The weekend of 16-17 November 2019 saw The Lilliputters Guild descend on Somerset, for a weekend organised by Aaron - KZfaqrs may know him as anonmonen! Owing to a dead camera battery, I was only able to film the Saturday towers, and Wells Cathedral (already uploaded) on the Sunday; Ringer Alex however has captured the Sunday ringing elsewhere on his channel. We were also joined by Helen and Graham from Doncaster, holidaying in the area, and we hope they enjoyed their day out!
The first tower was the 1948 Taylor ten at Evercreech, which were recently overhauled by Higby. With a mixed range of 10-bell experience, the ringing was kept simple, with plenty of call-changes (featured here), Plain Hunt and Grandsire Caters. Yuhan stepped well out of her comfort zone here, doubling the weight of her previous “biggest bell” by ringing the tenor here - and expertly so, too!
The second tower was another Taylor masterpiece; the vintage eight at Ditcheat, cast in 1920. Here, Josephine took masterful control; with many of the group more experienced on eight, the repertoire was expanded considerably, starting with a super touch of Stedman Triples (some of which is included here, courtesy of Jimmy). More call-changes, Grandsire Triples, and half a course of Cambridge (not Yorkshire!) rounded the ringing off here.
Up next was East Pennard - the heaviest conventional ring of five bells, with a tenor of some 25cwt. Whilst the bells handle smoothly, there is no room for any striking errors on such a ring, and the repertoire was put straight back to “Keep it simple, ring it well” - and nothing wrong with that either! Everyone rang call-changes, before some bands rang Stedman and Grandsire. A girl’s band also showed us boys what they were made of! The highlight here though was the “forwards-backwards” - with Euan “Anklebiter” stepping up to the mark on the tenor, and outdoing himself in style - the bell never left balance point. Well done, young man!
A jovial four-hour lunch break in Street added to the day; eating in the ‘Spoons garden (chilly, but manageable) as they were so busy, followed by a little trip round Clark’s village. Rachel especially appreciated 3kg of fried eggs - as you can see from her ecstatic face!
At 16½cwt, Walton were our lightest tower of the day - and probably the most interesting, a rustic old five that grumbled and groaned, that had a good old-fashioned sound to them but which took rather a lot of putting in their place! As is normal, the post-lunch “depression” was kicking in, and some people had left their brains back in the Haribo shop! Nonetheless, a variety of methods were rung here, including some trademark Aaron “Mixed Doubles”.
Our fifth and final tower was Street, a chunky octave rehung in 2007. Yuhan here went one step better than earlier by turning the mighty tenor in to some Plain Bob Major, and neatly done too! As well as the Grandsire featured here, we rang some more Stedman, and finished with a smashing half course of Cambridge, some of which is also included.
Ringing done for the day, all that remained was a mile or so walk into Glastonbury to watch the carnival, with some footage kindly provided by Alex. With some 50-odd groups performing, both on floats and on foot, there was something for everyone - including a rather dodgy cookery song, for the master bakers amongst us. Self raising flour!
And, as a Thank You to Aaron, I have even included a short piece of video promised at the end, the after-carnival party. Suffice to say I covered my eyes whilst including this bit!!....