This year’s tour visited twenty two towers and a mini-ring in the New Forest, Southampton, Portsmouth, Romsey area.
The challenge set in early with the first ring of the tour, attempting to do justice to the 14cwt twelve at All Saints’, Hursley, a Victorian Gothic Revival church, largely rebuilt in 1847-48 under the influence of John Keble of the Oxford Movement.
Highlights of the tour (at least for this participant) included:
Ringing on the 7cwt six at All Saints’, Minstead. All Saints’ escaped Victorian renovation and looks rather like a cottage with a tower and random extensions. The interior reveals an enchanting jumble of seats, private pews and galleries dating from the 17th and 18th centuries.
Mastering the Forest Edge mini-ring at Milford (the 8 at Milford-on-Sea being unringable due to structural issues with the tower).
Well-struck ringing on the 20cwt eight at St Thomas’, Lymington, and the 21cwt ten at St Mary’s, Southampton. The latter church is now in the care of HTB; the arrival of a band of clerical ringers and friends caused some bewilderment amongst the management – what was the point of us?
At St Michael Archangel, Southampton, the 16cwt ring of ten, hung in a 12th-century tower topped by a landmark spire, were rung to good effect. The church escaped major damage during intensive bombing of the docklands in the Second World War.
Some creditable ringing was achieved on the 8cwt twelve at the Ascension, Bitterne Park. The bell ropes hang in an even circle, with a long draught, at the west end of the nave in the generous space beneath the tower. They proved easier to ring than might have been imagined.
The four-minute cruise in the sunshine on the Gosport ferry offered views of HMS Warrior (the 1860 iron-hulled warship), a Type 45 destroyer, and the aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales.
The 3cwt eight at St Agatha’s, Portsmouth, were fun. Now effectively a clubhouse for disaffected former Anglican clergy embraced by the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, the red-brick Italianate basilica was originally consecrated in 1894 to serve the poor of the Landport, then an area of extreme deprivation. It now curates items of Roman Catholic ecclesiastical furnishings, including, allegedly, the skull of the martyred St Boniface. The 17cwt eight at nearby St Mary’s, Portsea, offered a sober contrast.
The service touch for Evensong at Portsmouth Cathedral (12/25cwt) consisted of Grandsire Doubles rung concurrently on the front and back six – a ploy that worked well.
Ringing was enjoyed on the majestic 22cwt eight at Romsey Abbey on the final morning of the tour.
The other towers visited were Twyford, Bishopstoke, Lyndhurst, Brockenhurst, Eling, North Stoneham, Curdridge, Notley Abbey, Titchfield, Alverstoke, Kings Somborne and Stockbridge.
Ringing included rounds and call changes and a varied range of plain and surprise methods, up to Surprise Royal.
The clerical ringers and friends are grateful to David Grimwood for organising and leading the tour.
