CDGCBR 

East Cheshire Branch

The East Cheshire Branch of the Chester Diocesan Guild of Church Bell Ringers (CDGCBR) comprises 34 towers in the North East of Cheshire, Derbyshire and Greater Manchester. The branch includes Stockport, Macclesfield, Wilmslow, Buxton and Altrincham, as well as a number of smaller towns and villages in the area. The other branches in the guild are Chester Branch [19 towers with 6 or more bells], Mid Cheshire Branch [18 towers], South Cheshire Branch [22 towers], and Wirral Branch [20 towers]. As you can see by these numbers, we're the largest branch in terms of towers!

You can download a copy of the programme here.

October


Tuesday 8th - Invite to join Cheadle practice - Cheadle - 7.30 – 9.00 pm

Saturday 19th - Guild 10-Bell competition - TBC (Wirral Branch) - TBC

Sunday 27th - Branch 10 Bell practice - Stockport St. Mary's - 3.00 – 4.30 pm

November


28th Oct to 9th Nov - Branch Quarter-Peal Fortnight - Various towers - Various


Sunday 10th - Branch 10 Bell practice - Stockport St. Mary's - 3.00 – 4.30 pm


Saturday 23rd - Branch AGM for 2024 - Knutsford - 3.00 – 6.00 pm

December

No events

Note that only three months of the schedule are displayed at a time. If you want to see the rest of the year, click on the down arrow on the right hand side in the above text.

Live from Clive

A heavily redacted version of the Guild Annual Report is available online here.

From: Clive   Re: Branch events in October

If you arrive after 7.30 and the south door is locked go to the west door  - there's a bell- push up on right hand side.

I keep advertising this each month and each month have to disappoint those who would welcome the chance to ring there because we don't have enough. It's such a pity that these bells stand idle.

Please make these events known in your tower. I don't have every ringer's email address so some members at your tower may not be aware of branch events. And remember, all events cater for all abilities.

From: Stephen Aldridge   Re: WhatsApp group

We (‘we’ loosely being the officers of the Manchester Branch of LACR) have set up a WhatsApp group for ringing in the Manchester Area. It is not intended, however, to be connected officially to LACR or any other guild/association etc. The hope is that any ringers in the rough area of Manchester will join and events can be advertised, wedding ringers requested, socials organised etc. 

WhatsApp users can follow this link on their phones and it should take them directly to the group where they can join.

From: Andrew Darling   Re: Surprise Major Practice

Hello there,

In the recent surveys of ringers, many people said that they would like to see more specialized practices rather than just general branch practices. As part of this, I've been running twice monthly Surprise Major Practices. These are based on a model that I trialled with a lot of success in the Durham and Newcastle Association, some years ago. It is aimed at both experienced Surprise ringers but also at those who are wanting to start dipping their toes in the Surprise paddling pool.

There are the key ideas behind this:

The dates of the practices are the 2nd and 4th Tuesday of every month. The practices for October are

Tuesday, 8th October @ 7.30 - Dunham

Tuesday, 22nd October @ 7.30 - Bowdon

If you are interested in taking part, please can you drop me a quick email on andrew.darling@me.com or a text on 07786 511 788. 

From: Clive   Re: Belfry Upkeep

This is worth looking at, even if you don't currently look after the bells at your tower. 

From: Ernie de Legh-Runciman, Secretary, Central Council of Church Bell Ringers

Belfry Upkeep News Item

The Stewardship & Management Workgroup are pleased to announce Belfry Upkeep, an online document aimed at the Steeple Keeper – the person responsible for keeping the bells in order. The aims of the document are:

The document can be found at https://belfryupkeep.cccbr.org.uk

Learning the Ropes

The Association of Ringing Teachers (ART) regularly issues a newsletter called "Tower Talk". You don't have to be a member of ART to read the newsletters. Click here to see issue 29 (which is the latest issue). You can also click here for previous issues and other news.

Central Council News

We don't normally feature what is going on in the Central Council of Church Bell Ringers (CCCBR), but occasionally, they write to us and ask us to feature something. 

Contact the Secretary

Members of the branch should have already received the above messages directly from Clive. If you haven't, click here to email Clive [clive.calton@btinternet.com] and get on his mailing list. If you need to get hold of Clive urgently, his mobile number is 07779 488359.

Site Map [Click on the link below to go to the relevant page]

Interactive Branch Map . This map allows you to look up the details for any of the towers in the branch by clicking it [uses Google Maps]. There is also a tower directory underneath. This just reformats all the data to make it easier to read [this bit is identical to the form on the Contacts page].

Interactive Tower Map. Use this to compare towers - weights, practice night, number of bells. Just click on the column header in the table to sort the data. Clicking on a tower in the map will give you contact details. The information shown on this page is also available as a PDF by clicking here.

Reasons to Contact Us

Here are four good reasons to send us a message

If you have any comments or ideas for the website, we would love to hear them. You can email the webmaster by clicking here.