RUTLAND ROYAL
For many years now that august body, the Welsh Colleges' Society of Change Ringers, has held four regular official activities per year, namely the Easter Tour, Summer Tour, Autumn Tour and (just to be different name wise) the Dinner and AGM Tour (how original!)- The vast majority of these gatherings have been reported (some at length!) in the pages of this journal, and rightly so, for such a Society which really has no one home base relies strongly on such means for publicity and recruitment and for this we are sincerely grateful. By attending fifty consecutive WC tours (and many more unofficial ones inbetween) it does not take much mathematical knowledge to work out that this amounts to nearly thirteen unbroken years with the Society. This particular author has just passed this milestone and could probably rightly be pointed in the direction of the nearest asylum - after all, twelve plus years of sleeping on church/village hall floors of varying standards with thirty to forty 'friends', queuing for limited washing facilities and coping with some mega snorers does prompt many dubious comments. However, if number fifty aws anything to go by, the Society will have me around for some time yet! Fifty consecutive tours had qualified me for a card signed by my mates, but the long standing medal turried out to be the honour of writing the report of 'number 50'for 'the comic' - hence, here we are, the 1995 Summer cycling tour of the Welsh Colleges' Society - Rutland and its surrounding area - and a right royal time was had by all!
It was back in February of this year at the Society's AGM that Peterborough had won the vote for the venue of the '95 Summer tour. 'Not very coastal' came one reply (refering to the WC tradition of being by the sea for the Summer tours). 'But nice and flat' came another response eagerly thinking of cruising the Fens on pushbikes. However, post AGM came the Secretary's problem - Karen could not find enough towers within cycling distance of Peterborough to fill a four day tour. Never mind, initiative was brought into play, an executive decision was made (very handy having the Society-Master being the Secretary's partner and living in the same house!) and a move was made. 'Left a bit, up a bit, fire'. Rutland it was to be, so 26th to 30th July saw an invasion that Cornwall experienced last Summer. One wonders whether the 'Seven Stars Inn' in Stithians, Cornwall has recovered yet from the onslaught of a year ago. This year 'The Old White Hart' in Lyddington won the honour of being the Summer tour pub, and well frequented it was too by us all over those four days in July.
The lack of the sea and its associated pleasures this Summer was entirely recompensed by the beautiful countryside of Rutland. This is indeed one of Middle England's least known treasures, and apart from the area making news recently in trying to revert to becoming England's smallest County by succeeding in unitary authority status, Rutland remains a quiet, relaxed and generally unspoilt place. Just right for the pleasures of a Summer cycling tour, especially with this Summer's hot dry weather, the rolling countryside (very rolling when it came to cycling!) and generally lovely bells.
Lyddington, an extremely pretty village full of Rutland's ironstone houses and cottages, was our tour base. Goodness knows what the holidaymakers in the Old School Home holiday home joined on to the Old School Village Hall thought of the invasion of thirty odd bellringers; and accompanying bikes - so much for a quiet peaceful holiday! The garden tables at 'The Old White Hart' just up the road from the Hall proved to be a good gathering point for WC members from far and wide that Wednesday evening. (Plenty was drunk, particularly in the case of Society Master, Pat, who together with Richard suffered the consequences in the following hours! Shouldn't the Master have been setting an example!)
Thursday dawned all too early - the common tour complaint of cold church halls certainty wasn't to be repeated this time. In fact we slept each night with the main Hall door open to try to cut down on the heat problem. This tour saw a gradual ease into activity - a lie-in, unheard of on a Summer tour (although a lie-in in a sleeping bag on a village hall floor can hardly be described as luxury!). The real reason for this was the cancellation of the first tower - Glaston. 'Subject to comfirmation' on the tour sheet got confirmed as 'not on'! However, bike tyres pumped up and sunglasses on we set ofF later on for the first ringing and still we managed to arrive late. In fact the first cyclist arrived two minutes before the end of the scheduled ringing at Upper Hambleton - good job that the car 'wimps' had arrived on time! Hambleton, surrounded on three sides by the huge expanse of Rutland Water, gave us opportunity for a variety of doubles methods on the pleasant heavy sounding five rang from the back of the Church, before a leisurely ride into the nearby 'County' town of Oakham with its resplendent Church and spire. Unfortunately, we did not do justice to this ring of eight - our striking was far from good, particularly in the 'attempt' of Belfast. Apologies then to any local ringers who happened to hear us that morning. We fared better with Rutland Major (what else!), and indeed as would have been expected, this became the method of the tour!
A long leisurely lunchbreak before afternoon ringing saw most of us enjoying an al fresco lunch by the side of Rutland Water. A WC rounders match was completed by the 'keenies' - some of us 'oldies' needed recuperation and a rest however after a morning of cycling activity not normally experienced by our legs! Anglian Water has successfully developed the tourist potential of Rutland Water and good perimeter cycle paths enabled us to move on to Edith Weston via the isolated lakeside Georgian splendour ofNormanton Church, now a museun, and rescued from oblivion by the locals who did not want to see their Church disappear under the waters.
5-Spliced Minor at Edith Weston turned out to be the only failure there, and once we had coped with the 'interesting' ladder entry to the gallery ringing room everything else happily succeeded. It was but a short hop to nearby North Luffenham and its impressive Church where the bells had been restored and augmented in 1989. This nice going six saw a variety of methods rung, neatly rounded off with a rendition of '60 on Thirds' ably called by Pat.
Ringing over for the day, we cycled slowly back to Lyddington, enjoying the views, the countryside of cornfields and combine activity and pushing bikes up the hills! The return journey incorporated a 'nutters route' for some - others opted for a safer ride via the interesting turf maze at Wing. 33 miles of cycling (these bike computers are all the rage now!) had led to a hearty appetite. The 'ringers tea' back in the Hall soon disappeared before a happy evening was spent up the road at 'The Old White Hart'.
The first ringing of the Friday took place at nearby Uppingham (following a killer of a hill only half a mile after setting off from the Hall) where those Society members who had rung here before commented that the ringing room had moved up a floor to above the vestry. More Rutland Major and Spliced Surprise before an enjoyable cycle to the two nearby villages of Belton-in-Rutland and Hallaton. This was certainly the area of pretty villages and all seemed well in the world with cycling, ringing, appreciating the local countryside and sampling the local ale. We seemed to make such a hit with the lunchtime pub in Tur Langton that the chef there asked us to comment on his latest vegetarian dish offering free taste trials for all who wore willing. Kibworth Beauchamp was the post lunch tower where the other eight of the day saw as being adventurous in the Spliced market. It was a long haul onto Medbourne, back close to Hallaton again. Karen hadn't purposely arranged a ten mile trip to ring at one tower and then back again - the lack of any available eights in the nearby area had meant more miles needed to be covered to avoid a surplus of six bell ringing. We didn't complain too much and neither did the proprietor of Medbourne's village shop who did a roaring trade in ice creams!
The cycle home to Lyddington saw the only major bike casualty of the tour - disaster at Drayton. My front wheel spindle decided that it had had enough and wheel separated from forks. Pat and Kevin sprang into the 'knights of the road' mode and secured enough emergency repair work to enable me to limp slowly back to base. Two days of cycling had sent visions of showers into many minds, so the nearby Stamford Leisure Pool was for some the highlight of Friday evening.
Saturday dawned with the reappearance of that bull of distinction 'Big Boy Barney' who appeared as mysteriously as he had disappeared at the Cardill Students Dinner earlier in the year. No ransom note either! This last full day of cycling appeared at least on paper to be the easiest - only 30 miles today and fewer hills. Caldecott was our first port of call a few miles down the road from Lyddington. The special Minor methods of the tour, Stamford Surprise and Rutland County were the order of the day here. Weldon's light eight in the heart of the village, very nearly swamped by the industrial developments of new town Corby, allowed more Rutland and Spliced Surprise Major to be attempted. Unfortunately (or fortunately for some as the case may be) enough people hadn't learnt Belfast for another attempt - oh well, better luck on the Autumn tour in Swansea. One more tower before lunch - Bulwick, a few miles down the A43 and having to cope with thundering juggernauts. The Church here was handily placed opposite to the village shop and the local pub, the 'Queen's Head'. Too handy as far as the ringing leader was concerned. Most people opted for a drink, a quick grab and a drink again. Nevertheless, the committed coped with this five bell tower and its 'interesting' treble!
Another extended lunchbreak meant an easy journey to King's Cliffe, the first ringing of the afternoon and time for further liquid refreshment at the village's 'Cross Keys'. The cruciform Church with central crossing incorporated a wrought iron spiral staircase to the ringing room. Not St. John's Lane, Dublin standard, but a few careful steps were needed nonetheless. A forest 'nutters route' that tamed out to be quite tame led to the final tower of the day at Harringworth where the village is dwarfed by the spectacular, but now disused Welland Viaduct. The cold flagstones of the Church proved irresistible to hot and sweaty cyclists - much needed relief in the horizontal position!
So back to the Hall and the traditional end of tour meal, this time it being a barbeque. However, limited space outside the Hall meant that the food was cooked inside, finished all on the traditional charcoal and eaten back inside. At least the spirit was there. Naturally, the last evening was spent in usual style, although we missed Tim leading us in the traditional WC communal singing- 'The Old White Hart' certainly didn't miss Tim!
Considering the above it certainly seemed momentous that we were all up, breakfasted, packed and had cleared and tidied the Hall by 9.30am on the Sunday morning. The reason for this was a longish haul (by car now for most of us) to Sunday service ringing at Stainford, All Saints and at Market Deeping. Lyddington's bells just started to ring out as we were leaving the village, so an extra tower was visited by some of us. Later on once we had successfully negotiated the myriad of Peterborough's roundabouts we found a city centre pub that was both open and serving food to while away an hour or two before the final ringing of the tour - joining the locals for Evensong ringing at the Cathedral. This turned out to be an excellent finale with a very pleasmable hour being spent on these lovely bells in the company of the local ringers and the tower captain. Brian Harris, an old friend of the WCs particularly those from the north west.
So, that was it - homeward bound. Time to put the bike back into hibernation for another year. Number 50 hit the dust but this author is already looking forward to number 51. See you in Swansea in October. As Summer tours go this one will certainly rank high in the list of memorable and enjoyable get togethers. Thanks to Pat who 'master'minded us, to Karen who organised it and us with her usual excellent calm efficiency, to Alison, Karen et al who fed us superbly and not least to all the local ringers and Incumbents who welcomed us to their towers. Rutland is indeed a right royal place - the 'Secret' County, and long may it stay that way, unspoilt yet welcoming at the same time.
PJL