As you may have guessed, because there has been no article of News from the Bell Tower recently. I have been away for several weeks, but it’s catch up time now and I find that of course December and January appear together, and I was back in this country too late to catch the last printing day! but as they say, “Better late than never”.

I thought you may be interested to read the newspaper article sent to us all the way from “Down Under”, reproduced below for you, it seems that they also have a shortage of bell ringers, and some members are Tower Captains of more than one church. The bands of ringers go from place to place, or should I say, church to church so that the congregation can hear the bells ringing out. We are very fortunate at the moment at Coltishall, because we have a very dedicated band of ringers, who always do their best to make up the numbers for weddings and Sunday services etc. When I think of the many towns and villages with churches and bell towers, also a good population, and they are all silent, I feel very proud of our own group and the effort they all put in, especially on the Monday night practises, everyone is very keen to learn more, and we are very fortunate to have the help of experienced ringers. I am sure we give them a few headaches along the way, but still they come again to help, many thanks to them. I will spare their blushes by not mentioning any names, but I am sure they know who they are.

So on a final note let us all hope above all things for a peaceful

New Year, and good health, as we wait for the nights to start pulling out, and the bulbs to peep through the ground, when we can look forward to saying “Spring is just around the corner” as it always is, and hopefully always will be.

Audrey Weston (Secretary)