Staplehurst Bellringers Report October 2022
News from the Tower
The Staplehurst Bellringers join with the rest of the United Kingdom and Commonwealth in mourning the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday 8th September. May she rest in peace and rise in glory.
In accordance with the agreed protocol, our ringers rang for one hour at 12 noon the following day to mark her passing. The bells were fully muffled with the tenor backstroke not muffled – a practice reserved solely for the death of a reigning monarch. On Saturday 10th September we rang a quarter peal with the bells open (i.e., Not muffled) following the proclamation of the new monarch King Charles 111. Then on Sunday, it was back to fully muffled ringing for another quarter-peal, this time In Memoriam of her late Majesty. The bells then remained fully muffled until her funeral on Monday 19th September.
This report was necessarily written only a few days after the Queen’s death, and it is inevitable that some of our planned ringing in September will have to be postponed. One such event was the County Striking Competition which will be held later in the year. The one event that we will have definitely rung for by the time you read this article is the Queen’s funeral.
As to the future, there is currently no additional ringing scheduled during October apart from possibly quarter-peals on two Sunday evenings. Otherwise, we will be ringing for the regular Sunday morning services and on our normal Tuesday evening practice.
Roy Barclay
Tower Secretary
