Scrapbook

In March 2011 I got the Ringing World 1911 - 1941 CD Rom for my birthday. Quite an unusual present for a 17 year old, but I instantly fell in love with this excellent and easy to use resource. One of the many great features of the disc is that you can use a hand tool to cut bits out that you find interesting, and then save these as a paint file in your own records.

For the rest of 2011 I had a great time searching through the snippets of Worcester and Worcestershire ringing history, collecting letters, AGM day reports, details of notable ringers and towers, bell projects, pictures, and all sorts of other interesting things.

All of these were saved into a special scrapbook, which I then backed up on to my Google Drive. They are all listed below for whoever might find them interesting, though you have to click on some of the pdf icons to see them.

RW 9/8/1912

"Our illustration," featuring J. R. Newman. He came from the Bransford area, to the west of Worcester, close to my own part of the city. Even today the surname Newman is quite common in that part of Worcester. He composed and conducted a false peal of Grandsire Caters on the old ten at Evesham Belltower in about 1911, and I have the figures in my possession

RW c.1912. Some of the celebrated Johnson family of Hinton on the Green. There were nine children who all learnt to ring. An even more remarkable handbell peal was one in which three of the children took part (aged about 10 - 13) without any help from the adults. Their handbell band flourished in later decades, with an exceptional repertoire for such a rural area. Peals of Stedman Cinques, Erin Caters, etc, were rung.

RW 1938

RW 1939.

Bill Page was a notable Worcester ringer and leader over a period of several decades. The claim in this RW extract (from 1911) that he was the first "Worcester man" to ring 100 peals lead to the following, entertaining controversy. In any case, he was originally from Ripple, Worcs, and died in 1933.

RW 1922. Taken from the Belfry Gossip column, this is the report of the first peal of London Major rung in Worcester. Washbrook's 5184 was rung at St. Helen's.

Ellen, Joseph, and Ruth Johnson after their famous handbell peal in 1912 (see above for more details.)

RW 1937. Humorous account of the Western Branch Quarterly Meeting at St. John's, Worcester.

RW 1927. Interesting entry.

RW 1916. Possibly the first time that women had taken part in service ringing in Worcester

RW 1912. Letter from W. Page about the Johnson family handbell peal (more information above)

RW 1921. Letter from W. Page about sound control in local towers

RW 1928. Mention of Worcester Cathedral in article about new Taylor rings

RW 1930. Notable officers of the WDCRA ring a peal at St. John-in-Bedwardine, Worcester. The bells had only recently been augmented to eight

RW 1916. Quarter peal at Upton-upon-Severn that was composed and conducted by W. Page

RW 1931. The school opposite a church referred to is almost certainly St. John's school, across the road from St. John-in-Bedwardine. The school is now a library. A number of ringers who attended the school are still alive

RW 1912. Reply to W. Page's letter about the Johnson handbell peal (see letter above.)

For the next section, the entries will actually be in chronological order(!), from 1911 onwards.

RW 1911. Funeral of Thomas Malin

RW 1912. A 720 of Worcester Surprise Minor, rung at St. John's. I'm fairly certain that this is the Benjamin Annable method now known as Worcester Delight, which was outside the Central Council rules for forty years until the alterations in 1969, when the method was officially named again in a peal at Pershore Parish Centre.

RW 1912. Touches at the Cathedral and St. Helen's

RW 1915. Handbells for sale

RW 1916. Letter from W. Page about Double Norwich compositions

RW 1917. Lost peal at St. Helen's, Worcester

RW 1917. What seems to be a different lost peal at St. Helen's

RW 1918. Letter from W. Page with some peal corrections. This is a particularly enlightening source, as it greatly narrows the possible years in which Page's peal compositions could have been rung in Worcester. He is mistaken, though, about the peal of Single Canterbury at St. Helen's in 1905 - it was actually rung in 1895.

RW 1918. Western Branch meeting at St. Helen's, Worcester.

RW 1920 editorial. Celebrating the first peal rung in the Worcester Variation of Spliced Kent & Oxford Treble Bob Major. This was rung at St. Helen's, though the Minor version had already been rung in Worcester the previous year

RW 1921. Letter from W. Page about half-muffled ringing

RW 1921. Correction from W. Page about a handbell peal

RW 1921. The first quarter peal of Surprise Major in Worcester. I assume that this was rung in December 1920, and published in early 1921, as the first full peal of Surprise Major in Worcester was rung in April 1921 (i.e: before December 1921.) Either this, or I simply made a mistake when copying it across. Hopefully they didn't wring Wrong, Home, Wrong x3(!)

RW 1922. Celebrating the centenary of the first peal of Surprise Royal. The 1822 peal at Wakefield was the only peal of Surprise Royal for several decades. The composition seems to have been Middle, Wrong x15, with an extra bob at Home in parts 5, 10, 15.

RW 1922. Article by William Page, suggesting to someone how their band can make progress, based on the considerable progress of the Worcester ringers after the war.

RW 1922. Interestingly, some records of the peals at All Saints and Tewkesbury attribute the composition to Burford, and records attribute it to Pye.

RW 1922. Letter from W. Page which outlines the history of the Worcester Varitation of Spliced Kent & Oxford Treble Bob. Not mentioned here is the fact that the Minor version was rung in a peal at St. Nicholas, Worcester in September 1919 - i.e: after it was first rung at St. John's, but before the peal of Major at St. Helen's.

RW 1922. Two peal compositions of the Worcester Variation of Spliced Kent and Oxford Treble Bob Royal, by William Page. It seems likely that these have never been rung

RW 1923. A note about the considerable progress of the Worcester ringers since the war

RW 1923

RW 1925. Promising Western Branch meeting at Powick

RW 1926. State of the Cathedral bells is raised at the WDCRA AGM

RW 1927. The augmentation of Claines bells from five to eight (they are now a ten.) These must have been exciting years, as the Cathedral bells were recast the following year, and St. John's augmented to eight a little over a year after that.

RW 1927. Report of the WDCRA AGM held in Worcester. These years often have a 'golden age' feel to them, with the state of ringing generally very strong, and so many rings of bells in Worcester City at that time, all ringing for the occassion - among them St. Helen's and St. Nicholas, on either ends of the high street, where bells are sadly not rung any longer. The discussion about the new Cathedral bells makes for fascinating reading.

RW 1928. The new bells of Worcester Cathedral

RW 1928. An article published in anticipation of the new Cathedral bells

RW 1928. Forty years' peal ringing for Robert G Knowles

RW 1928. One of the notable Prichett brothers from Birmingham hopes that the St. Martin's Guild, Birmingham, will get to ring the first peal on the new bells of Worcester Cathedral

RW 1928. More about the new bells of Worcester Cathedral

RW 1929. At the invitation of the great William Pye, Sid Holt replaced a dropout in a peal of Cambridge Maximus at Winchester Cathedral. E "Pumpy" Thomas, the wealthy businessman from Claines, paid for Sid's train fare.

RW 1930. Death of Joseph Smith

RW 1930. Augmentation to eight at St. John-in-Bedwardine, Worcester (see more detailed article below.)

RW 1931. When St. John's bells were augmented to eight, the 'ding dong' chimes were replaced with Westminster Chimes, as seen here.

RW 1932. The great Albert Walker of Birmingham praises the abilities of Sid Holt

RW 1935. From Belfry Gossip, mentioning Sid Holt's and Charlie Camm's 300th peal together

RW 1937. The Western Branch Quarterly Peals are discussed during the meeting at Ripple

RW 1939. Praising the WDCRA for their peal of Eight-Spliced. This was the first peal of the Standard Eight ever rung

Once again, the chronology becomes completely mixed up in the following section!

RW 1912. Another letter about sound control from W. Page

RW 1935. Letter from Sid Holt. I Wonder if this collection of Hayward's compositions still exists?

RW 1926. Sid Holt's first 100 peals

The bells of St. Helen's, Worcester were unique and of historical importance due to their special inscriptions. This made their sale for scrap in 1951 all the more tragic.

RW 1930. St. John-in-Bedwardine augmentation

RW 1929. WDCRA AGM. Humorous banter between the WDCRA ringers and the St. Martin's Guild, Birmingham ringers.

RW 1931

RW 1933. Detailed account of the Worcestershire peal tour