It is always rewarding to ring the bells at St John's for a wedding, and we were called upon once again to ring for Ian James Deane and Hannah Jane Clarke whose great day was 12th January, and we all wish them well in their new life together.

A short ringing tour has been arranged to celebrate the Ruby Wedding of a Mr Geoff and Shirley Drew from Hingham on Saturday, 16th March, and they have asked permission to ring at St John The Baptist. It transpires that Mr Drew once taught a band of ringers at Coltishall, consisting of mainly young ladies during the late 1950s when he lived at Cromer, so we hope it will be a pleasant visit and remind him of old times spent in Coltishall.

As we were asked on numerous occasions if we would hold another open day at the Church, we are pleased to say that we have got our heads together and come up with the date of Saturday, 3rd August from 2 pm to 5 pm to view bell restoration work and see the countryside from the top of the tower etc., it would be great if the gentleman who kindly brought along a

wonderful selection of old photographs of the surrounding areas, would do the same again, and of course anyone else who has photographs of the village which they think would be of interest, we would love to see them an revive old memories whilst enjoying our tea and cakes!

On quite a different note, we received a very interesting e-mail from a Mr Peter Walters of Welwyn, Hertfordshire, regarding the hibernation of butterflies in churches throughout the country, and he is trying to gather information, so we duly wrote to him informing him that yes, we do have butterflies in the church, on the stairs, in the bell chamber and so on right up into the clock tower. Not all alive! and sometimes only the wings, but nevertheless they are usually there in the winter months.

We are to have a Quarterly Northern Branch Meeting on Saturday 9th March followed by a service for all the ringers who attend, and a meeting in the Church hall where we will provide the usual tea etc., as before.

Many thanks to the parishioners who have mentioned how much they enjoy hearing us ring on Sunday mornings, it may not always be possible with people on holiday etc., but we will certainly do our best.

Audrey Weston
Secretary