At the end of 2004, Peter Robson took over as Master of the Chester Diocesan Guild. One of his tasks is to organise Sunday Evensong ringing at Chester Cathedral when there are 5 Sundays in the month. Two bright ideas dawned on Peter – the first being to open this Sunday service ringing to all the young people in the Chester Guild and the second to get the person who was sitting next to him at the meeting to organise it!
So on Sunday 30th January 2005, having invited all the young ringers from across the guild along, we arrived at the Cathedral for ringing. A fantastic number of young people turned out – 28 in all representing towers from all 5 of the branches – which was great to see! Plus many slightly older supporters including parents and tower captains who had come along to support – also great to see and much appreciated!
A variety of things were rung – rounds and called changes on 8 and 10 very often by people for whom this was their first outing to another tower and certainly their first ring on higher numbers! All these people are to be congratulated on their efforts – especially given the challenging nature of ringing at Chester Cathedral. There were also some good call changes on 12 where the entire band was under 28 and most under 20, which was an excellent achievement. A service touch of Stedman Caters was also rung with a little help from our supporters!
All in all, a great effort by everyone and an excellent way for all the young people to meet others from around the Guild! Well done to everyone who came along and special thanks to all the supporters who braved the Chester traffic, ferried people from far and wide and were on hand to help out.
I hope everyone is looking forward to going back next year!
Claire Thomson
Chester Guild Young Ringers at Chester Cathedral in 2005