Stairway To Hereford

Saturday was the long-awaited Southern Branch Outing to Herefordshire. Unfortunately, the weather forecast was damp & drizzly, but hey we were going to be indoors ringing.
G1 (aged 11) also took up bellringing over the summer and has been making great progress. We suggested that she might like to go on her first outing, and to our surprise, she seemed quite keen on the idea. In preparation, we had taken her to ring at a different tower last Tuesday and she coped fine.

The first tower was Lugwardine at 9:15am, which meant leaving home around 8am. To our amazement, we arrived on time.

The ringing chamber had a most unusual door, in the form of a blackboard which slid upwards to allow access. It looked like it had been acquired from a local school during the smartboard revolution. We waited to see if anyone would get guillotined whilst attempting to gain entry, but they didn't.

After a couple of lots of ringing, I was warm enough to take my cardi off.
I then moved my arm downwards and my arm brushed against something.
"That's odd!" I thought.
Looking down I noticed a label sticking out slightly, as labels often do.
Just one problem. The label should be the inside of the t-shirt. This means my t-shirt is inside out!
ARGHHHHHH!
I look around, no-one is looking at me strangely.
Mind you, the t-shirt does look similar whether it is inside out or the right way out.
To be on the safe side I quickly put my cardi back on before anyone noticed.

The ringing continues. A band takes hold for the final piece of ringing at this tower. I persuade DH that G1 and the KHT will be fine upstairs with him, and quickly go downstairs on the pretext of taking photos of the church, but primarily to see if there is a loo where I can put my t-shirt on the right way.

I go the spiral staircase to the entrance. A door with stained glass windows leads into the main part of the church. Luckily it is unlocked as they are holding Open Church. A couple of ringers are milling around. After a couple of minutes, they leave.
I walk down the aisle. It is a simple open plan church.
Unfortunately, there does not appear to be a toilet.
However, there is a prayer space in a side chapel behind the organ.
Beneath the watchful gaze of Jesus, I remove my cardi, so I can quickly take off my top and put it back on the right way round before anyone else appears.
To my relief, Operation Reverse T-shirt is successfully completed.
Then a scary thought crossed my mind.
"What if they had a CCTV camera?!!!"
Well if they do, they will get a recording with a quick flurry of arm movement and shot of my beige M & S bra...
One thing is certain, they will never know how much of an answer to prayer that space was!

We move on to Hereford, and grab a quick coffee in All Saints, before ringing the bells there.
In the main church craft items are on sale, so the KHT opts to stay downstairs and browse.
Meanwhile, G1(aged 11) is having a great attempt at ringing these Herefordshire bells.









Next, we plodded back through the rain-sodden streets, to St Nicholas', which is right next to the car park we left our cars earlier...












St Nick's is a cosy tower, with an interesting internal window overlooking the church.
It also had sweets on display in the tower...
Some of our younger ringers were rather disappointed that we didn't let them sample any...

Lunch was next. A group of about 14 of us found refuge in a cafe close to the cathedral.
Afterwards, some members of the party went to visit a new gin establishment close by. Meanwhile, we made our way to the cathedral on the pretext of exploring the building. In reality, we gathered in a cluster close to the bottom of the stairs and chatted.

At the allotted time, we commenced our long climb up to the ringing chamber. On the way, signs informed us of how many stairs we had to climb - just 160 + 50 more to go...and so on.




Hereford Cathedral ringing chamber is a strange place, full of wood beams and large metal supports.
As you look across the ringing chamber, you feel certain that one of those ringing must be hidden from view behind a post. In reality, those ringing can see all the other ringers.
The bells are heavier than we are used to, so the ringing style has to be adapted to allow for the weight and the slower turning of the larger wheels.















G1 (aged 11) had a good attempt at ringing here. There can't be many people who master rounds on six one week, visit their first new tower four days later, and ring at six more churches including a cathedral four days after that! Go G1!





















This shot was taken part way down looking down over the choir stalls, and gives an idea of how high up the tower we had to climb to ring the bells.

Windows on the spiral staircase gave us splendid views over the city centre.

Next, we headed out of the city to the village of Yarkhill - a large rural parish. I couldn't find a postcode for the church, so directions were given over a mobile phone. Bemused Alpacas watched on as we arrived. Here a light ring of eight have replaced an unringable ring of four.







We ended the day at Ledbury. After ringing we thought about going to find a pub but decided to call it a day and go home instead. Lightweights are we!