Committee for their continued help.
Sue Elliott Ringing Master

 

 Bristol Rural Branch Secretary’s report for 2019

Last year I reported that I was of the opinion that it would be better for the Branch, as a whole, if the Secretary was someone who lived local to the area and could have a hands on approach to what they needed to do for the sake of the Branch – nothing has happened this year to make me change my mind regarding this.

The Branch has carried the role of Management Rep as a vacancy for the whole of 2019, and whilst I have tried to represent the Branch at these meetings I actually attend in my role of Management Rep for the Gloucester Branch and there have been times when this has produced issues. To that end again I would ask the Branch to think carefully about filling the post.

In relation to correspondence received throughout the year all of this has been by way of email and has been answered and/or circulated as and when it arrives. In all of this I have tried to comply with all things Data Protection – I, like some you, find this extremely frustrating on many occasions but I am lead to believe that the ‘tower contact’ system of 2 named contacts for nearly all towers is working efficiently. If your opinion is that it is not so then please speak to me and let me know so we can find a way to improve matters. Also, if you should change your contact please don’t forget to tell me. Can I also take this opportunity to remind you to ensure your Church’s affiliation certificate show up to date details for your contact.

As Secretary; and following the retirement of Mary York from organizing the Farcited group and their ringing activities; I now co-ordinate the volunteers organizing our days out. If anyone else would like to volunteer their services to organize a day, please step forward.

I share the concern of the Chairman re the small numbers appearing for Branch Practices, especially during the summer months or when no food is on offer! and would ask that members tell us what they feel the format of such events should be in order to achieve a meaningful meeting for as many as possible.

As I close this year’s report we reach the end of the first week of Peal/Quarter peal/First week and I am pleased to see the Branch has entered into the spirit of this form of advancement for it’s members.

Yours

Linda Gittings

Branch Secretary


Treasurer’s Report

I am happy to report that membership numbers remain stable:

Membership 2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

Senior

69

77

84

78

73

Junior

12

10

12

13

13

Retired

76

76

65

62

64

Associate

6

6

5

5

5

Honorary Life Member

3

3

3

3

2

Total

166

172

169

161

157

                   



 Account balances remain healthy:

the Business instant account at 31 October 2018 stands at £1505.58

the Treasurer’s account at 31 October 2018 has a balance of £142.77

and the Virgin Money Charity Deposit Account stands at £533.74.

For the 2018/9 year we raised £1832.50 in subscriptions of which £1679.00 was paid to the G&B, and £153.50 retained by Bristol Rural branch for our funds. This income was boosted by Branch events which contributed £400.65, the most important event for fund raising being the Quiz Night, which with a raffle made £214.80.

Costs this year have been kept to a minimum with the most significant being hall hire and the maintenance of the web site.

Our balances therefore remain strong and in a good position to fund a project to support training.

Lucy Bailey

3 November 2019

Bristol Rural Web
The web site has been updated as and when required.
This includes, Newsletters,  Produced the Notice Board each month, with  posters when required, the web calendar with any changes notified to me, also when and where the Branch CCTV cameras are to be used.
Have circulated the branch newsletter by email to all branch members for whom I have email addresses along with Notice Board and any other information provided to me for circulation!
I Keep  a supply of popular ringing books for those ringers who require them.
Tony York 

A G & B MC Representatives view of the MC Meetings 2019 

 2019 Management Report Gloucester Branch.

Members of the G and B Management Committee have met 3 times during the year.

The January meeting (26/01/19) was held in Cirencester with the main agenda item being that of approving the accounts and Annual Report for 2018 and these were duly accepted, and the Hon. Treasurer was given permission to submit the necessary paperwork to the Charity Commission.

One further item was raised which a possible increase to the charges for students attending training days (I’m please to say this was discussed at the September meeting and no increase at this time was felt necessary)

The March meeting (02/03/19) was held following the Branch Officers meeting earlier that day and various items were noted and endorsed from that meeting which had been attended by 35 officers. These included a discussion of ideas on how to retain ringers; to note that Almondsbury had won the vote for ‘Tower of the Year’ award; and that changes to the administration of the Penn and Croome Trophy competitions should be implemented with immediate effect - this being that names of the team members should be handed to the competition stewards prior to ringing and that these names would be checked for eligibility.

Philip gave a summary of the state of the Association finances, as a result of which it was felt that there needed to be no increase in affiliation fees or subscriptions to be put before the 2019 AGM. However, it was reported that not all churches are, as yet, paying the agreed increase in the affiliation fee implemented in January 2018. The Association Policy regarding the matter of the costing for voluntary labour used in belfry maintenance/upgrade work and the effect this has on grants awarded was discussed. As a result of these discussions it was decided that each project must be decided upon on an individual basis. Bearing this decision in mind the following grants were award to:-

Longney (£327) Blaisdon (£275) English Bicknor (£133) Childswickham (£418) and Elkstone (£3,997) with the grant to Almondsbury being officially extended.

Final details for the AGM to be held at Mitcheldeane were confirmed

This meeting also had to turn its attention to a matter of complaint from one branch against the Officers of the Association in that they had made a ruling on the legality of the manner in which that Branch had spent it’s funds following an internal dispute amongst members of that Branch The basis of the complaint was related to whether the money was being spent in line with the rules under the Associations Charitable Objectives. The Management committee was not being asked as to whether they would have agreed with the money being spent on such a project but whether the Association Officers could make such a ruling. The Management committee ruled that the Association Officers were so entitled with two members voting against and one member declaring an interest and therefore abstaining from the vote.

The September meeting (21/09/19) saw 2 further Association Members appointed to the roles of Belfry Advisors, namely Jonathan Storey (Mangotsfield) and Matthew Johnson (Tytherington). Malcolm Taylor was confirmed as remaining the Belfry Advisor Co-ordinator and Claire Redstone as the Tewkesbury Shield Competition Representative.

Philip gave a comprehensive update regarding financial matters and as a result of good money management and controls in place it was felt that grants awarded this year, and nearly all those agreed last year could be covered at a rate of 15% of the costs. He did warn however that large grant requests were to be expected in 2020 possibly totally around £390,000 plus the usual smaller requests could not be forgotten. On the plus side he pointed out that the donation of £6,248.00 agreed for the Berkeley re-hang had not been required after all.
A review of the Financial Controls, the Investment Policy and the Insurance Renewal were considered by the meeting and felt to be in good order and adequate.

He also asked that we consider a number of points highlighted by the Charity Commission pointing out that one such matter, often overlooked with the change of Officers, is that of the Branch having at least three counter-signatories for our Branch accounts and that at least 2 should approve every expenditure – including any paid by way of BACS.

Grants were approved for work at Temple Guiting - £218 and Tewkesbury Abbey - £2462.

The previously made offer to PCCs of Belfry Inspections and Maintenance by way of a contract with bell hangers was reported on and although the take up had been disappointing; only 2 towers had shown an interest; it was felt that the offer should once again be made.

The form and content of the up and coming 2019 annual report was discussed and a change in lay out approved but with all the usual content remaining. The cost of the report to non-members is to remain at £4 per copy.

The cost to members for training days in 2020 was discussed and it was felt it should remain at the current level of £8 for the day.

Dates for the 2020 programme were approved with the AGM being held at Blockley, North Cotswold. The Croome Trophy was timetabled for Temple Guiting and the Penn for Morton-in-Marsh. Further details of open towers would follow near the time.

As part of the AOB the committee were asked to consider the topic of an Association based open tower day; the consensus was that this was something best left to Branches to consider as and when they wished to hold such an event. The suggestion from one Branch that joint tower teams should be eligible for entry into the Croome Trophy was withdrawn. The Association Secretary presented the committee with a sample of the New Badges which remain at the cost of £5.00

Linda Gittings

_______________________________________________________________________

Year 2018

Bristol Rural Branch – Chairman’s Annual Report -2018

Our Branch programme this year has included the usual range of ringing and social activities.  I will focus on the events with more of a social element to them and let the Ringing Master and Deputy give their views on ringing progress.

The Branch Quiz was very well attended again with Chipping Sodbury as quizmasters.  The winning team (chosen by the roll of a die from amongst the six highest scoring teams) was Winterbourne, so we look forward to them organising next year’s quiz.  The annual May Day Bank Holiday outing was to six towers on the Gloucester- Hereford border and nearly 30 ringers turned up on a fine sunny day.  Our annual joint social with ringers from the Wotton Branch attracted nearly 40 people and after ringing at Tytherington all repaired to a local pub for an evening of skittles and a ploughman’s supper. Our barbecue was at Abson this year and although numbers were down a good time was had by those present in the middle of this summer’s heatwave.  The monthly Far-Cited ringers outing continues to be popular, with ringing at three towers and a pub lunch.

The Branch CCTV cameras continue to be useful for tower open days, enabling visitors to see bells and bellringers in action live from the safety of the church, rather than having to venture into a sometimes cramped and not readily accessible ringing chamber.  The cameras had several outings this year, including one to a tower outside the Branch.  In all cases it is reported that visitors are totally fascinated to see what ringing is all about, so the effort of installing the cameras is well worthwhile.

There has been a lot of publicity in the past year about the 100th anniversary of the end of World War One, with a national campaign to recruit more ringers and plans to commemorate Armistice Day with ringing throughout the country.  Some interested people have started to learn to ring in our area as a result of the campaign and I hope that by the time you read this we can say that every tower in the Branch rang at some time during the Day.

On a sadder note the Branch lost two long-term active ringers in the last year.  Keith Scudamore was a very well-known ringer of the highest standard both locally and on a much wider front: he died of cancer in March.  Bert Ferris, a one-time prolific ringer in the Branch and more widely died in September at the age of 97.  Although he had not rung for a number of years he was until recently still to be found in the pub after the weekly Westerleigh practice.  Our condolences go to both families.

My thanks go to all who helped with tower, Branch or Association events and also to Committee members.  I am particularly pleased with the continued success of various joint practices, from joint tower practices to cross-Branch monthly events on both six and eight bells.  They provide opportunities for ringers to progress and perhaps provide encouragement where the home tower is struggling to remain viable.

Chris Greef

Ringing Masters Report 2018

Thank you to all ringers who have supported their towers and branch ringing this year.

I hope you have enjoyed the new approach to branch practises and have benefitted from the vast experience offered by the different committee members in leading practises, teaching & advising.  We all have our own way of thinking and I hope you have picked up something new that makes sense.  This year we have rang call changes and a variety of methods from Plain Bob Doubles to Cambridge major at the branch practises, all levels are catered for so please come along where you will be most welcome and meet new friends.
We have had one training day at Bitton where we practised Cambridge / Treble Bobbing on both minor and major.  This was a very successful and well attended course run by Chris Greef.  Hopefully we will also have had a St Simons training day early November also run by Chris.

The branch 6 bell competition was held at Queen Charlton and congratulations to Dyrham who went forward to represent the branch at the Croome Trophy, unfortunately things didn’t go their way but hey it’s the taking part.  We were unable to get together an 8-bell team for the Penn Trophy but hope to rectify this next year, we are looking to hold an 8 bell practise around the branch so we can put in a strong challenge.  It is also proposed that the branch striking competition should be arranged for an earlier date to give ringers more notice of the Croome Trophy, your views on this would be welcomed at the AGM.

The May Day outing to Gloucestershire / South Hereford was well attended taking in Newent, Linton, Bridstow, Ross on Wye, English Bicknor and St Briavels.  We are now looking for suggestions for next year.

Gloucester Cathedral - There was a good turnout at Gloucester Cathedral where we rang call changes and plain hunting on 10 bells.  After the ringing we had a tour to the roof and admired the beautiful surroundings of Gloucester.

Moving forward if you would like a training day or for more experienced ringers to join your practises for a few weeks just let me know and I will organise for you.

I would like to thank Matt Johnson for his help and support this year in running the striking competition and a couple of branch practises and all the committee for helping to run branch practises and bringing new ideas to the table.

Sue Elliott

Bristol Rural Branch Secretary's Report 2018
Last year, with the Chairman having struggled to find anyone willing to take on the post of Secretary from Tony York, I found myself inheriting it from him and let’s face it Tony was a well oiled machine.
Some of you may recall I said at that meeting that I thought it would be a much better idea if someone who lived in the Branch area took on the role but, as no-one stepped forward I became the pressed volunteer.  I am still of that same opinion, much of what needs to be done behind the scenes is local to the Branch area and it has had to mean that instead of just being able to get on and do things I have had to rely on other members of the committee and/or various tower contacts to carry out work previously done by the secretary.  To that end I really would like the branch members to give serious thought to the fact that I do not foresee my appointment as a long term thing.

In relation to correspondence this year only one item has been received via the Royal Mail postal system and that was an invitation to the whole branch, from the Wotton Branch, to partake in a social event at some time in 2019.  I have, on behave of the membership, accepted this invitation and will forward details to the tower contacts as when I receive them.  All other correspondence has been dealt with, as and when received, via email.

This then brings me to another point the Branch needs to be aware of – when I took on the role of secretary I was very aware that I did not have much information with regard to email contacts for the Branch other than what was on the web-page.  However, I was aware, from my earlier time on the committee, that the idea had been put into place to have 2 contact persons per tower in order that information could be disseminated to the tower members from the committee via the contacts.  I have tried to ensure that I follow this idea but have been made aware, of late, that some members do not seem to be getting the information I send out.  The fact of the matter is that, whilst many of you may have given your email details to Tony over the years; and he did pass many on to me; at the same time as I took over the law in relation to personal details held by a 3rd party changed and as both Tony and I use our own personal computers to carry out the Branch business and not a Branch computer I had to be careful as to how I used that information.  To that end everyone whose details I had been given was sent an email to explain that I was the new secretary, and did they wish to remain on a list, on my computer, for circulation of Branch matters.  Some replied they were no longer interested, some replied 'yes please' but the majority did not reply.  To that end I have deleted all of the 'no thanks' and non-reply address, and reverted to the tower contact idea, plus the unattached members and the few who have asked me specifically to copy them into circulations.  If you are one of those persons who now wish to be returned/placed on the list I hold YOU have to tell me.

Linda Gittings

Branch Web Site Report
The branch web has been updated as and when required during the year.
The branch Newsletter, Notice board, and relevant posters circulated too all members

for whom I have email addresses as BCC copies monthly.
The branch web site has tower correspondents or tower contacts email addresses coded

where permission has been given, towers who have not given permission are
Alveston, Thornbury, Westerleigh, these towers refer to the G & B annual report.
Use of the CCTV cameras is recorded on the web site calendar.
I do not record where the CCTV system is when not in use.
If possible obtain email addresses for all  new members so that they may receive the
branch newsletter monthly.
Tony York


MC Rep
As your Branch Representative on the G&B Management Committee (MC) I once again attended all three MC meetings held in 2018 on your behalf, and I have the following to report.
Data Protection Policy
Prior to the implementation of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in May – and with the authorisation of the AGM in April – the Management Committee drafted and agreed a Data Protection Policy and Privacy Notice for the Association. These two documents apply to all personal data controlled and processed by the Association and its Branches, and can be found on the Association’s website: https://www.bellsgandb.org.uk (see the news item dated 12th May 2018 on the homepage).
Quinquennial Belfry Inspections
Will Ruck of the Forest Branch, through his various contacts, has undertaken to speak to the two Dioceses to see if they can be persuaded to tell PCCs that a professional inspection by a bellhanger should be obtained with every quinquennial inspection, in the same way that an inspection of the church’s electrical installation by a professional electrician is already required. This will hopefully reduce the need for major restorations that could have been prevented by earlier maintenance.
Training Day Fees for 2019
The student fee for the Association’s Spring and Autumn Training Days will remain at £8 for 2019.
Both Training Days are expected to run as normal next year, despite the unfortunate cancellation of the Autumn Training Day this year which (to quote Steve Coleman) appeared to be due “to an odd concatenation of circumstances rather than one particular reason”.
In Conclusion
I have now held this post for twelve years, and for this reason (among others) I’ve decided it’s time for me to pass the baton to someone else. The job isn’t at all onerous – three meetings a year (or four if you include the Branch Officers’ Meeting that all Branch Officers attend), and one of those meetings is so delightfully short that a quarter peal attempt is organised afterwards to make it worth going. And as you can see, the report to the Branch AGM doesn’t have to be very long either.
Thank you all for your support over the years – it’s been a pleasure to represent you.
Martin Pearson
October 2018

Treasurer’s Report
I am happy to report that membership numbers remain stable:

Membership

 

2015

2016

2017

2018

Senior

69

77

84

78

Junior

12

10

12

13

Retired

76

76

65

62

Associate

6

6

5

5

Honorary Life Member

3

3

3

3

Total

166

172

169

161

 

 

Account balances remain healthy:

the Business instant account at 31 October 2018 stands at £1172.53

the Treasurer’s account at 31 October 2018 has a balance of £117.23

and the Virgin Money Charity Deposit Account stands at £527.45 (interest for past year not included).

For the 2017/8 year we raised £1872.50 in subscriptions of which £1715.50 was paid to the G&B, and £157.00 retained by Bristol Rural branch for our funds.  This income was boosted by Branch events which contributed £333.04, the most important event for fund raising being the Quiz Night, which with a raffle made £229.54.

Costs this year have been kept to a minimum with the most significant being hall hire and the maintenance of the web site.

Our balances therefore remain strong and in a good position to fund the possible purchase of a simulator.

Lucy Bailey

11 November 2018
__________________________________________________________________________________

Year 2017

Committee member reports 2017.
 Chairman

I must start this year’s report with my thanks to three committee members who are standing down at the AGM.

First of all, Tony York is standing down as Branch secretary after being in that role for over 20 years. He has undertaken his duties with great efficiency, passing information on to towers from the Association in a timely manner and generally making sure that the Branch administration is up to scratch. I am personally very grateful to him for his support and for prompting me when things need to be done. But that is not all. During his tenure, Tony also produced the monthly newsletter, nearly 250 editions in total, and built up the Branch website to its current impressive form. Tony handed over the newsletter earlier this year but I am pleased to say that he has agreed to continue to maintain the website.

Secondly, Alan Coombs is standing down as Ringing Master. His dedication and enthusiasm have been exemplary and his efforts to encourage novice ringers by organizing training, arranging quarter peals, being generally encouraging and so on have been particularly notable. He has also undertaken the lion’s share of the work in installing the Branch CCTV cameras at towers for open days and fetes. The cameras continue to be in demand and always attract a lot of interest from members of the public.

Finally, Rachel Parker is standing down as our Public Relations representative. I am sure that Branch members will join me in thanking them all for their contribution to the Branch and in hoping that they will continue to contribute to the ringing in our area.

Turning to other matters, the annual quiz night at Iron Acton was very well supported again: Chipping Sodbury were quizmasters this year and Mary York’s team organized the food. The May Day outing was organized by Sue Elliott: we rang 6 towers, including St. Mark’s and Christchurch Swindon, both superb rings of bells. Sadly, we had to cancel the barbeque because the two chefs were on an Isle of Wight ringing trip (surely there must be others who can manage to cook chicken thighs and burgers?). However, to compensate for this, the Branch practice at Dyrham was brought forward to the afternoon, to be accompanied by a cream tea: this proved very popular with hordes of people attending. Even the visitors from Dyrham House next door looked on enviously at the food on offer! The monthly Far-Cited ringers outing continues to be popular, with ringing at three towers and a pub lunch.

Thanks are due to all who helped with tower, Branch or Association events and also to Committee members. The cross-Branch monthly practices continue to thrive providing good opportunities for progression with both six and eight bell ringing. The more basic level training has not been so well supported this year, so we need to continue to find ways to get more early-stage ringers to take advantage of the help that Branch activities can bring to their ringing skills.

Chris Greef

 Ringing Master.                                                                                                         RINGING MASTER REPORT FOR 2017

There has been a lot of practice meetings in the Branch this year, plus special training days, most of the practices were well attended but I am afraid some were not.

The BMW (Bitton Mangotsfied and Warmley) practices held monthly are to be cancelled due to insufficient members attending, and so will the Kelston practices on the first Saturday of each month.

 However, on a more positive note we started this year off with a training day at Bitton focusing on Triples methods and calling basic touches of Grandsire, Plain Bob and Stedman, and this was well attended and beneficial to those who came along.     

The Branch Striking Competition was held at Grittleton, there were 7 teams plus a scratch team, Kay Hodges and Hazel Bridges were our judges and both did a fine job with plenty of compliments to all the teams. Westerleigh came 1st, Wapley 2nd, and Frampton Cotterell 3rd.     

In the Association Competition we had 2 teams represent the Branch for the Penn and Croome trophy,  

In the Penn Trophy the Rural Branch came 7th, and in the Croome trophy it was Frampton who represented us and came 8th.  

 St Georges day fell on a Sunday this year and each tower was encouraged to either ring a quarter peal or do some general ringing of their own free will.   

The Branch outing held on May Day was quite well attended, visiting towers around the Swindon area this year, and thanks to Sue Elliot for arranging this again.   

We had a special course in May held at Frampton Cotterell run by Steve Coleman with the emphasis on Striking, Listening and Rhythm, and proved very beneficial to all those who attended.

The May branch practice at Syston was not so popular with only 5 coming along, so after 30 minutes it was abandoned.

We held another training day in June at Dyrham, this was for Grandsire Doubles which was more successful.

The Annual ringing at Gloucester Cathedral this year for which we are invited to ring for was attended by just 15, I was unable to attend this year and I would like to thank Matt Johnson for running the afternoons ringing there.

I will be standing down as Ringing Master this year, I have had 3 years and feel it’s time for someone else to take the reins.

It has been a pleasure, a challenge, and hard work, and above all that I get the satisfaction of knowing that someone will leave a training day, or a practice meeting a little bit wiser than when they arrived,

 

I would like to thank everyone in the Branch for all your support and friendship, and sadly, not only will I be standing down as Ringing Master, but I will also be retiring from ringing altogether.

Alan Coombs.
Ringing Master


Deputy
 
Sue Elliott

Treasurer

I am happy to report that membership remains healthy.  The senior category increased for another year with an additional 7 members, although there was a significant drop in the number of retired members.

Membership

 

2015

2016

2017

Variance on previous year

Senior

69

77

84

+7

Junior

12

10

12

+2

Retired

76

76

65

-11

Associate

6

6

5

-1

Honorary Life Member

3

3

3

0

Total

166

172

169

-3

 

Account balances remain healthy:

the Business instant account at 31 October 2017 stands at £976.64

the Treasurer’s account at 31 October 2017 has a balance of £192.71

and the Virgin Money Charity Deposit Account stands at £527.45.

For the 2016/7 year we raised £1990.00 in subscriptions of which £1823.00 was paid to the G&B, with £167.00 being retained by Bristol Rural branch for our funds.  This income was boosted by Branch events which contributed £309.50, the most important event for fund raising being the Quiz Night, which with a raffle made £245.25.

We have only made one significant purchase this year and that was for a new television screen for our camera system, at a cost of £159.  Therefore, our balances now total £1696.80 compared with £1260.55 at the end of the previous financial year.

Lucy Bailey

4 November 2017.

Secretary
Nothing much has changed this year except perhaps handing over the Branch Newsletter, having produced 242 in my 22 years as secretary to someone else, who happens to be Chris Greef as there were no other takers!

Why? basically lack of input from towers and one person who moaned at what I had put in who is not even a branch member, so it was time to give up.
However since then I have decided that the time has come, I will not be looking to be re-elected, so I would like to thank you all for any support you have given me over the years.
Tony York
 MC Representative

As your Branch Representative on the G&B Management Committee I duly attended all three MC meetings held in 2017, and have the following to report:

“Firsts Fortnight”

The Branch Officers’ Meeting in March floated the idea of a “Firsts Fortnight” during which everyone will be encouraged to do something for the first time, no matter how experienced a ringer they are. This could be as simple as ringing at another tower, as complex as conducting a peal of 8-Spliced Surprise Major, or anything in between as long as it’s a step forward. Starting in 2018, “Firsts Fortnight” will run concurrently with the Quarter Peal and Peal Festival in October, and there’ll be a page on the G&B website where everyone’s “firsts” can be shared.

Training Day Fees

Following a bit of confusion about whether the Association was allowed to make a loss on this year’s Autumn Training Day and the subsequent unexpected increase in the student fee, the MC decided that in future the fees for both the Spring and Autumn Training Days should be the same in any given year, and will set the fees for the forthcoming year with the intention of breaking even. A decision on the fees for 2018 is expected imminently.

Belfry Repair Fund grants

Two towers in our Branch have received grants from the Belfry Repair Fund this year:

·         Almondsbury were awarded 10% of eligible expenditure on their major rehanging project, subject to a maximum of £5,614.

·         Abson were similarly awarded 10% of eligible expenditure on repairing their cracked headstock, and received £40.

Don’t forget that the Branch can also award grants for belfry repair projects – just ask one of the Branch Officers.

The Annual Report

Starting with the Annual Report that comes out in 2018, there will be an indication against any tower whose contact is reachable via email through the G&B website. A small change, but hopefully a useful one!

Social Media

You might recall that Hazel Bridges, during her time as G&B Ringing Master, set up a Twitter account for the Association. Unfortunately this wasn’t used at all by either her successor, Will Ruck, or our present Ringing Master, Tom Edgeworth; and consequently the MC voted by majority to close it down. The G&B has a long record of being slow to embrace modern technology – for instance, it’s taken far too many years to set up email contacts for towers – so it’s perhaps little wonder that the social media revolution is passing us by. If you have any thoughts on this, do please let me know and I’ll be sure to raise them at the MC Meeting next spring.

Martin Pearson, November 2017.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Year 2016
Chairman
Our Branch programme this year has included the usual range of ringing and social activities. I will focus on the events with more of a social element to them and let the Ringing Master and Deputy give their views on ringing progress.

 

Our main event this year surely was the hire of the Lichfield Diocesan Mobile Belfry over Heritage Open Days weekend in September. Branch members had an enjoyable Friday evening assembling the belfry in Winterbourne Medieval Barn under the watchful eye of Phil Gay, who towed the belfry from Crewe. The Saturday and Sunday were spent trying out the bells, explaining all about bellringing to the many visitors who came, demonstrating ringing and encouraging visitors to have a go. On the Saturday evening we held a joint social at the Barn with the Wotton Branch ringers, enjoying a fish and chip supper. In my view, the weekend was a great success, helping to publicise ringing to the general public, as well as being great fun.

 

Another great success has been the Branch CCTV cameras, bought last year with a bequest from Alan Pidgeon. They have been installed in a number of towers over the year for open days and fetes (including Winterbourne tower during Heritage Open Days) and have proved very popular with the public, who are fascinated to watch the bells ringing as the bellringers pull on the ropes below.

 

The Branch Quiz was very well attended again with Bitton as quizmasters and Mary York plus team as caterers. The winning team (chosen by the roll of a die from amongst the six highest scoring teams) was Chipping Sodbury, so we look forward to them organising next year’s quiz. The annual May Day Bank Holiday outing was to north Gloucestershire, with ringing at six towers. We also had a walking tour around Clevedon in June. Our barbecue was at Syston this year, on a very wet Saturday - at least the cooks had a gazebo to keep the rain off! The monthly Far-Cited ringers outing continues to be popular, with ringing at three towers and a pub lunch.

 

Thanks are due to all who helped with tower, Branch or Association events and also to Committee members. I am particularly pleased with the continued success of various joint practices, from joint tower practices to cross-Branch monthly events on both six and eight bells. They provide opportunities for ringers to progress and perhaps provide encouragement where the home tower is struggling to remain viable.

Chris Greef

 Ringing Master.
Following on from last year it has been a good year for ringing in the Branch, there has been practices held every month, and all have been well supported with a good variety of methods.
There was a striking and listening course held at Thornbury in January which 18 members attended.
In April and June we had an extended 2 practices at Kelston which included training sessions of Plain Bob Minor, these were well attended and both practice meetings were productive.
The monthly 6 bell ringing practices at Kelston are as popular as ever, and the 8 bell meetings at Thornbury, Henbury and Chipping Sodbury are also well supported with more advanced 8 bell methods.
 The Branch striking competition was held in March at Compton Dando with a total of 10 teams entering, the judges were Ruth Beavin and Julian Hemper. The standard of striking from all the teams was good to very good according to our judges.  I was very pleased that Mangotsfield won the competition, followed by Dyrham, and Frampton Cotterell came 3rd.
 We were made very welcome at Compton with a good supply of tea and cakes although the Church was a bit chilly!
In the Penn and Croome trophy competitions we were not so fortunate and came 9th in both events, and I would like to thank our team members for coming.
 St George's day this year was left to individual towers to mark the occasion as it co-incided with the 400th Anniversary of Shakespeare.  A number of towers marked both events with either general ringing or a quarter peal.
Linda Gittings did not organise her usual outing this year.
The Branch May Day outing which was organised by deputy Sue Elliot was a good outing around the Fairford area, a total of 20 members attended.
In June I organised a "Walk n'ring" tour of the 4 Churches in Clevedon, the weather was perfect and 15 people attended, it was also linked to a walking tour by Julie McDonnell in Sussex in which she was raising money for people needing stem cell treatment for leukaemia.  At each tower we rang "A Touch for Julie" and £90 was collected for her funds.
In June it was the 90th Anniversary of the Queen which saw a great many peals and quarter peals being rung and general ringing liked to the website.
 Our annual invitation in September to ring for the Choral Evensong at Gloucester Cathedral was attended by 14  people, the ringing included Grandsire Triples, Plain Hunting on 9, Rounds and Call changes, the standard of ringing was much better than of previous years.
There were 2 new ringers who found the whole experience of ringing in a Cathedral and on 12 bells very rewarding.
Linda Gittings invited everyone back to her house afterwards for a lovely tea.
The October Peal and Quarter peal Festival has been a good one for our Branch, 12 quarter peals have been rung in 10 different towers, with a diverse range of methods.
During the past year there were no towers that have specifically asked for any extra help on practice nights, so I put this down to the fact that our training days are doing exactly what they are designed for.
I would like to thank everyone for your continued support and all those that have given their time and helped with training days and last but by no means least the continued support by my deputy Sue Elliot.
Alan Coombs.
Ringing Master

Deputy

Monday 2nd May 2016

The day was bright and sunny as we commenced our day at Barnsley in the Cotswolds, before moving onto Coln St Aldwyns and then a short distance to Hatherop before lunch.  Unfortunately the weather turned lunchtime and so it was wet when we got to Fairford to ring from the choir stalls and a long draught. We then moved onto Ampney Crucis before finishing the day in sunshine  at Malmesbury Abbey detached bell tower, on a glorious evening, on probably the best bells of the day. Altogether 24 ringers enjoyed the whole day with approx. 10 ringers joining us for a tower or two.  All the bells were nice and a good day was had by all. 
Sue Elliott

Treasurer

After my first year as Treasurer of Bristol Rural branch I am happy to report that the senior category of membership increased by 8 members compared to 2015.

Membership

 

2015

2016

Variance

Senior

69

77

+8

Junior

12

10

-2

Retired

76

76

0

Associate

6

6

0

Honorary Life Member

3

3

0

Total

166

172

+6

 

Account balances remain healthy:

the Business instant account at 31 October 2016 stands at £596.84

the Treasurer’s account at 31 October 2016 has a balance of £139.53

and the Virgin Money Charity Deposit Account stands at £524.18.

Last year we raised £1205.00 in subscriptions of which £1043.50 was paid to the branch, with £161.50 retained by ourselves.  This income was boosted by Branch events which contributed £143.97, the most important event for fund raising being the Quiz Night, which with a raffle made £125.20.

We have spent significantly from our funds this year.  We purchased the CCTV system from the sum left us by Alan Pidgeon the previous year, and we financed the Lichfield Mobile Belfry from our funds at a cost of £389.25.  Therefore, our balances now total £1260.55 compared with £2056.72 at the end of the previous financial year.

Whilst income from subscriptions and Branch events is sufficient to cover normal operating costs should the Branch wish to finance such projects again then consideration will be needed to be given to more intensive fund raising.

 

Lucy Bailey

9 November 2016
Secretary
     You might as well read last year’s secretary report not a lot has changed. The Annual return   
     for the G & B annual report was completed, newsletter published 12 times, the web site kept 
     up-to-date, arrangements for the various branch events made, tower captains meeting,
     striking competition, quiz night, BBQ, AGM, Combined meeting with Wotton Branch etc., Perhaps
     the only real activity was installing the branch CCTV cameras on 12 occasions including out of
     branch with our ringing master Alan Coombs.
    Thus another year passes by for the branch.
Tony York

 MC Representative

As your Management Committee (MC) Representative, I have once again attended the three MC meetings this year on your behalf, and I have just one matter to report.

The MC has received a suggestion from a G&B member that the Tower Affiliation Fee should be increased from its present £10 to either £20 or £25. (The fee was last raised in 1994, and the full amount goes into the Belfry Repair Fund.) No formal proposal has been made as yet, and the MC won't discuss it until we meet again in March – prior to making a recommendation to the AGM in April. If you're wondering how your tower's PCC might react to such an increase, bear in mind that the member who made the suggestion was prompted by their own tower's PCC, which had recently benefitted from a Belfry Repair Fund grant and thought the current Tower Affiliation Fee was ridiculously good value for money!

Martin Pearson, November 2016.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Year 2015

 

      Chairman for 2015
       Our Branch programme this year has included the usual range of ringing and social activities. I
       will focus on the events with more of a social element to them and let the Ringing Master and 
       Deputy give their views on ringing progress.
       The Branch Quiz was very well attended again with Winterbourne as quizmasters and Mary York
       plus team as caterers. To avoid tactical scoring the winning team was chosen by the roll of a die
       from amongst the six highest scoring teams - Bitton won so have the honour of organising next
       year’s quiz. Linda Gittings ran a St. George’s Day outing around the Branch and Hilda Shipp ran
       the annual May Day Bank Holiday outing, this year 5 towers in South Wales with lunch at
       Bassaleg and about 30 ringers attending. Alan Coombs organised a walking tour around Bath,
       again 5 towers and this time 23 ringers. Our Branch barbecue was held at Abson on a beautiful
       afternoon, courtesy of Mary Taylor and the Wotton Branch hosted us on another sunny day at
       Cromhall with a walk, tea and a Beetle Drive.
       On the Association front, congratulations are due to Pucklechurch, who won the
      Tower of the Year competition for the major redecoration project the ringers undertook. The
      Tytherington band was awarded a Ringing Master’s clapper in the Association striking competition
       as the only Branch which rang a Surprise method (all the other Branches played safe with
      Grandsire Doubles etc.!). The Branch 8 bell team came last in the 8 bell competition but did have
      7 towers represented in their team, whereas most Branches had bands largely drawn from one or
       two towers.
      Thanks are due to all who helped with tower, Branch or Association events and also to Committee
      members. I should particularly like to thank Alan Coombs as our new Ringing Master and Hilda
      Shipp as his deputy. They have both in their different ways done a huge amount in the past year
     to improve the quality of the ringing in the Branch. On a sad note, the Branch lost a valuable

     member of the Committee with the death of our Press Officer Sue Liebow in January.
     Chris Greef
 
   

     Ringing Master and Deputy. 

     During the past year we have held branch practices every month (except  August) these have been

     well supported with a good variety of ringing and      usually a specified method of the month.
     The branch striking competition was held at Corston after a last minute technical hitch at Compton
      Dando, there were a total of 13 teams entering,       and I’m really pleased to see some towers

      entered that have never done so before, Tytherington came 1st followed by Westerleigh 2nd and

      Mangotsfield  3rd.
     The Penn trophy striking competition was held at St Andrews Chippenham, and Rural Branch came
     9th. The Croome trophy was held at Langley Burrell. And Tytherington also came 9th and won the

     Ringing Masters Clapper award.
    The Association AGM was held at Colerne, where I’m pleased to say that Pucklechurch was warded
     the Bliss Trophy for “Tower of the Year”
      Let see if the Rural Branch can produce a hat trick next year ! 
      St Georges Day was very successful and many thanks to Linda Gittings again for organising the
     towers and the pub lunch, there was also quarter peals rang to mark this occasion.
     The May Day outing this year was organised by Hilda, we visited 5 towers in South Wales and a
      total of 27 attended with a few visitors.

      In June I organised a walking tour around Bath, and a little bit of driving to Larkhall and Lansdown,
      ringing at a total of 5 churches including the new bells of Christchurch, 20 people attended.
      Also in June we held a training day at Bitton and Stedman triples was the method.  
     There were also a large number of Anniversaries this year to ring for, namely the Magna Carta, the
     Queen being longest reigning Monarch, Battle of Waterloo. The Battle of Britain, VE Day, VJ Day
      and Hiroshima, and the Battle of Agincourt, All of these were rightly marked by general ringing or
      quarter peals. Well done to all who rang for these occasions.

      In September we had our annual visit to Gloucester Cathedral to ring for the Choral Evensong
     Service, the ringing ranged from rounds on 12, Plain hunting, and Grandsire Caters. 20 attended
     this year some from neighbouring branches. 
    I have started a free for all practice at Kelston on the 1st Saturday in the month, it is in its infancy at
     the moment, and it does show signs of being very successful, and possibly we could start handbell
     ringing there.
     Finally I would like to thank every member in the Branch for supporting Hilda and Myself during the
     last year, it has been a good year with lots of memorable times, and we look forward to 2016.

     Alan Coombs Ringing Master

Deputy

Monday 2nd May 2016
The day was bright and sunny as we commenced our day at Barnsley in the Cotswolds, before moving onto Coln St Aldwyns and then a short distance to Hatherop before lunch.  Unfortunately the weather turned lunchtime and so it was wet when we got to Fairford to ring from the choir stalls and a long draught. We then moved onto Ampney Crucis before finishing the day in sunshine  at Malmesbury Abbey detached bell tower, on a glorious evening, on probably the best bells of the day. Altogether 24 ringers enjoyed the whole day with approx. 10 ringers joining us for a tower or two.  All the bells were nice and a good day was had by all.
Sue Elliott

 

 

     Treasurer.

BRISTOL RURAL BRANCH AGM NOVEMBER 28th 2015 AT WESTERLEIGH

Treasurers Report

 

As I have now completed my fifth year as Treasurer of Bristol Rural Branch, membership has increased during the year by 1.

 

 

Yr 2014

Yr 2015

Var.

Senior

75

69

-6

Junior

11

12

1

Retired

73

76

3

Associate

3

6

3

HTM

3

3

0

TOTAL

165

166

1

 

Both the Business Instant, Treasurers Bank Accounts and the Virgin Money Charity Deposit Account are positive to the balances of £1479.89, £57.86 and £518.97 respectively.  I can report that we have made a net surplus £312.44 in the year to October 31st 2015 against a net surplus in the previous financial year of £696.15.

Richard Sleeman

Secretary.
2015 has not been a particularly busy year for the secretary or it does not seem so.
The tower captain meeting in February created quite a bit of activity with sending out emails asking  for various things, young people ringing in the summer holidays, a replacement for our PR officer Sue Liebow sadly deceased, very little response from anyone, in fact nothing!. The volunteer group proposed was set up and has been in action a number of times. Organised the Teach the  Teacher course at Frampton which turned out to be very successful. The branch now have 98 bell  shapes for engraving for the striking competition trophy,  which I was able to organise through the help of John Payton which was reported in the newsletter earlier in the year t.(Two have already been engraved for Coalpit Heath and Tytherington winners in the last two years)
     Spent a lot of time investigating WIFI CCTV cameras, purchased two cameras which I had seen in use which looked pretty good and tried out at Frampton Mangotsfield and Wapley. The WIFI did not really work very well and in fact not at all at Frampton, neither was the colour very good, so returned. We then purchased two wired cameras from Maplin which worked very well and were used at the Agincourt celebrations at Wapley. We hope to demonstrate the cameras at the AGM at Westerleigh.
Produced a further 12 newsletters, disappointed really at the amount of input from tower contacts and tower captains, it is certainly a one way street.
    However there have been quite a few interesting articles in the ringing world which I have obtained  permission to put in the newsletter.
    The web site has been kept up to date, in the last month the Face book group “Bristol Rural  Ringers” has had two new members making 12, after a number of comments on face book about the Association view on these matters. The 2014 annual return for the association report was duly completed, and another year the 20th as secretary has gone by!
    Tony York


MC Representative.
As your Management Committee (MC) Representative, I have once again attended the three MC meetings this year on your behalf and I have the following points to report.

Association-wide Tower Open Day

Due to insurance complications, the planned Open Day for 2015 wasn’t able to go ahead. However, earlier this year the Central Council’s Tower Stewardship Committee and Ecclesiastical Insurance (which insures the vast majority of churches with bells) jointly endorsed a new Guidance Note about demonstrations of ringing on public open days which can be downloaded via the Central Council website – cccbr.org.uk/towerstewardship

The Central Council’s Public Relations Committee will be encouraging towers to open their doors during the Heritage Open Days in 2016 (Thursday 8th to Sunday 11th September). More information about how to get involved will be available in due course.

Retired Members

A long discussion took place at the Branch Officers’ Meeting in March about the merits of the reduced subscription rate for Retired members. In the end it was decided to keep things as they are, but with a slight change of approach.

As has always been the case, there is no formal definition of “retired” for the purposes of G&B subscriptions, although the State Pension age may be taken as a guide. However, the reduced subscription rate (£5) for Retired members is a concession rather than an obligation, and members who are able to pay the full Senior rate (£10) are now encouraged to do so.
Social Media
As an Association, the G&B hasn’t exactly ‘blazed the trail’ when it comes to embracing the Digital Age. We have a website (bellsgandb.org.uk), certainly, but other than the Ringing Master’s Twitter stream (@bellsgandb) which has been used sporadically by Hazel Bridges and so far not at all by Will Ruck, that’s about as far as our online presence goes. At Branch level, websites once again abound, but there are also active Twitter streams, Facebook groups – not all of them officially sanctioned – and quite possibly more to keep members engaged and informed.
At the September MC Meeting the question was raised of appointing a Social Media Secretary to oversee the Association’s use of social media and monitor its effectiveness. A wide-ranging discussion then ensued about the merits of social media, how others are already using it, what we might be missing out on, and how much work might be involved in managing it on behalf of the Association. In the end we decided that we didn’t need a Social Media Secretary right now after all; but we’ll be having a proper discussion about how the Association could be engaging with social media at the next MC Meeting in March 2016.

If any members have thoughts on this subject, do please let me know in good time.

Martin Pearson,

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Year 2014
6.   Committee member reports

 Chairman

Our Branch programme this year has included the usual range of ringing and social activities. Following on from last year’s experiment with extra training sessions, we had a Branch tower representatives meeting to explore other training options. The meeting gave broad support to a proposal to have training at individual towers, tailored to suit the local requirements, but sadly there was little support in practice and so it’s back to the drawing board!

I will leave the Ringing Master to give his views on the progress of ringing in the Branch and I will focus on events with more of a social element to them (and this doesn’t mean that ringing practices are not social occasions!).The Branch Quiz was very well attended again with Almondsbury as quizmasters and Mary York plus team as caterers. Linda Gittings ran a St. George’s Day outing around the Branch and Alan Coombs ran the annual May Day Bank Holiday outing, this year in Wiltshire with a lunch stop in Marlborough. We hosted our Wotton Branch neighbours for ringing at Winterbourne and a barbecue at the medieval barn next to the church - after a wet start the afternoon and evening were sunny and warm, tempting about 50 people to come.

I would like to thank all who helped with these and other events. Ruth Welch also deserves our thanks for organising the monthly Far-Cited outings for many years. Her final trip was a coach outing to North Devon before handing over to Mary York to carry on the good work. Finally, it is pleasing to see that a regular practice at Abson has restarted after a gap.

Chris Greef



Ringing Master and Deputy

The monthly branch meetings have been well supported during the year with the ringing ranging from Call Changes usually up to Surprise Minor/Major It was good to see ringers of all standards attending as this is what these practices cater for.

The Chipping Sodbury eight bell practices have also been well supported with the range of methods starting from Plain Hunt, Plain Bob and Grandsire Triples, often up to Cambridge and sometimes Yorkshire Major, recently three leads of Bristol have been included.

Ringing took place for St Georges Day, with a tour of five towers on the west side of the branch including a pub meal. Thanks to Linda Gittings for organising this.

The May Day Outing this year was organised by Alan and we visited seven towers in the Swindon and Marlborough area with a picnic tea held at Manton after ringing. 33 people attended which included several from neighbouring branches.

The July joint meeting with Wotton Branch started with ringing at Winterbourne, followed by a barbecue at the Mediaeval Barn next to the church. This was well supported by members from both branches.

For the August branch meeting this year, a mini outing and picnic were planned which was to include the mini ring at Knapps Farm, Doulting Beacon. Unfortunately a decision was made to cancel after the second tower as only four members turned up.

During September we had our annual visit to Gloucester Cathedral. The ringing included Rounds on twelve, Plain Hunting on eleven and Grandsire Caters. The ringing was of a good standard considering only a few of our members have experience of ringing on higher numbers.

All the training days this year have been held for Plain Bob Doubles due to the demand for this method. Several branch members took part in the Association Spring and autumn training days as students and helpers.

The striking competition was held at Tortworth with seven tower teams and a scratch team taking part. Coalpit Heath was the winner and went on to represent the branch in the Croome Trophy Competition, finishing in fifth place. The branch entered a team in the Penn Trophy and came in ninth place.

As I have been doing the job of Ringing Master for three years and a year as Deputy before, I have decided the time is right to stand down and let someone else have a go. I have enjoyed the challenge and would like to thank everyone for their support, especially the other branch officers for their help in the smooth running of the programme and the members for their part in making it a success. I will continue to support branch events and give my successor any support I can.

Bill Liebow

Alan Coombs


Treasurer

Richard Sleeman.
As I have now completed my forth year as Treasurer of Bristol Rural Branch, membership has decreased during the year by 2.

 

 

Yr 2013

Yr 2014

Var.

Senior

72

75

3

Junior

16

11

-5

Retired

71

73

2

Associate

5

3

-2

HTM

3

3

0

TOTAL

167

165

-2

 

Both the Business Instant, Treasurers Bank Accounts and the Virgin Money Charity Deposit Account are positive to the balances of £1018.64, £75.36 and £513.00 respectively.  I can report that we have made a net surplus £696.15 in the year to October 31st 2014 against a net surplus in the previous financial year of £136.52.

 

During this year we received a donation from the Wotton Branch for the sum of £441 in respect of the Memorial fund that was in the memory of the late Alan Pigeon.
Richard Sleeman

 

Secretary
Secretary duties as every year consist of maintaining the annual return for the Association report. Updating the branch membership database to send out the printed return forms from the web site, updated from the return forms each tower sends in of which there can be around 200 changes.
Recording documentation received from outside the branch on the web site and distributing as necessary.
Producing the newsletter on the branch practice day each month. Keeping the branch web site up to date. The number of articles submitted for the newsletter has been the lowest this year that I have known, but thank you to those of you who did submit!
Arranging venues for the various events we hold i.e. the quiz night, striking competition, Gloucester Cathedral, the annual general meeting, and ensuring we have a program of events for the following year.
Just a point, during this year a couple of people has made the observation that the Membership numbers in the annual report do not match the accounts information for the year. This came about due to the change we made to the collection of information time from January- March each year to September – November in 2012. The information in the annual report for the tower information and each tower’s named membership is now only 3 months old rather than up to the 15 months

It could have been at the time of publication of the report in March. The branch accounts however are now up to 17 months out of date as the Association year end is on the 31st of October each year.
I am sure you would rather have accurate tower information in the report and the tower membership almost up to date rather than up 15 months it use to be! 
Tony York

MC Representative
As your Management Committee (MC) Representative, I have once again attended the three MC meetings this year on your behalf and I have the following points to report.

New Membership Certificate and Introductory Pack

Association Ringing Master Hazel Bridges is busy working on the final details of this initiative, but at present it’s taking the form of an A4 (landscape) certificate featuring the new member’s name, Branch and tower – along with a photograph of that tower, if the G&B has one available – plus a map of the Association and a welcome letter from the Ringing Master. Production of this pack for a new member would be triggered by the Branch Secretary, and the various components might be printed in advance or emailed directly to the new member.

Association-wide Tower Open Day – 12th September 2015

Following a suggestion at the Branch Officers’ Meeting in March, the Management Committee has agreed to promote an Association-wide Tower Open Day, with a strong focus on recruitment. The date has been set for Saturday, 12th September 2015 to coincide with the Heritage Open Days; however, a large Association-wide media campaign will only make sense if all the Branches are prepared and able to organise the opening of a large proportion of their towers. We can therefore do our part to ensure this event goes ahead by making that commitment for as many Bristol Rural Branch towers as we possibly can.

Belfry Repair Fund News

The Association’s well-used Belfry Repair Fund (BRF) is facing a heavy load in the next few years, with projects large and small totalling £200,000 being awarded grants this year, and a projected total of £140,000 to £200,000 coming forward in 2015. In 2016 we expect to receive a grant application for the major recasting project at St Mary, Cheltenham, which by itself will cost around £240,000. Net income to the BRF – primarily from investments, Tower Affiliation Fees and a significant chunk of our membership subscriptions, with a proportional amount of the Gift Aid tax refund – is approximately £13,500 per year, so even a 10% grant to St Mary, Cheltenham would appear to use almost the whole of two years’ net income, leaving nothing for any other applicants.

The Management Committee fully supports this ambitious project at St Mary, Cheltenham and would like to help them in any way we can. However, as Cheltenham is a town in an affluent area, and with a well-deserved international reputation, we hope that it might be able to attract sufficient sponsorship for each of its thirteen new bells to cover the entire cost of the project.

In the previous five years we’ve been fortunate to be able to award grants of 15% of eligible expenditure, but sadly we can no longer afford to do that, and this year we awarded all grants at 13%. We will continue to award grants at a level appropriate to the income of the Belfry Repair Fund, and with due consideration of the projects total for both the applications received and those likely to come forward in the near future.

In happier BRF news, one of the grants approved at the MC Meeting in September was towards the purchase of a simulator system with Abel software and Bagley optical sensors for Westbury-on-Trym in the Bristol Branch. If your tower is also thinking of installing a simulator (and I can personally recommend them as an extremely useful training facility), you too can apply for a grant from the Association – and indeed from the Bristol Rural Branch – for a proportion of the costs.

Finally...

No further correspondence has been received by the G&B either from the Central Council in relation to the proposal to overhaul the Affiliation Fee paid by each Association, nor from The Ringing Foundation following their request for money earlier in the year. The current situation in both cases therefore remains largely as recorded in the (draft) minutes of the Association AGM in April, which can be found on the G&B website at www.bellsgandb.org.uk.

Martin Pearson,


Press Officer
Publicity for 2014 has run very much as previous years, with displays in local libraries etc. We did consider having a stand at South Glos Festival but were unable to proceed with this due to the lack of flat solid access for my wheelchair at the venue, and availability of people to take a turn on the stand. Unfortunately we were unable to participate in South Glos Discover Festival, this year, as the Towers used in previous years were unable to participate during the given period of the Festival. 

Thanks to Martin Pearson for arranging an introductory evening in September, for a Group of Scouts from Soundwell area, on the simulator at Keynsham. Thanks also to other members of the Keynsham band and Bill Liebow for contributing to making the evening a success. Feedback from the Scouts  said how much they had enjoyed having a go at ringing and the trip up the Tower.

I would like to continue in the post, as Publicity Officer, if the members of the Branch feel this is appropriate. To enable me to find out what is going on in the Branch, please let me know if your Tower, Ringers or Congregation are celebrating any special events, which you will be marked with either a Peal, Quarter or other special service/piece of ringing. Please email me a clear photograph of the people concerned and information about the event/ringing. This will enable me to send an article to the local press, including local magazines eg The Boundary and The Week In. Any more ideas please email me, and we can discuss how I can best use the event to publicise ringing.

Thank you

Sue Liebow

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­________________________________________________________________

Year 2013
Chairman
Our Branch programme this year has included the usual range of ringing and social activities. However, because our quarterly training sessions were tending to be oversubscribed we decided to introduce some evening training opportunities too. The idea was that a tower would ask for assistance with a particular method, or just to make up numbers, and the committee would organise a few helpers to go along to the regular practice to provide the assistance requested. Success was mixed, with only two out of the five planned sessions going ahead. The committee has decided it is worthwhile continuing with the experiment, perhaps changing things slightly so towers can choose the date(s) they would like help, rather than having fixed dates as in this year’s programme.

This time last year, Frampton Cotterell ringers announced that they would be celebrating the 50th anniversary of the rehanging of their bells in 1963 with the target of ringing 50 quarter peals in 2013. It seemed like a pretty ambitious target at the time but by the time you read this ‘Frampton50’ should have exceeded this number comfortably, with still more than a month to go. Well done to Frampton and all the ringers, both from within and without the Branch, who have contributed.

The weather this year has been a lot better than last year, which means that more (although not all) of our summer social events have benefited from some sunshine. The Branch Quiz in February was attended by about 75 people, who had a thoroughly enjoyable time, including eating some splendid food prepared by Mary York and her team. In April, Edna Cause organised a trip to the Whitechapel bell foundry, and Linda Gittings a St. George’s Day outing. Our Deputy Ringing Master Steve Crane organised the Mayday outing to the Shepton Mallett area, and Mary Taylor hosted the Branch barbecue at Abson. Wotton Branch members organised a Joint Barbecue for us in July, and the City Branch hosted an outing in the Chew Valley in August. Many thanks to all who helped with these events and all our ringers who keep the bells ringing across the Branch.

 

Chris Greef



Ringing Master and Deputy
Ringing Masters and Deputy Ringing Masters Report

The monthly Branch Meetings have been well supported during the year with the ringing ranging from Call Changes usually up to Surprise Minor/Major, it was good to see ringers of all standards attending. The June meeting at Dyrham included a barbecue at Collins Farm, Abson, after the ringing had finished.

The Chipping Sodbury eight bell practices have also been well supported with the range of methods starting from Plain Hunt, Plain Bob and Grandsire Triples, often up to Cambridge and sometimes Yorkshire Major.

Ringing took place for St Georges Day, with a tour of some of the towers on the east side of the Branch. Thanks to Linda Gittings for organising this.

The May Day Outing this year was organised by Steve and we visited seven towers in the Shepton Mallett area, finishing on the 25 cwt six at Bruton, 24 people attended.

The July joint meeting with Wotton Branch started with ringing at Chipping Sodbury followed by a barbecue at Harwood Gate Farm, Old Sodbury, home of John Ludlow, a Chipping Sodbury ringer.

For the August Branch Meeting this year, we were invited to join Bristol City Branch on their outing to ring at four towers in the Chew Valley. We decided to join them as our own event was scheduled for the Bank Holiday Weekend and unlikely to be well attended.

During September we had our annual visit to Gloucester Cathedral. The ringing was organised by Steve and included mostly eight and ten bell methods with Rounds and Call changes and Plain Hunting on twelve.

Training days have been held for Plain Hunt and Ringing Up and Down in Peal. A training day for conducting was planned but did not go ahead due to lack of support. Several Branch Members took part in the Association training days as students and helpers.

The striking competition was held at North Nibley with five tower teams and a scratch team taking part. The scratch team were the winners but, according to the rules, the highest placed tower, Westerleigh, went through to the Croome Trophy. The Branch also entered the Penn Trophy competition for the first time in a few years and were placed eighth out of ten teams.

Finally I would like to say thank you to everyone for their support during the year, especially Steve for running some of the events, the other Branch Officers for their support in the smooth running of the programme, and the Members for their support.

Bill Liebow


Treasurer
As I have now completed my third year as Treasurer of Bristol Rural Branch, membership has increased during the year by 2.

 

Yr 2012

Yr 2013

Var.

Senior

74

72

-2

Junior

18

16

-2

Retired

65

71

6

Associate

5

5

0

HTM

3

3

0

TOTAL

165

167

2

 

Both the Business Instant, Treasurers Bank Accounts and the Virgin Money Charity Deposit Account are positive to the balances of £275.98, £123.84 and £502.03 respectively.  I can report that we have made a net surplus £164.52 in the year to October 31st 2013 against a net surplus in the previous financial year of £110.89.

Richard Sleeman



Secretary
Secretary duties as each year consist of maintaining the annual return for the Association report. Updating the branch membership database to send out the printed returns from the web site, which are updated from the annual return forms each tower sends in, there can be typically up to 200 changes.
Recording documentation received from outside the branch on the web site and distributing as necessary.
Produced the newsletter each month, maintained and updated  he branch web site.
Produced the new affiliation forms to be downloaded from the branch web site.
Arranged  venues for the various events we hold i.e. the quiz night, striking competition, Gloucester Cathedral, the annual general meeting, and ensuring we have a program of events for the following year.
Tony York

 


Press Officer
Through the year we have had displays in a number of Libraries across South Glos. Also articles have appeared in local publications through the year.

St Georges Day was celebrated in Rural Branch  style, with the now annual Branch Outing. We had interviews on BBC Radio Bristol, with a closing shot of  ringing,  being featured on local BBC Evening News. Thanks to Linda Gittings for being interviewed on the radio. Can I make it a  hat trick of TV appearances, in 2014?

Frampton 50 provided a good opportunity for me to get into their archives. I was able to put up specific displays at Winterbourne and Yate Libaries. These included photographs of band members past and present. Also I was able to use copies  of  the receipt for the rehanging complete with postage stamp, and various press cuttings, relating to the work and more current events, to add interest to the displays.

Sept/Oct proved to be another busy month, with us being involved in The South Glos Discover Festival,  with successful Open Towers at Warmley and Frenchay. Yate library “Have a go” event was another opportunity to promote both Church and Handbells, thanks to  Bill for his support . Much missed at The Library was Alan Pidgeon, who had always being willing to bring the handbells when ever asked.

Please let me know about any forthcoming events in your Tower or amongst Church Members. Also any ideas for how or where I can promote the Branch or Bellringing would be welcome.

Another busy, but very enjoyable year.  My thanks to my fellow committee members and also to you the members for your support at the various events through the year.

Sue Liebow Publicity Officer

MC Rep
As your Management Committee (MC) Representative, I have once again attended the three MC meetings this year on your behalf – despite being unable to drive myself to the September meeting due to a written-off car and a broken hand – and I have the following points to report.

CENTRAL COUNCIL AFFILIATION FEES

Those of you who read the minutes of the CCCBR AGM in The Ringing World will know that there was a proposal to base the affiliation fee on the number of members in each association, rather than on the number of Central Council Representatives to which each association is entitled as in the present system. The CC Administration Committee is currently discussing this proposal, however the cited benefits in terms of “fairness” (i.e. smaller associations pay less, larger ones pay more) haven’t yet been made clear, and the fact that many ringers belong to more than one association can only cloud the issue further. As the great majority of CC expenditure goes on holding the AGM – the work of the Central Council being undertaken entirely by volunteers – the G&B MC agreed that while the current system isn’t perfect, it makes most sense to leave things as they are with the affiliation fee based on the number of CC Reps, and we have written to the CC Secretary outlining our opposition to any change to this arrangement.

QUARTER PEAL AND PEAL FESTIVAL

This will go ahead as planned in 2014 (18th–26th October), but there was some discussion on whether it’s run its course in the current format. The original idea was that all of the quarters and peals rung would be collated and sent to The Ringing World in one go – but with today's online facilities (Campanophile, Bell Board, etc.) many performances end up being submitted piecemeal; and in any case, those which are collated normally don’t appear in The Ringing World for a number of months. Naturally the MC agreed that having a focused promotion of peal and quarter peal ringing was definitely a good thing, but thought that perhaps it might work better at a Branch level rather than at Association level; for instance, some Branches might prefer to hold theirs at a different time of year. Its future will be discussed at the Branch Officers’ Meeting in March 2014.

NIBLEY TROPHY

Conspicuous by its absence in 2013, the most suitable date clashing with that of The Ringing World National Youth Striking Competition in York, the Nibley Trophy will again not run in 2014, and activities and events for young ringers will be another topic for discussion at the Branch Officers’ Meeting in March 2014. Meanwhile, G&B Ringing Master Hazel Bridges will continue with the Young Ringers’ course on the Spring Training Day (which was extremely successful this year), and a young ringers’ event as part of the Association AGM day was also suggested. Don’t forget also that Ian Bucknell’s young ringers’ practices – which eventually turn into our National Youth Striking Competition team – cater for all standards from call changes upwards, and offer plenty of opportunity to progress within the group.

CHILD PROTECTION POLICY

To quote Steve Coleman who can explain this far better than I can:

“Our Child Protection Policy was drawn up over ten years ago, and since then the legislation and Government policy have changed. The Management Committee have therefore made appropriate amendments to our Policy to reflect these changes. Of course, we take Child Protection very seriously indeed, and nothing in that has changed in the slightest. But neither the Association nor any of the Branches undertake a ‘Regulated Activity’ within the meaning of the Act, and it would therefore be a criminal offence to ask any Association or Branch Officer to be DBS cleared – although, of course, many of them are cleared in relation to other activities.”

BELFRY INSPECTIONS
Any towers that have had major work done will now be offered an inspection a year before the warranty on the work expires, so that any defects can be rectified under that warranty rather than incurring further unnecessary costs.
Martin Pearson


Year 2012
Chairman:

The Branch programme this year has included the usual range of ringing and social activities. In devising the programme the Committee is always trying to get as many Branch members involved as possible. I will leave the ringing master’s report to comment on details of ringing progress: I would just like to note the continued support for our training days at all levels, and the evidence for more ringing in the Branch at an advanced level. It is also good to note the success of daytime practices – the newly introduced practices at Syston and at Cromhall (a joint surprise minor practice with the Wotton Branch) are examples, as well as established ones at Abson/Wapley and Far-Cited outings.

 

Our publicity and recruitment campaign continues with displays and open days at local libraries and towers. The big national events this year provided more publicity for ringing. A number of our towers took part in ringing for the Olympic Games and at least nine quarter peals were rung to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. However, our main publicity success was St George’s Day ringing: there was a mini-ringing outing around the Branch reported by BBC Radio Bristol and Points West, culminating in a live feed of ringing at Frampton Cotterell at the end of Points West.

 

The social events this year have been well-supported. We had a successful Branch Quiz in February, a good Branch outing to Somerset in May, a barbecue at Syston in June and a mini-outing in August (all rather damp, like the rest of the summer). Fortunately, the sun shone for our joint social with the Wotton Branch, so the treasure hunt went ahead as planned.

 

I am grateful to all those ringers who help to maintain our Branch by hosting Branch practices at their home tower, organising events and devoting many hours to the training of new and improving ringers. On behalf of the membership, I should also like to thank the Committee for their continuing support and hard work.

 

Chris Greef


Ringing Master: / Assistant Ringing Master
Ringing Masters and Deputy Ringing Masters Report

The monthly Branch Meetings have been well supported during the year with the ringing ranging from Call Changes usually up to Surprise Minor/Major. The June meeting at Syston included a barbecue after the ringing had finished.

The May Day Outing this year was organised by Steve and we visited seven towers in the Taunton/Bridgwater area, 32 people attended.

The August Branch Meeting this year was a mini outing in the Shepton Mallet area which included the mini ring at Pig le Tower, Marston Bigot and a picnic.

The Chipping Sodbury eight bell practices have also been well supported with the range of methods starting from Plain Bob and Grandsire Triples, often up to Cambridge and sometimes Yorkshire Major.

Training days have been held for Call changes, Plain Hunt, Treble Bob Hunting and Cambridge Minor.

The striking competition was held at Cromhall with eight tower teams taking part and was won by Frampton Cotterell.

The joint meeting was held with Wotton Branch which included ringing at Frampton Cotterell, followed by a treasure hunt around the village, finishing with skittles during the evening.

Ringing took place for three national events, during the year. First, St Georges Day, with a tour of some branch towers where we were joined by the BBC for their Points West programme. Next was the Queens Diamond Jubilee, where open ringing and quarter peals were rung at many branch towers. Finally, for the opening of the Olympic Games, where many towers either rung at 8.12 am, or at some other time during the day with open ringing or quarter peals.

Finally Steve and I would like to say thank you to everyone for their support during the year, especially to the other Branch Officers for their support in the smooth running of the programme, and the Members for their support.

Bill Liebow



Treasurer:
Treasurers Report

As I have now completed my second year as Treasurer of Bristol Rural Branch, membership has increased during the year by 20, this is largely due to the Ringers of Keynsham who joined us from the Bath and Wells Association who contributed 8 new members, and the remaining 12 new members where the result of the recruitment drive last year.

 

 

Yr 2011

Yr 2012

Var.

Senior

73

74

1

Junior

15

18

3

Retired

52

65

13

Associate

2

5

3

HTM

3

3

0

TOTAL

145

165

20

 

Both the Business Instant and the Treasurers Bank Accounts are positive to the balances of £724.11 and £13.22 respectively.  I can report that we have made a net surplus £110.89 in the year to October 31st 2011 against a net surplus in the previous financial year of £137.03.

During this AGM I would like to seek the approval of the members of Bristol Rural to open a deposit account at Virgin Money/Northern Rock during the next financial year, the purpose of this is to make the excess funds we have in our bank accounts earn significant higher revenue from interest.  The full proposal is on page 2 and I would like to seek the agreement of the members at the AGM before proceeding to open the Deposit Account.

 

1

Deposit Account Proposal at the AGM NOVEMBER 24TH 2012 AT FRAMPTON COTTERELL

 

In the current economic climate the current Bank of England base rate is set at 0.5% and as a result the interest earned on a Bank Account at the moment in what ever form they take ranges from between 0% to 0.05% per annum.  At the moment the return on your investment is very low.

 

There is now an opportunity to invest the money in the Bank Account of the Association to get a good return on our capital.

 

Virgin Money/Northern Rock are now offering a Charity Deposit Account with an annual return of 2.6% per annum, currently Lloyd’s Bank are paying 0.05% per annum in our funds in our Bank Accounts.

 

The Charity Deposit Account pays interest every six months, where as Lloyd’s TSB pay monthly.  The only difference between the Deposit Account and our Current Account is that there is a minimum withdrawal of £10 unless closing and transactions are processed via the branch/postal instructions..  The Deposit Account requires a minimum of two and a maximum of three trustees/signatories, two signatories are required to authorise any withdrawals, by written instructions posted to the Head Office or visiting the branch with the passbook.

 

I am proposing the opening of the Deposit Account, and the transfer of enough funds to leave our current bank account with enough funds for day to day transaction.  The Deposit Account will be used as a long term investment account to more funds.  Over a year £500 would incur interest of £13.08 in the deposit account compared to the £0.36 at Lloyd’s TSB.  To proceed I need the acceptence of the members at the AGM.


Richard Sleeman Treasurer

 

Secretary:
The secretary has continued with his ongoing tasks, updating the branch data base of members from the 2012 return. I will do this again following the 2013 update, which I hope you are all aware, and hopefully will be complete by this AGM. This will allow the branch information in the 2012 Association annual report to be as up-to-date as possible and not a year behind as it has been previously.

The Newsletter has been produced each month on time, the website reflects the changes in the branch,   any interesting information in the branch and any tower information I receive.

Documentation received is recorded on the web site, it can be found under ‘Branch Affairs’.

You are all, that is those with email are circulated information that is relevant to members and tower contacts.
Tony York Secretary

MC Rep:


As your Management Committee (MC) Representative, I have once again attended the three MC meetings this year on your behalf, and have the following points to report:

– Hazel Bridges has set up a G&B Ringing Master's Twitter account (@bellsgandb) as a new channel for communication with the Internet-savvy among us, and in particular to help reach out to our younger members. It will be used to distribute news and event notices for the Association and its Branches, so if you're a Twitter user why not sign up and follow her? It's important to remember that Twitter will be used in addition to all existing communication methods, so if you're not a Twitter user you won't miss out on anything.

– In addition to the regular and very popular programme of Association Training Days (in the Spring based at Cirencester, and in the Autumn based at Wotton-under-Edge), Hazel is also considering organising smaller midweek events for the Winter season, including 10-bell and 12-bell drop-in practices. In the meantime, the Cirencester Branch holds a monthly 12-bell Branch Practice at St John the Baptist, Cirencester, normally on the first Tuesday of the month at 19:30–21:00 (but do check before travelling), at which visitors are always welcome.

– Ian Bucknell, who organised the winning "Team G&B" for the Ringing World National Youth Striking Competition this year, plans to include even more young ringers in the squad for next year's competition... which could mean the G&B will be entering more than one team! An opportunity for young ringers to meet this year's champions and join them to ring for Evensong at Gloucester Cathedral took place on 28th October, and no doubt other similar events will follow in the coming months.

– A brand new A4 full-colour "Tower Affiliation Certificate" has been produced for 2013 to replace the old A5 card. Distributed by email as a Word document so towers can customise them (for example, with a photo of their own bells instead of the generic one from the Central Council poster), each Certificate will be supplied complete with the tower's ringing times, contact details, etc. from the G&B database, and space for a photograph of the Tower Captain (reflecting the fact that at many churches, while the clergy and principle officers have their photographs on display in the church porch, the Tower Captain isn't usually among them). However, while they will be inherently customisable, the intention is to retain a uniform style across the Association, so please don't customise them TOO much...! Look out for them appearing in March with the Annual Reports.
– The Association website (
www.bellsgandb.org.uk) now includes detailed information and guidance about applying for grants from the G&B Belfry Repair Fund, and a copy of the Association's insurance certificate to which will soon be added some "plain English" notes about what is and isn't covered.
– A new batch of G&B badges in racing green and silver. Badges are available at £4.00 from the branch secretary.

– And finally, the Government is currently drafting a "Gift Aid for Small Donations Scheme" which will allow collections where no single contribution is expected to be worth more than £20 (such as donation pots at Branch events) to be Gift-Aided without individual contributors having to fill in a Gift Aid form, as long as the collection is banked separately from any other income. The scheme is due to begin in April 2013, and Steve Coleman will write to Branches once the details have been finalised, but it promises to be a very straightforward and hassle-free way of increasing our Gift Aid income so we can support even more belfry repair projects in the future.
Martin Pearson MC Representative.

Recruitment:

Publicity Officers Report
The year began with a display in Bradley Stoke Library in January, followed by Frenchay and Almondsbury Open Towers in February.

St Georges Day was celebrated in style, with the annual Branch Outing, being featured on local BBC News at lunchtime, and also an interview on BBC Radio Bristol.  Allie Vowles and her crew joined us for the final ring of the day at Frampton Cotterell, and we were featured on Points West that evening. Thanks to everyone for their support during the day. How do we follow that? 

With the Torch Relay scheduled to pass through Bitton, Longwell Green and Hanham, on 22nd May, a quarter and open ringing were planned for Bitton and Keynsham. Linked to this displays were arranged for Hanham and Cadbury Heath Libraries, with various press releases and articles written.

With the Queen`s Jubilee, displays took place in Churches at Almondsbury and Keysham, followed by Library displays at Yate and Thornbury.

South Glos Engage Festival (held every 2 to 3 years) at Wise Campus Filton in July provided an excellent opportunity to raise awareness of bells and bell ringing, with lots of people passing our stand. The event involved community groups and individuals with activities linked to culture, creativity and hobbies. Frenchay held another Open afternoon, linked to Frenchay Flower Show, this month.

August saw displays in Emersons Green and Patchway Libraries, and an invitation from Patchway, to bring our stands back with handbells for a practical session with Alan Pidgeon and his handbells in October, as part of the South Glos Discover Festival (held annually). This encourages people to try new hobbies and interests, and runs from 6th September until 4th Nov.

September saw the Heritage Open Day at Winterbourne Church and Barn. Also a successful Open Evening at Warmley, and our display and handbell demo at Thornbury Library. Thanks to Mary and David Haslum for stepping in to help us on the day.  We have been invited back to the Library in Dec. Keynsham were also involved in their local Youth Fest.

October proved to be another busy month, with successful Open Towers at Winterbourne and Almondsbury. Chris tells me he had 50 visitors in the Tower at Winterbourne that day! Yate library “Have a go” event was another opportunity to promote both Church and handbells, thanks again to Alan, Bill and local handbell ringers from Sodbury and Frampton for their support.

We have library displays booked for Staple Hill, Winterbourne and Kingswood, in November and December.

Another busy, but very enjoyable year, with lots going on in the Branch.  My thanks to my fellow committee members and also to you the members for your support at the various events through the year.

Sue Liebow

________________________________________________________________Year 2011
Chairman:

Our Branch programme this year has included a range of activities, both ringing and social, designed to appeal to all of our members. The regular monthly practices at towers across the Branch and at Chipping Sodbury provide an opportunity to improve ringing standards and, importantly, also to meet ringers from other towers. We continue to hold training days covering whatever methods members wish to practice: the committee are always willing to receive suggestions. The recent novices training day was particularly well supported and successful, with nearly 20 students and a dozen or so helpers involved, at two towers.
On the subject of novices, we have been running a recruiting drive this year and I am certain that it has produced some successes, both directly in terms of recruitment and indirectly in raising the profile of ringing amongst the local population. Sue Liebow, who has masterminded the campaign for us, will give more detail in her report but on behalf of the Branch I would like to extend thanks to her and her helpers, for the grand job they have been doing.
Our May outing this year saw us in Wiltshire, starting at Colerne and ending at Malmesbury on a very pleasant Spring day. Reviving a tradition from the past we had a joint meeting with ringers from the Wotton branch, who hosted the event for us – ringing at Stone, a walk in Berkeley deer park and skittles, buffet and a drink at the Salutation near Ham. We hope to return the compliment next year. Many of the towers in the Branch hosted events for us – monthly practices, a quiz, a barbecue, the AGM, a carol service – thanks to them all.
Finally, I should again like to thank the members of your Branch committee for their hard work over the year and also all those members who help to keep our tradition going.
Chris Greef  Branch Chairman

Ringing Master:/ Assistant Ringing Master:
Introduction
Firstly I will say thank you to everyone who supported ringing in the branch during the last year, especially those who did the organising which allowed me to turn up and know everything would be organised. Special thanks to the committee members, Chris, and of course the Assistant Ringing Master Bill who has done lots of the behind the scenes work as well as sharing the running of the practices.
On a recent cold dark and wet night I went to church and entered, put on a few lights and waited for the other ringers. After about half an hour someone arrived – demanding to know what I was doing in the church. Explaining that I was waiting for the ringing practice, he retorted that there usually wasn’t any practice, – the old tower captain had a horrible disease and the new one had gone on holiday!

Thankfully this church wasn’t in the Branch, or even in the G&B association. However the experience is a salutary one; once a practice is known to be poorly attended, it is poorly attended.
My second salutary experience of the year, has been that not everyone shares our enjoyment of ringing, though more of this later.
Practices
Of course, the Rural Branch practices are better attended than the example above – but not always by much.
The 2011 programme as always tried to cover a spectrum of towers and bells.
The 8 bell combined practices at Chipping Sodbury have also continued.
In addition to the normal practices, this year we have joint practices with W-U-E and Bath/Bristol – one well attended and one not so well. Please let me remind you the branch practices are for EVERYONE, of every ability. If you come we will try to accommodate you, whether it be Cambridge, whole pull plain bob, or rounds and call changes – if you ask we can try it.
I will say that my own ringing is not always to the standard I would wish. It was therefore a heartening surprise after a practice with rather more ‘crashing about’ than desirable, to be greeted by a local dog walker and thanked for the enjoyment we had added to her afternoon in the garden.
In the committee discussions, a number of changes have been agreed to increase interest so let us know your thoughts.
Royal Wedding
Many towers rang to support the Royal and other special weddings. In one case this was rather too much of good thing for one local lady, and who ascended the tower and interrupted the branch practice with a surprisingly verbal attack. I must admit to being ill prepared for such an occasion.
Branch OutingBill organised another excellent outing – even though he wasn’t able to attend it all!
Starting at Batheaston and finishing at Malmesbury, including a good pub lunch at Hilmartin – accompanied by the sounds and spectacle of the morris dancers, a good day was had by all. On leaving the final tower, I met my second complainant of the weekend. Perhaps we should ask in future royal weddings are not organised on the same weekend as important events such as Branch Outings!
Striking Competition
Do you remember the unseasonably nice afternoon and lovely cakes in the Abbots Leigh churchyard? And who could forget the test piece mayhem caused by an errant clapper.
Training
Chris and Gill have organised 4 excellent branch training events, and must enjoy the experience because they have added the association training days to their portfolio!

Steve Coleman took on the daunting challenge of teaching us to be better trainers by training a complete beginner to ring in under 3 hours – in front of our own eyes. Hopefully  this encouraged those of you need to train to start the process after all no trainers equals no trainees.
Initial training is key to developing and retaining new recruits, so hopefully following the success of the recent Abson/Wapley beginners event we will be able to more for this group in future.
Recruiting
During 2010 it became apparent to me that the branch was ‘sleepwalking towards disaster’ in that the number of active ringers in many towers was declining, and the number of new ones recruited not keeping pace with this attrition. After some reading, thought, and discussions the branch committee picked up this problem and have actively been promoting ringing. The strategy was to widely promote knowledge about bells and ringing in order to generate awareness before actual recruiting events. The success enjoyed so far is a testament to their hard work and support of those of you who helped out at the events we held this year. At an early stage it was obvious that to be successful we needed effective relationships with the media and other local groups. To this end a new post of Public Relations Officer seconded to the committee was created, and shortly afterwards filled by Sue Liebow.
Sue has worked very hard at getting our presence to the public, and I urge you to support her by sharing your ringing events, stories, appeals and trivia.
It is clear that the recruiting drive is really just beginning, and that we are certainly not experts yet, however the results are encouraging and we should build on this work to ensure that eventually ever tower has a thriving band.
Thanks
Once again I will thank you for your contribution to the branch and to ringing in general. We enjoy some excellent organisation, a splendid newsletter, fantastic branch teas, and the use of bells and towers. So please continue to support the branch and increase your contribution and make 2012 an even better year.
Standing Down
If you have made it to this point in the report, you will probably be relieved to read that I intend to stand down at the AGM. My work circumstances will probably change significantly, I do not want this to divert attention from the important tasks of recruitment and training that are developing so well. I also believe that there should be some rotation of Ringing Masters so that new ideas and styles develop. Paradoxically, you don’t have to the best ringer to be the Ringing Master (or tower captain), but it will make you a better ringer. So thank you for the opportunity.
Gary Crisp Ringing Master

Treasurer:
As this is my first AGM and first year in the position, it has been quite an interesting year.  Not only have we being actively recruiting new members, but also with the help of Sue Liebow we have made our presence know in the media and also the social media site FACEBOOK.  This has resulted in the recruitment of new ringers to keep the activity of Bell Ringing going.  I like the rest of the members of the association would like to express our thanks to Sue for her work over the last year.
Both the Business Instant and the Treasurers Bank Accounts are positive to the balances of £592.22 and £34.22 respectively.  I can report that we have made a net surplus £137 the year to October 31st 2011.
Richard Sleeman - Treasurer
Secretary:
This year has been quite busy, in addition to all the usual activities, the newsletter, the web site, the annual subscription collection, collation of all the various member and tower changes. The setting up with the branch treasurer a Facebook entry for the Branch, this has not been a success,  we only had eight  people apply to join, one of these is an association member but not a branch member. We had the recruitment campaign, which took up a lot of time in branch management considerations.
The high light in my book was the “Train the “Teacher” session which was organised at Frampton,  Steve Coleman trained a person who had never touched a bell rope in his life before to ring hand and backstroke and set his bell  in two hours.
We ran the first tower recruitment sessions at Iron Acton and Syston church fetes with a fair amount of success, I do not know if they succeeded in recruiting new ringers but it did give focus to ringing in the branch at Iron Acton and Syston.
I would like to thank the branch members who submitted articles for the newsletter it makes its production on a regular basis so much easier.
Tony York Secretary

MC Rep:
Well, I've looked right through the minutes of this year's G&B MC Meetings
(all of which I attended, of course) and I'm sorry to say I have nothing at all to report! Everything that I reported as on-going last year is still on-going now, and Steve's email of 25th ctober has covered the only two new items I might have mentioned - the Tower of the Year Competition and Special Courses – which will no doubt be discussed at the Branch AGM under "Association Matters".
Martin Pearson MC Representative.

___________________________________________________________________
Year 2010
Chairman’s Report

As usual, we have this year had a Branch programme with a range of activities,

both ringing and social, designed to appeal to all of our members. The regular

monthly practices at towers across the Branch and at Chipping Sodbury every

month provide an opportunity to improve ringing standards and, importantly, also

to meet ringers from other towers. We have held several training days covering

methods from Plain Hunting up to Cambridge Surprise Minor, but committee

members are always keen to hear what particular aspects of ringing you would

like to focus on for a couple of hours.

This year’s striking competition was held very successfully at Wickwar, outside of

the Branch so as not to give any tower team an advantage due to familiarity with

the bells. Five tower teams and two scratch teams took part, with Westerleigh

being winners and going on to represent the Branch in the Croome Trophy

competition. In this they were commended by the Association Ringing Master for

their stately ringing, very appropriately as anyone who knows Westerleigh bells

 

 

will appreciate.

On more of a social front, our May outing took us to six towers in the Cirencester

area and 38 people took part over the course of the day. We also had an outing

to visit Great George at the Wills Tower in Bristol and to ring at Christchurch. On

our annual trip to ring at Gloucester cathedral for evensong, we were able to take

the opportunity to visit ‘Crucible’, an impressive collection of sculpture in the

cathedral, its cloisters and precinct. Winterbourne hosted this year’s carol service,

Syston ringers hosted the quiz night with questions prepared by ringers from

Almondsbury, and Frampton Cotterell ringers organised the barbecue, with help

from Westerleigh and Winterbourne. Thanks are due to these towers for their

efforts for the Branch and to all Branch members who have helped to organize or

support Branch events.

I ought to mention the Far-Cited ringers, who every month visit a couple of

towers and have an enjoyable day including a pub lunch. Although quite a few

Rural Branch members take part, it is not specifically a Rural Branch event and

there are ringers from a number of Branches. However, it is organised by Ruth

Welch from our Branch and we pass on our thanks to her for her work.

This year has seen the installation of a new tenor headstock at Bitton, the 50th

anniversary of the treble bell at Tytherington and the 100th anniversary of

aviation in Bristol, which was celebrated at Filton. A number of Branch towers also

celebrated St. George’s Day by ringing the bells as part of a national event. It is

hoped that this may become a regular fixture, although it will not take place in

2011 because St. George’s Day falls in Holy Week.

Finally, I should like to thank the members of your Branch committee for their

support and all those members who help in any way to keep ringing alive in the

Rural Branch. Chris Greef

Ringing Masters Report for 2010

I think Chris has covered most of the relevant points that I need to mention in his

Chairman’s report.

This year started with the cancellation of a training morning due to the unusually

wintery weather. However, we have run several successful training sessions

during the year. I thought that the Cambridge course at Frenchay in August was

particularly beneficial and the students on that morning have had several

opportunities to practice the method during the last 2 months. The branch

practice at Wapley in September was very enjoyable with a good standard of

ringing; the day was sunny so people could wander outside between rings and

enjoy the beautiful surroundings. After the practice some of us went to a BBQ that Gary’s brother had arranged as a surprise birthday treat.

As we have said before please let a member of the committee know if there is an aspect of ringing on which you would like to have a special practice.

For various reasons I have missed several of the events this year and for these

same reasons I have decided to stand down from the post of Ringing Master. I

will try to give my successor as much support as possible next year.

Rosemary Morgan

Treasurer's report for year ending 2010

This year has seen the membership increase from 144 to 149, although due to the

age groups, we have a small decrease in subscription income. It is pleasing to

note that the junior members have increased by 3. We were pleased to give

grants of £300.00 each to Bitton and Filton for new headstocks. As you will see

this has reduced our funds to £489.00. Social activities have shown a surplus of

£74.00 as well as giving pleasure to ringers and non-ringers alike.

I am now stepping down as your treasurer and would like to thank all those who

have supported me during my term of office. I am sure my successor will receive

the same help and support. My thanks also to Edna Cause for examining the

accounts, which she does with thoroughness and courtesy.

Ruth Welch

MC Rep Report for 2010

1. Replacement to the Form of Service: This is still being worked on by Owen

Barraclough.

2. Child Protection Policy: Since the AGM, when doubt surrounding the

Government's new legislation and Vetting and Barring Scheme precluded us from

making accordant amendments to our Child Protection Policy, the Government has

changed and the future of the whole Vetting and Barring Scheme is in question.

Our Policy therefore needs noamendment until the situation becomes clear. In the

meantime Hugh Evans, as the G&B Child Protection Officer, can be consulted on

any difficulties. In particular it is now clear that the blanket CRB clearance of all

ringers in any tower is not only unnecessary but also illegal.

3. Trophy Recycling: The Management Committee, mandated by the AGM to

recycle the three secondary Best Kept Tower Competition trophies into the

existing ringing competitions, decided that the Great Peter Trophy should go to

second place in The Nibley Trophy, and that the Littledean & Purton ("plain

bearing") Trophy and the Chairman's Baldric should go to second and third place

respectively in The Croome Trophy.

4. Investment Policy: The G&B has more than £50,000 on deposit with the CCLA,

a money-market fund which currently yields 0.5%. Since the Bank of England's

base rate of interest is unlikely to rise in the near future, at the September MC

Meeting Philip Twentyman, the G&B Honorary Treasurer, was asked to research

higher yielding deposit accounts with banks and building societies. If a suitable

account can be found, much of the CCLA deposit will be transferred to it but

without closing the CCLA account.

5. G&B Badges: The previous stock of badges having all been sold, a new batch of

100 in pillar box red and silver will be ordered.

6. Recruitment Week: A suggestion was made at the September MC Meeting that

the G&B should hold a Recruitment Week in 2011 in the same manner that the
Bath & Wells DA were in October 2010. It was agreed to discuss this at the

Branch Officers' Meeting in March 2011. Having first-hand experience of the Bath

& Wells DA Recruitment Week myself, may I add that it was a great success and

brought in more than a dozen new recruits in the Bath Branch alone. Incidentally,

the Bath Branch is now hastily arranging a "Teach the Teachers" course to

support these new learners, something we in the Bristol Rural Branch should

perhaps consider doing well in advance of such a large-scale recruitment event

being held in the G&B.

Martin Pearson

Secretary Report for 2010

I have had a relatively easy year as secretary, not a lot of documentation

received, any which has, is documented on the branch web site under branch

affairs. The biggest task each year is producing the annual return for the

Association yearly report. Chasing the annual returns is also a long and time

consuming activity to have them in by the Association AGM. This year (2011) the

annual return forms are already on the web site for printing and viewing, however

there may be a couple of changes to make if we elect new members at the AGM.

Even though I will have been away for five months this year in Australia the

newsletter has been produced on time and the web site has grown and been

maintained up-to-date. Input for the newsletter however has been minimal, I owe

thanks to those who have made the effort.

Tony York.


_____________________________________________________________________________________________
Year 2009

Chairman’s Report to AGM 28 November 2009

 As in previous years I would like to thank all members for their continuing support, which enables the bells in our churches

 to be rung for services on a regular basis. Thank you too for your contribution to this year’s Association AGM, held in our

 Branch, for opening your towers and helping with all the other arrangements. I have received replies to the ringing survey

from most towers now: this will help the Committee in deciding on ways in which we can improve the standard of ringing in

 the Branch. It is important that we continue to draw more people into ringing and so members who help to teach new

 ringers have a particularly important role. I would also like to thank the members of the Committee for their work in helping

 to run the Branch.

The pattern of our Branch programme has been similar to previous years and broadly speaking the events organised

 have had the same level of support. It would be good to see a wider range of the membership at Branch events. Of the

160 or so members in the Branch, I guess about 30 40 appear at practices, training days, outings etc. in the course of a

 year. I do urge tower representatives here today to encourage more of their members to take part in Branch events, both

 for the enjoyment and the opportunities for ringing progress. I quite commonly hear ringers express the view that they are

 not good enough for Branch events. This is a misunderstanding of what the Branch is about: it exists to help ringers

 improve their skills at all levels, and the more basic levels are the most important, because this is where most of our

 ringers are. I do urge you in particular to take advantage of the training sessions your Committee organises, and to let any

 Committee member know if you would like training in any aspect of ringing. We have four Branch training days in our

 programme, but we are quite happy to organise additional sessions to suit particular needs.

Last year saw the recasting of the Abson treble. This year there are two more projects underway, involving the

 replacement of headstocks at Bitton and Filton and I hope we will be able to support these projects financially. This is

 another important part of the Branch’s work, providing support to towers faced with significant expenditure both in the form

 of funding and, where required, advice.

Chris Greef


Ringing Masters Report for 2009

Out of the blue, at the AGM last year, Gary asked if I would swap rôles with him. I felt a little daunted at the prospect of

becoming Ringing Master because I have done very little calling and conducting in the past and have very largely got

away with it to date. My excuse is that being a woman I don’t have the voice for it! I need not have worried because I

 have had excellent backup and support from other committee members as well as other ringers and usually manage to

 nominate someone to do the calling.

We have run another full programme of ringing this year:

Dec saw 3 ringing events in 2 days the monthly practice at Chipping Sodbury; a training morning at

Tytherington on the technique of ‘leading up and leading down’ lead by Steve Coleman; and ringing at Iron Acton

before the service held as part of their Victorian Evening.

5 more training mornings:

 Stedman Triples at Almondsbury and Olveston in Jan (2 venues simultaneously due to the number of learners

who wanted to attend).

 2 mornings at Frampton Cotterell in July and Sept, run to give some of the less experienced ringers 2 hours of

concentrated ringing.

 1 morning at Tytherington, also in Sept, when we concentrated on Cambridge and Norwich Surprise Minor

1 morning in Nov, at Mangotsfield, devoted to Bob and Grandsire Triples

The 6 bell striking competition held at Kelston was well supported and we congratulate Thornbury ringers who

then went on to represent the branch in the G and B striking competition. We also managed to enter a team in

the G and B 8 bell striking competition: the ringers represented 5 of the branch towers.

The branch striking competition was of particular note for the Coffee/Tea and cakes that were provided by the

Bitton and Kelston ringers, and not forgetting the cheeses provided by the local cheese farm of which our

assistant ringing Master (Gary) thought were of particular note.

 As you see we have run training sessions for a variety of abilities. If there is an aspect of ringing on which you would

 like a course to be run please let us know and we will try to do something for everyone. We did try to run a training

morning on Bristol Surprise Major and there was certainly sufficient interest but we could not find a date when a

majority of those people were available; perhaps we will try again in 2010.

Attendance at the monthly branch and Chipping Sodbury practices has varied from month to month (as one would

expect), but I feel that the majority have been successful and beneficial to those who attended. We try to cater

everyone so if you know in advance that you are coming to a practice and know what you would like to try to ring

 please let Gary or me know so that we can be prepared.

 The ‘out of branch’ August practice at Berkley was well attended but the ringing was not of a very good standard,

perhaps we attempted too much with ringers who are not accustomed to 10 bell ringing. However, the ringing at

Gloucester cathedral in Sept was quite good particularly the lowering in peal of all 12 bells: our thanks to Sue and

Steve for augmenting the band. Next year we plan to go to St Stephen’s, Bristol for the August practice and combine

that with a visit to The University Tower. All ringers will be welcome so please try to come along and don’t be daunted

 by the higher number of bells there will be plenty of rounds.

31 people were involved in the May Day outing to Cheltenham and surrounding area this year. It was a very enjoyable

 day with some good ringing. If you didn’t come this year, or even if you have never been before, do try to join us next

 year and if you did come this year, do try to come again: all ringers will be welcome.

We attempted to run another ‘young persons’ ringing day’ but it proved impossible to find a convenient date when

 sufficient young people + older helpers were available. It will be good if we can renew it next year. Please contact

 Gary, Chris or myself if you know of young ringers who might be interested in getting together with other young

 ringers and we will try to arrange a day for them.

 We are aware that some branch members do not attend any branch events neither ringing nor social. Perhaps

 these people are happy to just attend their own tower practices and / or ring for Sunday services. This is fine but if

 there is anything that we are not doing that these people would like us to do for them please contact a committee

member so that we can put it right. Also, if there are towers that need help in anyway please let one of us know and

we will try to give that help. Rosemary Morgan

Treasurer Report for 2009

Treasurer's report for year ending 2009

 As you will see from the accounts, membership has fallen from a high of 157 in 2007 to 144 this year (last year's

 membership was 150). This, obviously, affects the Branch receipts from subs, which is our main source of income.

 We have decreased the number of senior members by 5, and juniors by 2, with retired members increasing by 1, over

the last year.

 Our healthy balance is in no small way due to Mary York's efforts, catering for the Association AGM, which added

£150.00 to the funds. I would like to express my thanks to Mary for her efforts. Also, thanks to Tony, who chases the

subs from unattached members and ensures we have all the subs in good time.

 My thanks to Edna Cause for examining the accounts. As we have a fortnight's window to get the accounts closed

 and examined at the end of the year, we both know neither of us can disappear in early November.

 May I add the usual plea for those not gift aiding their subs to do so. I have some gift aid forms for any who need

them.

Ruth Welch

You can see the 2009 balance sheet for Rural branch at this web address

http://www.bristolrural.co.uk/branchminutes/accounts/accounts2009.pdf

 The Branch Committee and all branch members also add their thanks to Edna Cause for examining our accounts

Thank-you Edna.

MC Rep Report for 2009

 The big topic of conversation at the September MC meeting was the expenses paid to our Central Council

 Representatives - our very own "expenses scandal" if you will. In the past those CC Reps who had claimed expenses

 for attending the CC AGM had almost without exception donated them back to the G&B under Gift Aid; however, it

 was felt that there was an imbalance of treatment in that Branch Officers - and indeed, many members - travelled

great distances on the Association's behalf without receiving any expenses at all.

Therefore the Committee agreed to cease paying expenses to CC Reps, with the caveat that the MC had the power to

 provide a special payment in cases of genuine hardship.

Finances remained high on the agenda with the Peal Fee. After discussion it was decided that it should remain at 25p

per ringer for 2010 (having last been increased in 1996), but that it should be increased to 50p per ringer as from

 2011. This delayed increase was largely due to the requirement for the Peal Fee to be printed in the Annual Report,

 which is published before the AGM, so that the

membership would have the opportunity to discuss it at the AGM in 2010 if they so wished.

 Another change for 2011 will be the organiser and venue for the southern half of the Spring Training Day, currently

organised by Ian Wigmore and based at Watermoor School in Cirencester. Ian will be stepping down after theTraining Day in 2010, and in addition the school will no longer be available for us to use as a base on the day. Any

 suggestions or volunteers for either the organiser or the

venue will be most gratefully received!

Finally, the dates of the various G&B events throughout 2010 can be found on our Branch Programme, but that of the

 Nibley Trophy

should be noted. Historically held on the fourth Saturday in June, this striking competition for our younger ringers has

 now been moved to the third Saturday in June to avoid The Malvern Challenge, a large Scouting event in the

Cheltenham area. Martin Pearson

Secretary Report for 2009

 Once again I have had a relatively easy year as secretary, not a lot of documentation received, the biggest task each

year is producing the annual return for the Association yearly report which I try to complete as an on going activity.

The ringing in the branch is well and truly covered by our Chairman, the ringing Master and deputy so I have little to

 do in that area these days. The other activity which at times is a chore is ensuring that future activities have been

 arranged by the tower holding the event. We publish the annual program each year at the AGM and ask every one to

 confirm that they have been put in their church diary, we then get to close to the event and find nothing happened and

 the tower captain and/or tower correspondent say they know nothing about it ‘shock horror’ and it does not happen

 once or twice.

 My other activities are the newsletter and website, the website grows each year with information that is given to me or

I find, if you have any problems with the content of the website please do let me know so I can correct amend or delete incorrect information. The Newsletter has passed its 150 th issue whilst I have been secretary. As always I am grateful for input, but you can never have enough. Just a reminder to tower correspondents that their task is not just one way to receive information but also to send it in, and I am very grateful to those who do make the time and the effort to do so.

Tony
York.

_________________________________________________________________________

Year 2008

 

Chairman’s Report

The Chairman thanked all members for their continuing support, which enabled the bells in

our churches to be rung for services on a regular basis. He also added a special word of thanks

for those members who helped in any way to teach new ringers. This included not only Tower

Captains who perhaps take the most obvious role in teaching, but also other ringers who

‘stand behind’ or perhaps with just a simple comment help a ringer overcome a problem.

The Chairman said that the Branch had had a full programme of events again. He would leave

the Ringing Master to comment on ringing progress in the Branch, so he would simply make a

few observations about other things.

He said that the recasting of the treble bell at Abson had been a significant event for the

Branch, as well as the tower, in the past year. The project provided a good example of the

value of the Branch and G & B Association organisation. Both the Branch and the Association

had provided grants to help with the cost of the work. The Branch quiz night at Westerleigh

and a sponsored cycle ride by Branch members both raised money for the project. Branch

members had helped with some of the work too, to keep costs down. None of this detracts

from the efforts of the Abson ringers themselves, who did a splendid job in getting the whole

project organised and funded. It was good to see so many ringers, both past and present and

from near and afar, joining in at the rededication service three weeks ago.

He thanked members of the Committee for their work in helping to run the Branch: to Gary

for running the training days and Branch practices; to Rosemary for the May Day outing and

Young Ringers day, both of which were great fun; to Tony for the newsletter and organisation

in general; to Ruth for managing our money; to Martin for keeping us in touch with

Association matters; and the ‘Twigs’ for keeping us in touch with local matters in different

areas of the Branch.

Ringing Master’s Report 2008

When I was asked to become RM, I was hesitant because my own ringing abilities aren’t as

good as I would like, I’m not a skilled conductor, and on the whole I’m disorganised.

I needn’t have worried because the branch is actually run by the committee and, on the

whole, the results are brilliant; reflecting the dedicated work of Chris, Tony, Rosemary, Ruth,

and Martin + the ex-officio members Gill and Mary.

The ‘Twigs’ (bits of branches), represented by Arch Andrews and Sue Jay, have been a source

of enthusiasm and new ideas. (Liz has recently become a Twig rep too) I should also like to

thank the G&B officers who often turn out for rural events.

The 2008 programme was full branch practices, twig training days, outings, association and

social events - enough for everyone, and hopefully at a level that stretched each of you just a

little. As we don’t have a 10 or 12 in the branch, it is safe to say that most of us aren’t

accomplished 10/12 bell ringers, yet everyone who came with us to Tewkesbury, Gloucester

Cathedral, Bath Abbey, and St. Ambrose rose to the challenge, proving that both they and the

branch are ready and able to go further.

Branch practices now run for 2 hours in the hope of giving everyone a chance to do something

they want. So please let Rosemary or me know if someone wants to practise a particular

method, ring a touch, or just have a minder for peace of mind.

For a couple of the Branch Practices we have rung special methods (Dyrham DM, Frampton

DM, Westerleigh TB). This seemed to go down well, and added a new dimension to the

practice (although I’ve already forgotten the blue lines). Hopefully we will continue this into

2009, - so please let me have your special requests in plenty of time.

In our full programme there seem too many events to record in any detail; I especially enjoyed

the two outings as they were expertly organised (thanks RM & AA). This summer saw a first

(for a long time) young persons ringing event with 6 and 8 bell tower ringing, hand bells, and

a quiz. This was well attended and everyone (despite RM’s strict assurance) seemed to enjoy

themselves. Perhaps we should have these more regularly.

During the year attendance at meetings has been quite good and seems to be growing again, I

hope this means we are getting something right (you can correct me on this if you feel

otherwise). However, I am conscious that some people do not come to any branch events, and

we all need to make sure they are aware of branch activities and find out what would

encourage them to come to the events.

The membership age profile is shifting as we get older and fewer young replacements are

being recruited. If ringing is to survive and prosper into the future it is important that we take

positive steps to recruit both young and mature ringers.

Finally, when I look at the branch I am encouraged by another example of enthusiasm,

determination, and team working; where a small group worked together to make possible what

seemed impossible. The replacement of a bell in a parish where there are more cows than

people is a credible achievement –well done Abson and all those who helped.

If this can be done by so few, just imagine what we can do together as a branch and with our

Association.

Treasurer’s Report 2008

The increase in the annual subscription shows up in the income received this year. However,

as the entire increase has been allocated to the Belfry Repair Fund, the amount retained by the

branch has not increased for several years. We have a membership of 150 as opposed to 157

last year, hopefully we will maintain this number if not increase it. The biggest loss has been

to the number of junior members from 20 to 15.

(Secretary note three of these have gone to university so may be back)

We were pleased to give a grant of £300.00 to Abson for their work on their treble bell, and

would congratulate them on their fantastic fund raising efforts. I know it was a long hard slog,

and I am sure they are enjoying having their treble ringing true once again.

There was an increase in the Officer’s expenses due to the purchase of an adjustable spanner

and a socket set by our Ringing Master, as agreed at the 2006 AGM.

May I thank those of you who paid your subscriptions so promptly, to the secretary for

harassing those who were not so keen? It is helpful to have things sorted as soon as possible,

especially as the Association treasurer Phillip Twentyman chases me for the Association

portion from March onwards.

If you are a taxpayer, may I urge you to Gift Aid your subscription, this will give currently the

Association an extra 28p per pound sterling to the BRF and may well help to hold our annual

subscriptions at the current rate for longer than might otherwise be the case.

The treasurer’s accounts were proposed accepted by Gill Greef and seconded by Merve Gibbs,

they were unanimously accepted by the meeting.
Auditor Thanks
We would like to thank Edna Cause for auditing the branch accounts this year, Many
Thanks

Edna.



Secretary’s Report 2008

Firstly the Newsletter, I have had 16 inputs from various people during the year the average

has been two per person who have submitted. Of the 16, 5 have been tower contacts.

I produced one newsletter whilst in Australia. Producing the newsletter has been relatively

easy during the year.

However input from tower Captains and tower contacts and even ringers is always welcome.

The Branch Website had a first to include two videos of the casting of the Abson treble at

Whitechapel Foundry; I do not know how many could view the videos as know one responded

to my request for information.

I have had communications from six people outside the branch mainly from G & B

management.

We have received a new supply of the Association lapel badges at £3.00.

I have already completed the Association report for 2008 except for any new members who

may be elected this evening.

MC Rep Report

The new batch of G&B badges has now arrived. They were intended to be in British racing

green, but due to a small production error they ended up with a green surround and blue

centre. They are now available from Tony York or Steve Coleman for £3 each.

Finally, the dates of all the G&B events in 2009 can be found on the Branch Programme.
Martin Pearson

 

 

 


__________________________________________________________________________________
Year_2007

Chairman Chris Greef

The Chairman firstly thanked all members for their dedicated weekly support to their

respective home towers. The role of the Branch is to support ringers in this, their prime

responsibility.

 The Branch had had a full programme of events through the year. There had been four

 training days. Stedman Triples, Bob Doubles, Stedman Doubles and Grandsire/Plain Bob

 Triples had been the methods covered. The Chairman thanked the Ringing Master Gary

Crisp for additionally introducing some training/practice sessions on Cambridge and

 Yorkshire Surprise Major. Members were encouraged to nominate themes for future

training days and also to attend for the improvements in knowledge that could be gained

from them.

Normal Branch practices had had an average attendance of about 12 ringers, enough to

make all of them viable events. There had been three outings, the May Day outing to the

 Forest of Dean, an afternoon outing to some Bristol City towers and the annual trip to

 ring for evensong at Gloucester Cathedral: attendance at these events varied between 15

 and 20. In the way of social events, there had been the carol service at Filton, skittles at

 The Swan organised by the Tytherington ringers, and a barbecue organised by the

 Winterbourne ringers and held in the grounds of the medieval barn next to the church. All

 were well supported.

 The Chairman noted three anniversaries within the Branch. Don Haskins from

 Almondsbury had celebrated 70 years as a ringer, the eight Taylor bells at Olveston had

 been dedicated 100 years ago and the six Evans bells at Winterbourne had been cast 250

 years ago. He noted that Russell Scudamore had rung his first peal during the year, a

milestone of a rather different kind. He also referred to the deaths of four members, Andy

Fox, George Gillett, Dennis Orchard and Gerald Smart.

 The Chairman concluded by once again thanking all who had helped in any way by

 supporting Branch events and by their continued dedication to their home towers.

Chris Greef

Treasurer

Ruth Welch (the report was made by the Chairman as Ruth was not present)

 We have 157 members, so the numbers are keeping steady, with new members

 replacing the ones who left or died during the year.

The subs and donations this year are lower than for 2006 because last year’s

 figures included a one off donation of £80.00.

We are in a position to offer help to any tower needing it. As you can see we

have £693.00 in the deposit account for just such contingencies. Our Hon.

Treasurer (G & B) Mr Phillip Twentyman has asked that those who gift aid

subscriptions could make a special effort to do it before the end of March 2008

due to a change in the tax regime in the next tax year.

Ruth Welch

Auditor Thanks

We would like to thank Edna Cause for auditing the branch accounts this year,

Many Thanks Edna.

C Rep

Martin Pearson

 1. As the latest supply of G&B badges has now mostly been sold, we've decided

 to buy a further 100 badges, this time in dark green instead of the usual blue.

 Apart from the colour they'll be exactly the same as the last batch, with colour on

 both the outer surround and the inner background (around the central bell). The

 reason for the change of colour is primarily for variety, but also to encourage

those members who collect the badges to buy one of the new style.

2. There'll be a couple of changes to next year's G&B Annual Report. Firstly, age

two of the Report (Honorary Life Members, and Members with 40 Years Service)

will be swapped with page four (Table of Contents, Belfry Advisors, a couple of

addresses, and Data Protection Act info) simply to bring the Table of Contents

onto the inside front cover, where many people would expect to find it. And

secondly, each tower's entry in the Report will include a "nearest postcode". The

reasons for this are explained further under Item 14.

Secretary

Tony York

 The secretary reports he has had a relatively easy year in 2007, a reasonable

 amount of input for the branch newsletter from branch officers, not a lot of input

 from tower correspondents about outings or events which he is sure is

 happening. He is thinking of producing a rota for the tower correspondents/tower

 captains to input something at least once a year fro their tower. One high light

has been the ability for individual towers to download the annual return and

subscription form from the branch web site in either word or pdf format.

______________________________________________________________________________
Year 2006