The latest edition of the Guild newsletter is now available, and can be downloaded from the Newsletters page or viewed online here:

On Wednesday 7 October 2020 at 7pm, back by popular demand, join John Anderson who will be sharing more memories about his life in Birmingham.

Part 2 will focus on John’s experiences on the Central Council, the augmentation at St Martin’s, his time leading the Guild, experiences of the 12 bell – as well as, I’m sure, much more.

If you’d like to join us, but haven’t yet received the Zoom login details, please email the Ringing Master.

Future dates…

Wednesday 7 October at 7pm. In Conversation with John Anderson (Part 2)

Wednesday 14 October at 7pm. Jon Bint: Devon Call Changes

Wednesday 21 October at 7pm. Richard Pullin: Birmingham composers and their entertaining rivalry

Wednesday 28 October at 7pm. John Loveless: ‘Shake my hand and I’ll show you the ropes’ – a biography of George Pipe

On Wednesday 30 September at 7pm, Vicki Chapman will be joining us to discuss issues around Public Relations in ringing and in our towers.

If you’d like to join us, but haven’t yet received the Zoom login details, please email the Ringing Master.

Future dates…

Wednesday 7 October at 7pm. In Conversation with John Anderson (Part 2)

Wednesday 14 October at 7pm. Jon Bint: Devon Call Changes

Wednesday 21 October at 7pm. Richard Pullin: Birmingham composers and their entertaining rivalry

Wednesday 28 October at 7pm. John Loveless: ‘Shake my hand and I’ll show you the ropes’ – a biography of George Pipe

On Wednesday 23 September at 7pm, John Anderson will be joining us for a conversation reminiscing about the history of Birmingham ringers and ringing.

If you’d like to join us, but haven’t yet received the Zoom login details, please email the Ringing Master.

Future dates…

Wednesday 30 September at 7pm. Vicki Chapman: how can we improve Public Relations in ringing and in our towers?

Wednesday 7 October at 7pm. In Conversation with John Anderson (Part 2)

Wednesday 14 October at 7pm. Jon Bint: Devon Call Changes

Wednesday 21 October at 7pm. Richard Pullin: Birmingham composers and their entertaining rivalry

Wednesday 28 October at 7pm. John Loveless: ‘Shake my hand and I’ll show you the ropes’ – a biography of George Pipe

Wednesday evening online sessions are back – Wednesdays at 7pm on Zoom!

Alistair Cherry kicks off the new term with a presentation titled exploring Cyclic Surprise Maximus.

We will trial a slightly different way to attend this talk. If you’d like to attend, please complete this form. It’ll take only a few seconds and we will email the Zoom link on Tuesday evening. 

This way, we can advertise more widely safe in the knowledge that we won’t exceed capacity. Guild members will always have priority for attendance. 

The advertised schedule throughout September is available here.

Future dates for your diaries:

Saturday 3 October (10am onwards)
Business Meeting combined with a social event.  As we would normally have held some sort of challenge event alongside the Business Meeting, we are cooking up a plan for some alternative fun activity that we can carry out online.

Saturday 9 January 2021 Annual General Meeting (10am onwards)
At this stage we are assuming that this AGM may also need to take place online, although guidelines may change in the meantime.

We will send out further details of the agenda nearer the time as well as opportunities to send us any questions or issues to be raised at the meetings. 

Wednesday 22 July 2020 7pm: A History of Birmingham’s bells

This session will be led by Chris Pickford.

Wednesday 29 July 2020 7pm: An Introduction to Composing (Part 2)

Part 2 of John Warboys’ Introduction to Composing.

John has compiled a quiz, based on Part 1, which you can complete via this form. Be warned – it is tricky and certainly needs time and focus, but don’t let that put you off! John has also put together a PDF of his presentation and this, along with the recording of Part 1, can be found here.

How can I attend these sessions?

Those signed up to the Guild mailing list will receive an email with Zoom Meeting IDs and passwords. If you have not received an email, and would like to attend, please contact the Guild Ringing Master.

Wednesday 15 July 2020 7pm: How to ring big bells

Julia Cater will lead this session and is keen to emphasise that her talk is relevant to all, especially those of us who may not be familiar with ringing heavy bells or believe that we can’t do it.

Saturday 18 July 2020 10am: St Clement’s and Double Oxford Minor

David Smith will lead this session focusing on the methods St Clement’s and Double Oxford Minor.

How can I attend these sessions?

Those signed up to the Guild mailing list will receive an email with Zoom Meeting IDs and passwords. If you have not received an email, and would like to attend, please contact the Guild Ringing Master.

The latest edition of the Guild newsletter is now available, and can be downloaded from the Newsletters page or viewed online here:

Congratulations to the winners of the “summertime” photography competition – results announced today:

Landscape – Pauline Forster
Church – Susan Webb
Funniest – Annie Smith
Monochrome – Jonathan Townsend

You can view all of the entries, along with the highly commended and the winners in each category here:

The photographs can also be accessed via the Guild’s Flickr account.

The training session scheduled for 7pm on Wednesday 8 July 2020 will be led by John Warboys. The talk has been specifically designed as an introduction to composition for all.

How can I attend this session?

Those signed up to the Guild mailing list will receive an email with Zoom Meeting IDs and passwords. If you have not received an email, and would like to attend, please contact the Guild Ringing Master.

With the easing of lockdown and the possibility of handbell ringing, now is an excellent time to re-visit those skills. On Wednesday 1 July 2020, at 7pm, we’re delighted that Tina Stoecklin and Simon Gay will be presenting to the Guild. They recently published a book titled “Change-Ringing on Handbells: Volume 1: Basic Techniques”

How can I attend this session?

Those signed up to the Guild mailing list will receive an email with Zoom Meeting IDs and passwords. If you have not received an email, and would like to attend, please contact the Guild Ringing Master.

Instead of the usual walking and ringing tour on Saturday 11 July 2020, we want to set you a challenge – to take the most interesting photos of your walks between now and what would have been our annual walking tour.

At 10am on Saturday 11 July 2020, we will showcase your photos and winners will be selected by our friendly panel of judges. There are three categories, with certificates awarded for winners in each category. Entries may be in colour or monochrome, and there will also be recognition for best overall monochrome photo. There will be an adult and child competition. So there is plenty of opportunity to win!

• Photos should only be taken between now and the final entry time, which is noon on Tuesday 7 July 2020
• Participants may enter as many categories as they wish, but only one photo per category.
• Photos would be uploaded to Flickr. We can copyright photographs if you wish and the Guild Flickr account is private to members.
• There is no need to anonymise entries and participation is free
• Please email entries to smgcbr@gmail.com with the category you are entering the subject line. Entering a photograph gives us permission to upload it to the Guild Flickr account. We will not be anonymising entries on Flickr.
• See below details for the online results, at 10am on Saturday 11 July 2020.

Judging panel: Michael, Vicky and Elizabeth Wilby and Gill and Richard Postill

Competition categories:
1) Best photo of a church
2) Funniest photo (can include selfies)
3) A landscape depicting English summertime

Zoom details:
10am, on Saturday 11 July 2020 for the competition showcase and Quiz led by Clare. Zoom login details have already been sent to those subscribed to the Guild mailing list, or can be obtained by emailing smgcbr@gmail.com

Wednesday 17 June 2020 7pm: What would ‘Trip Advisor’ say about your tower?

Session, delivered by Alison Hodge, focusing on “What would Trip Adviser say about your tower?”. This looks to be a useful and engaging discussion. Please forward to anyone else you think may be interested, especially those with responsibilities for towers. You may wish to bring a pen and paper, as this session will be not recorded nor resources uploaded.

Saturday 20 June 2020 10am: Ringing Room session

Saturday’s school session will be changing focus. Clare will be running Ringing Room with interested individuals. We will see how this goes and potentially look to expand in future weeks.

How can I attend these sessions?

Those signed up to the Guild mailing list will receive an email with Zoom Meeting IDs and passwords. If you have not received an email, and would like to attend, please contact the Guild Ringing Master.

Our next two online training sessions will be of particular interest to Tower Captains, Steeple keepers and others with responsibility for their tower. Please share this with anyone you think may be interested.

Saturday 13 June 2020 10am

Jonathan Townsend will lead us on considerations for tower safety, including thinking about when ringing may resume.

Wednesday 17 June 2020 7pm

Wednesday: Alison Hodge will lead us on how Trip Advisor may rate and review our towers. 

How can I attend these sessions?

Those signed up to the Guild mailing list will receive an email with Zoom Meeting IDs and passwords. If you have not received an email, and would like to attend, please contact the Guild Ringing Master.

Wednesday 10 June 2020 7pm: Stedman Part II

Mark will present a follow up to last week’s training, the session will begin by going through the answers to the below quiz. If you could try and complete it before Wednesday, it’ll give us a chance to see areas that people still need support on. We also know that going through answers to questions helps to consolidate our understanding.

All of the answers are available in David’s presentation/powerpoint from last week’s session. This is available on the Guild website under ‘Teaching and Resources’. The quiz link is here – good luck!

Saturday 13 June 2020 10am: Tower Stewardship

Jonathan will deliver a session on tower stewardship and considerations for bands moving forward from the current situation.

How can I attend these sessions?

Those signed up to the Guild mailing list will receive an email with Zoom Meeting IDs and passwords. If you have not received an email, and would like to attend, please contact the Guild Ringing Master.

The funeral of Andrew Stubbs will take place on Tuesday 5 May 2020 at 11.30 at Perry Barr Crematorium. The service will be live-streamed and joining instructions can be found on the Guild Facebook account, or via the Guild Secretary.

All the entries in the St Martin’s Guild Lockdown Bake Off – an incredible 49 entries. Feast your eyes on these, you’re bound to be starving by the end. The vote is open until 14 May 2020, details at the end of the film.

The bakes can also be viewed on Flickr

The Central Council have launched of a YouTube competition that will run from now until Christmas. Details can be found here https://cccbr.org.uk/youtube-competition/ where there is also a link to a YouTube video on how to make a YouTube ringing video!

Our virtual ‘Bake Off’ competition is a fundraising project that we’ve set up for Guild members, their families and friends. 

Further details can be found on our ‘Justgiving’ page: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/stmartinsguildbakeoff 

We hope that as many of you as possible will be able to get involved by baking, voting or just making a donation to the wonderful Solihull Marie Curie Hospice.

Although we are unable to host our 6 bell contest on the above date, we will instead hold a Business Meeting with results of a Bake Off Competition at the top of the meeting.  

For your diaries, the meeting will take place from 3pm on Saturday 16 May 2020. An agenda will be sent out nearer the time. The meeting will take place on zoom. Anyone who would like to use this but needs help can contact the Guild Officers to learn how.

The latest edition of the Guild newsletter is now available, and can be downloaded from the Newsletters page or viewed online here: