To the PCC Holy Trinity Bosham

13th March 2005

by the Tower Secretary, Mrs Joan King

The year began with a successful quarter peal of Bob Doubles in celebration of George Smith's 90th Birthday. We have two Quarter Peals in mind for this year, one to celebrate Father Tom's 60th Birthday, belated we know but New Year's Day was a difficult date to get the appropriate ringers together, and the other to celebrate the 50th Birthdays of two of our own ringers.

In August a meeting for young ringers was held at Thakeham, Alice, Sarah and Mary attended. Sarah was asked to write a report for our Western Division magazine "Sally Forth". It was obviously a very successful day and her report ended with, I quote, "An amazing tea".

The County Association Practice Meeting on 13th November was held at Bosham. To quote Mike Etherington, our Western Division Ringing Master, "It was a great success". Fifty members signed the meeting book and at one time there were forty two ringers crammed into Bosham's ringing chamber and stairs. It was gratifying to see so many young members present. The evening saw many of these ringers at Chichester Cathedral but with extra space crowding wasn't a problem. Between the two ringing sessions Father Tom took a short service, followed by tea in the United Reformed Church hall. I received a letter of thanks from the Western Division Secretary and again I quote, "Mike was gratified to have such a good attendance at a District practice and its thanks to the Bosham ringers that the tea managed to stretch to accommodate so many people". Those I spoke to commented how pleasing it was to have so many young ringers involved, not only in ringing but in attending the service and helping with the tea. I think that Bosham is the envy of many other towers.

We have 33 ringing members, a record for the Sussex County Association but need now to work towards all trainees being competent and able to ring on a regular basis for services, particularly at 9 am, as is our mission. There have been frequent occasions when it has been difficult to raise a band for a wedding. Illness has deprived us of two stalwarts in recent months. We are now increasingly reliant on newer ringers to make up the band and we welcome them warmly. The age group of our members encompasses ten decades.

At the end of November the ringers were asked to consider the possibility of moving the ringing chamber up a floor to the clock chamber. This proposition was made as a tentative suggestion reviewing the use of space within the church. The bells were inspected by Nicholsons of Bridport, it has been established that such a move was technically feasible and a quote for the work was included. The bellringers have responded to this suggestion and we understand that the PCC will now decide if they wish to take the matter further, in consultation with the Tower Captain. It would be fair to say, however, that the idea was received less than enthusiastically by the bellringers. The report also raised some minor maintenance requirements that will be necessary in any case and it is hoped that the bellringers will be able to assist with any work in order to minimise the cost.

Paul Robinson and I attended the Western Division AGM at Felpham last month where we received the certificates for our four new members this year. We have 12 junior members as well as other young people including a father and daughter who have recently started training. I feel that at this point I must stress the regular hard work that Jane West puts into training new ringers. She has help from others of course but she is the one who is always there

Apologies for rather a long report but quite a lot has happened this year.