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!
March
8th - Branch ringing - Mobberley 2.30 - 3.15, Rostherne 3.45 - 4.30
29th - Guild 8-bell competition [Chester Branch] details tbc
April
5th - Branch 6-bell competition – Poynton 2:30
26th - Guild Towers Open Day - East and South Branches - tbc
May
17th – Guild AGM – Wirral – details tbc
25th – Practice and QP – St Mary’s Stockport - 2.30
June
17th - 18th - Cheshire Show – Tabley (near Knutsford) – tbc
9th – Join practice at Marple – 8:00
28th - Branch ringing – Fairfield 2.30 - 3.30, Burbage 3.45 - 4.30
July
12th – Branch Outing – details tbc
27th – Practice and QP – St Mary’s Stockport - 2.30
August
No events
September
3rd – Join practice at Mottram – 8:00
13th – Guild 6-bell competition – South branch – tbc
21st – Practice and QP – St Mary’s Stockport - 2.30
October
4th - Branch ringing – Bosley 2.30 - 3.15, Gawsworth 3.45 - 4.30
18th - Guild 10-bell competition – St Mary’s Stockport – 2:30
November
12th - Join practice at Prestbury – 8:00
29th – Branch AGM – details tbc
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.
What's New from Sue
From: Sue Re: Branch Ringing
A reminder to everyone that there is Branch ringing on Saturday, March 8th at Mobberley St Wilfred and St Mary from 2.30 to 3.15pm and then Rostherne St Mary from 3.45 to 4.30pm.
Guild 8 Bell Striking Competition
The Guild 8 Bell Striking Competition will be held on Saturday, 29th March at St Hellen's Tarporley. The touch is a 144 of Stedman Triples.
GUILD TOWER OPEN DAY
The Guild is organising a "Tower Open-Day" on Saturday 26 April 2025 to raise funds for your Bell Restoration Fund (BRF). Many branches have benefited from this fund, and we need your support to ensure its future.
Around 25 towers across the South and East Branch areas will be open for ringing. You can find the full list here.
Tickets are available on Eventbrite, and we've already had strong interest from across the UK. This is the first event of its kind that the Guild has run in years, so we expect a great turnout!
A small organising committee has arranged the towers and ringing times and the event has been widely advertised.
Now We Need Volunteers, Please!
To make this event a success, we need Guild members from all branches to help on the day. Even if you can’t commit to the whole day, any assistance is appreciated.
Volunteer roles include:
Visitor registration and selling tickets
Joining ringing teams to support visiting ringers and to help with ringing up and down
Car parking stewards
Internal stewards (toilet locations, general assistance)
Providing refreshments
Offering guidance on local travel and accommodation
If you can help, please fill out this volunteer form: https://forms.gle/VWEGQbjnhfcYMvXL8
Roles will be assigned based on availability and full instructions will be provided.
Please share this with others in your tower who may not be on our mailing list.
Thank You for your support! Together we can make this a really successful Guild fundraising event!
If you have any questions about the Open Day, contact graham at graham.jenkins@fastmail.com
From: Sue Re: St George (Stockport)
I was also asked to post this message about St George’s Stockport:-
St George's (Stockport) is raising money to fix the roof over their bells. More details (with pictures) are available at Roof over the bells East Branch. Anyone interested in making a contribution can do so by visiting the Just Giving page for the Church at Donate - Donation amount - JustGiving
From: Clive Re: Branch Mailing List IMPORTANT
At the Branch AGM at Knutsford, Sue Wareham from Nether Alderley agreed to take up the reins as branch secretary.
In days of old, I could simply have passed on to her the contact details for all subscribers. However, sadly under data protection laws I cannot now do that. Instead, if you wish to continue to be kept aware of branch events you need to email Sue at s.e.wareham@talk21.com with the word YES (that should suffice to allow her to add you to her list of contacts).
Of course, if you are a tower captain/secretary or any other branch officer, your contact details will be in the Guild Report and so accessible to Sue from there. But if not please contact her as soon as possible.
Hoping this makes sense.
There are some new courses coming up at the Ringing School and we have places available for them.
At Poynton in the next couple of weeks we will be starting an ART Level 2 course. This is a course focused on building foundation skills for Change Ringing, so there's a lot of work on Rounds and Call Changes and honing bell handling skills. If you can handle a bell but want to build your skills, this might be the course for you. We have two spaces free.
At one of the Altrincham towers we will be starting an ART Level 3 course on Saturday, 3rd May. This will focus on taking the first steps into Change Ringing - Plain Hunt and beyond. Could this be the course for you?
If you are interested or if you have a ringer in your tower who might be interested please contact us on cheshirebells@gmail.com
Many thanks!
Andrew Darling
School Coordinator
From: Sue Re: Branch AGM Documents
Thank you to those who replied to Clive’s email allowing me to send you notifications of events and information from the Guild and East Branch.
I’ve attached the minutes of the AGM held last Saturday at Knutsford [see below].
Information from my emails will soon be posted on the East Branch website under the heading What’s New from Sue, in place of Live from Clive.
Please see below for all the documents from the AGM at Knutsford on 23rd November.
From: Clive Re: Changes to Guild Constitution
Please see attached proposed changes to the Guild rules and let me have any observations to pass on to the Guild Secretary.
Please note:
All items in red are changes to the Rules. All have been approved by the Guild committee for a consultation with all branch members prior to the Guild AGM on 10th May 2025
Any item in red that is scored through is a removal of those words from the relevant rule.
Any item in red that is not scored through is an addition or change to the wording.
The numbers in square brackets [ ] are for footnotes.
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.
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:
Initially, practices will take place on the second Tuesday at Dunham and the fourth Tuesday at Bowdon, Prestbury or Cheadle.
We will work on Surprise Major
We'll have learning aims for each practice so that we build up capability steadily. Specifically, we'll work through the Core 7 methods https://wiki.changeringing.co.uk/Project_Pickled_Egg_-_Part_12.
There will be a quarter peal or more each month to allow us to consolidate what we've learnt.
Everyone will need to do their homework before each practice!
The dates of the practices are the 2nd and 4th Tuesday of every month. The practices for February are
Tuesday, 11th February @ 7.30 - Dunham
Tuesday, 25th February @ 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:
To help you understand the installation in your tower
To describe the checks you should carry out to identify any problems
To advise you on the maintenance tasks that you should be able to carry out, possibly with expert advice or assistance
Most importantly, to help you recognize the tasks that require specialist knowledge from a Bell Hanger or other expert
The document can be found at https://belfryupkeep.cccbr.org.uk
CCBR News - 2025 CCCBR AGM & Roadshow
This year we will be hosting another Roadshow as part of the CCCBR AGM weekend in Sheffield. Things are progressing well and more information, including booking arrangements will follow in due course. In the meantime, here’s a flavour of what’s happening when so you can start thinking about accommodation needs.
Save the Date! 5-7 September 2025
The 2025 Central Council AGM weekend takes place in Yorkshire from Friday 5th to Sunday 7th September 2025 and this year includes a roadshow on the Sunday, supported by trades and exhibitors, speakers and ringing opportunities.
The weekend programme is open to all ringers and the full programme will be published in due course. Keep an eye on the CCCBR website and social media for updates.
The CCCBR AGM and roadshow will take place at the Niagara Conference Centre, Niagara Road, Sheffield, S6 1LU, with other events being staged in Sheffield city centre.
Friday 5th Sept
General ringing will be available at towers en route to Sheffield. Routes will follow the main roads into the city.
Evening ringing will be at Sheffield Cathedral with a social event in the church afterwards.
Saturday 6th Sept
Welcome desk and registration.
Ringing World AGM.
CCCBR AGM.
Social event in the Niagara Conference Centre.
Sunday 7th Sept
Service ringing at local churches.
Roadshow, including exhibitors, trades and speakers on a range of subjects, including Ringing 2030 and Workgroup updates.
Booking for all elements of the weekend will be essential and more details will be published as they are confirmed. The booking and registration process will be accessible nearer the time.
Vicki Chapman
Deputy President, Central Council of Church Bell Ringers
CCCBR Business Plan and Budget
The Central Council's business plan and budget report are available by clicking on the relevant link. This information can also be found on the CCCBR's website at https://cccbr.org.uk/about/annual-meetings/current-budget/
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 31 (which is the latest issue). You can also click here for previous issues and other news.
Contact the Secretary
Members of the branch should already have received the above messages directly from Sue (and previously, Clive). If you haven't, click here to email Sue [or send her an email at s.e.wareham@talk21.com] and get on the mailing list.
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
Stay Informed. Are you getting regular emails from Clive? Maybe your tower captain is getting them, but not passing the information on to you. If you're not on Clive's email list, then click here and we'll make sure that you're added. If you no longer want to receive any of those emails, then just click here.
Get Help. Is your band struggling to learn a method? Does your tower need a bit of help with numbers? This is your opportunity to reach out for help. Just click here and tell us what you need and we'll do our best to help.
Help Us. We can only get better if people tell us what they like and/or don't like. It's up to you to tell us if you like what we're doing on this website, at the branch events, or at tower visits. Every opinion is important, so take a few minutes and let us know what you think. Click here and tell us what you think of us.