Oxford Diocesan Guild of Church Bell Ringers
East Berks & South Bucks Branch
Minutes of the Annual General Meeting held at Burnham
on Saturday 25 April 2015
The Chairman, John Davidge, opened the meeting at 5.15pm. The meeting was attended by 23
members representing 12 towers, and 3 visitors. The Chairman welcomed Hilarie Rogers and James
Champion, Guild Master and Secretary.
1. Apologies for Absence
Apologies were received from Sheila Bruce, Ken Darvill, Marcia Dieppe, Graham Firman, Jacqueline
and Martha Hazell, Josie Martin, Barbara Oldham and Maryanne Roach.
2. Minutes of the HYM held at Clewer on 11 October 2014
These had been circulated prior to the meeting. They were accepted as a true record and signed by the
Chairman.
3. Matters Arising
There were no matters arising.
4. Obituaries
The Chairman announced the death in the last year of Neil Belson, Peter Badcock, Geoffrey Cooper
and Stan Darmon. Condensed versions of their obituaries follow.
Neil Belson. Cliff Blundell spoke to the memory of Neil, who had been steeplekeeper at Burnham for
50 years. He learnt to ring at Nettlebed, where he was an estate worker and developed many practical
skills. He enlisted in the army during the second World War and first came to Burnham for
convalescence after a motor cycle accident. After returning to Nettlebed at the end of the war he used
to visit Burnham quite frequently with other young ringers and married Freda, a Burnham ringer. He
moved back to Burnham and served as steeplekeeper there as well as looking after the clock and
making and fitting Hastings stays. He also worked on the bells at Hitcham and Farnham Royal. He was
a reliable tenor ringer when covering to Triples and his practical skills in tower maintenance will be
much missed.
Peter Badcock. Fred Reynolds spoke to Peter’s memory. Peter moved from Chalfont St Peter to
Chesham about 40 years ago. He was a loyal Sunday service ringer and although not a great peal
ringer he took part in an all-Chesham ringers peal 25 years ago. His later ringing activities were
curtailed by tinnitus, although he was able to continue singing with the church choir. Appropriately, an
all-Chesham band rang a quarter peal on the day of his funeral.
Geoffrey Cooper. Celia Thomas and the Secretary spoke to the memory of Geoffrey. He was a very
conscientious tower captain at Fulmer, dispensing helpful advice to novices. Unfortunately his essential
work in maintaining the bells and clock will be difficult to continue in the face of dwindling numbers
of ringers at the tower. He had a very distinguished career in the RAF as a fighter pilot serving in the
Middle East and Malaya, and also was an excellent aerobatic pilot. In the 1970’s he served in the
Ministry of Defence, rising to the rank of Air Commodore.
Stan Darmon. Jan Galloway and Robert Newton spoke to the memory of Stan, who had been a
ringer at Amersham before moving to Cheshire several years ago. He was a past Master and former
Central Council member for the Cambridge University Guild. He rang about 100 peals in all on both
tower and hand bells, and represented the EBSB in the W W Worthington trophy competition in 1979
and 1981. He was ringing master at Amersham and chairman of the Bells Restoration Committee
which managed the augmentation of the bells from six to eight. He was also Branch Chairman for 5 – 6
years.
A period of silence was observed in memory of these former members.
5. Annual accounts
The Branch accounts had been previously circulated by the Treasurer, John Dieppe. The finances were
in a healthy state, with an excess of income over expenditure of over £960. £2000 has been transferred
to the Central Board of Finance. Acceptance of the accounts was proposed by the Treasurer and
seconded by Jan Galloway, and carried nem con.
6. Officers’ reports
Ringing Master. Katharine Firman referred to her report, copies of which were circulated. There had
been good support for practices and training events, and the idea of holding Branch rather than
advanced practices at 12-bell towers, and of having a special method at an 8-bell surprise practice,
were particularly successful. The social side of ringing had also been encouraged. High Wycombe
ringers were successful last year in both the Guild 6-bell and 8-bell striking competitions, and a Branch
band were placed third in the Guild 10-bell competition. John Dieppe proposed a vote of thanks to
Katharine, who was relinquishing the post of Ringing Master.
Secretary. Peter Mackie reported that the Branch had 292 ringing members, 3 life and 8 honorary
members at the end of 2014. These figures were slightly lower than in 2013 but there were several
candidates for election to membership. Our Branch has the greatest number of members of all the
Branches in the Guild, despite having only the third highest number of towers. He requested that
articles and other material for Odd Bob or the Branch Newsletter should be sent to him. He also
mentioned that the closing date for the first round of the 2015 Lorna Newton competition was
imminent.
Training. Further to the Ringing Master’s report, the Chairman mentioned that the novices’ practices
were popular; some would be designated ‘training practices’ to reflect a slightly higher level of
expertise. The bell handling and listening skills workshop had been well attended and likely to be
repeated next year, and another raising and lowering in peal special practice was scheduled for later in
2015. A ‘teaching to teach’ course is available but might be subsumed into an ITTS framework.
7. Election of members
The following were nominated for membership of the Branch.
Amersham
Thomas Haslam
Alex Poole
Sarah Roberts
Clewer
Lesley Cross
Hambleden
Pippa Savory
High Wycombe
Tom Davies*
Hughenden
Yvonne Cook
Clifford Davies*
Lane End
Gwen Taylor
Marlow
Tina Ruff*
Old Windsor
Conner Wignall
Stoke Poges
Jane Thornley
Winkfield
Sarah Buchannan
Lynn Funnell
Paul Nott*
Wooburn
Frank Awuah
Ruth Snodgrass*
*Re-election
The election of these members was proposed by John Dieppe, seconded by Jan Galloway and carried
nem con. Thomas Haslam and Jane Thornley were present at the meeting and received their
certificates of Guild membership from the Chairman.
8. Election of officers for 2014/15
The following officers were elected or re-elected:
Chairman
Ringing Master
Deputy Ringing Master
Secretary
Treasurer
Newsletter Editor
Webmaster
Independent Examiner
Branch Representatives
on Guild General Cttee
John Davidge
Ken Darvill
Jan Galloway
Peter Mackie
John Dieppe
Patricia Newton
Graham Firman
Stan Barlow
John Davidge
Josie Martin
Jan Galloway
Proposed by
John Dieppe
Peter Mackie
John Davidge
John Dieppe
Robert Newton
Peter Mackie
Jan Galloway
John Dieppe
Patricia Newton
John Davidge
John Davidge
Seconded by
Peter Mackie
Jan Galloway
John Dieppe
John Davidge
Jan Galloway
John Dieppe
Peter Mackie
David Cornwall
Robert Newton
Peter Mackie
David Cornwall
The Chairman thanked Mandy Salter, who was standing down as Newsletter Editor, for all her work.
9. Guild activities
Hilarie Rogers, Guild Master, encouraged Branch participation at the Guild General Committee
meetings. She also mentioned the forthcoming Guild AGM, details of which were on the Guild website.
10. Report of Fundraising Committee
Derek Fowles circulated his report. The Committee had donated £1500 to the Bell Fund from profits
from the Fund Raising Stall and £500 from the 100 Club. Successful stalls had been run at the Ringing
Road Show, Guild and Branch events, and various non-ringing-related venues during the year.
Volunteers for the Committee would be welcome.
11. Any other business
Cliff Blundell drew attention to a forthcoming event, including the Charmborough mini ring, in
Burnham Park on 11 July (1 pm – 5 pm) to mark the 50th anniversary of the Burnham handbells and
the 65th anniversary of the tower bells. Visitors with previous experience in handling mini rings would
be particularly welcome, but all ringers were encouraged to attend. Information about ringing
activities at other towers could also be displayed at this event.
The Secretary asked that details about ringing for special events (e.g. anniversaries of VE day, signing
of Magna Carta) be sent to him for inclusion in Odd Bob and the Branch Newsletter.
Robert Newton referred to the unsatisfactory situation in 2014 when there was only one entry for the
Branch 6-bell striking competition. This resulted in the sole entrant (High Wycombe) going forward to
the Guild 6-bell competition. The fact that there was no Branch contest led to difficulties in applying
the rule which states that the winning band is ineligible for the Lorna Newton competition the
following year. Robert suggested that no band should be excluded from the Lorna Newton competition
if the Branch 6-bell competition does not take place. After discussion it was agreed that the names of
the six ringers who would have rung in the Branch 6-bell competition should be sent to the Secretary
and would not be eligible to take part in the next year’s Lorna Newton competition, but other ringers
from that tower would not be excluded. Towers would be reminded that they can enter more than one
team to the Lorna Newton competition if they wish.
It was agreed that the Committee should consider changing the date of the Branch 6-bell competition
in future years, in the hope that more teams would enter.
In response to a request from a member, the link to the Guild website containing details of the tower
list for the Open Day would be recirculated via the email group.
The Chairman closed the meeting at 6.20 pm.
Peter H Mackie
Hon Sec, EBSB
April 2015