Wapley Page
On the 13th of June 2009 the branch held a Striking and Listening Course at
Wapley, for a report
see the July 2009 Branch Newsletter
click here which will be published on Saturday 27th June
Whats this you say, read the newsletter!
Wapley Striking Competition Team 2007
From a press cutting about 1997
Maurice
Bezer left.
The
folk of Wapley will be
ringing in the changes with the new Millennium. The tiny village has
launched a �30,000 appeal for work to have the bells of St Peter's Church
sounding
again..
The five bells stopped ringing at Easter, 1998. "They rang a bride in but could
not ring her out" said
churchwarden Joan Bezer.
The parishioners then agreed work on the bells would be an ideal Millennium
project.
Four of the five bells are being rehung and the Fifth bell is being replaced.
A sixth bell is being added to attract more ringers. Mrs Bezer said: ',We are
also having a new frame because the existing one is so old. That is going to
cost a lot
of money.
So the villagers have begun the usual round of money-spinning events, including
coffee mornings
and sponsored walks.
Dodington Parish Council has donated �2,000 to the cause, a further �5,000 has
been raised from the
Landfill tax credit scheme and the ringers themselves have boosted the funds by
�1,000. The ringers saved
their cash from their pealing
events.
With �20,000 left to raise, parishioners realise they are not going to have the
bells ringing in the new
Millennium but plan to have them sounding during the year 2000.
The aim is to have a peal heralding the parish flower festival during the last
two days of June and first two of
July.
The Bishop of Bristol will be attending and the parish would like him to bless
the bells.
And bells in Wapley are a family affair. Mrs Bezer's nephew, Maurice Bezer, is a
ringer.
He said: "With a sixth bell we will be able to ring more methods, which will
attract more ringers from outside
the area."
Practice Nights | Millennium Page | Striking Competition |