In July we were invited to play for the Age Concern Bright Memories group in Castle.  We enjoyed playing for them and they must have enjoyed it because they are planning to ask us back for Christmas! 

                             

 At fairly short notice we played at St. Michael's church for the Midsummer Middlewich event.  We did two sessions and were pleased with our performance, apart from one piece in which the conductor got lost - never a good sign!

 MIDSUMMER MIDDLEWICH WEEKEND

We will be playing the handbells in St. Michael's Church on Saturday 20th June as part of the Midsummer Middlewich weekend.   Please come and see us there and "have a go"!!  We will be playing at 11 am and 12 noon.

 As we hadn't had any bookings since August it was good to get out to visit various venues before Christmas.

We took part in St.Michael and All Angels Christmas Fair playing for a couple of sessions whilst visitors spent their money!  

Our next outing was to The Willows Care Home in Mobberley. We last visited there in 2017 and this was our third visit.  The concert was enjoyed by the residents, ending with a spirited and sometimes riotous rendition of the Twelve Days of Christmas!

This was followed by a visit to the Stroke and Aphasia club in Hartford.  This was  also our third visit and the members enjoyed joining in with the carols. Once again the Twelve Days was much enjoyed by the members despite the players getting lost from time to time!

Our final booking for the year was at Willowmere Extra Care Development in Middlewich where we practice every week.  This was a carol service led by the Rev. Liz Woode, an Associate Priest at St. Michaels, who takes services there, and was enjoyed by everyone.  This was the only occasion we had someone spare to take the photographs!

 

 

 We visited the "More to Life" ladies group at Holmes Chapel Methodist Church in July.  It should have been in January but we had to cancel due to a lack of bell ringers able to attend.  They were a very appreciative audience and we enjoyed entertaining them.  We welcomed the grand-daughter of one of our members who lives in France and who brought with her two French friends and they all enjoyed "having a go" as you can see from the photograph.

 We ended 2024 with a visit once again to the Hartford Stroke and Aphasia Club.  They must have enjoyed it because we are already booked to go there next December!

We also played at the annual carol service at Willowmere led by Rev. Liz Woode from St. Michael and all Angels Church in Middlewich.

One of our long standing members, Pam Jackson, retired after this event and was presented with an engraved bell!

We had planned to play at Astbury Mere Care Home.  Unfortunately they had a case of flu and the home was locked down!  We hope to re-arrange this visit later this year.

 

We started 2024 on the 11th January with a visit to Cuddington and Sandiway WI and as you can see some of the members enjoyed "having a go"!

 

This was followed by a visit to Knutsford WI on 15th April 

 

We were very saddened in May by the death of Glenys Richardson, one of our members who did most of the conducting.

The third concert was to Goostrey WI on the 23rd July.

We are now getting ready for visits to care homes for Christmas so when we return from our August break in September, we will be looking at Christmas material.

 

We had three outings to groups prior to Christmas as well as playing at a service taken by the Rev. Liz Woode from St. Michael and All Angels Church in Middlewich for the residents of Willowmere Housing Group where we practice every week.  

Sandbach Dementia Friendly Christmas Party

Hartford Stroke and Aphasia Group

Weston Park Care Home, Macclesfield

Thursday, 15th June, 2023

 A recent outing this year was to the Sandbach Dementia Friendly Group who made us very welcome.  We had no trouble in persuading them to "have a go".  and we received the following thank you from the Chairman.

          

As you can see , we had no trouble in persuading them 

"to have a go"  

                                                       

 We finished 2022 giving concerts to the Tangent Club in Holmes Chapel, another Ladies' Club in Winnington and Middlewich WI.  We also played at a Christmas service at Willowmere.  The programme for these events changed slowly from the usual fare of classics and songs to carols and other music for Christmas.

This picture is from the Tangent Club in Holmes Chapel.

 We were invited to the Winnington Tuesday Club to play for them and the ladies told us they really enjoyed the music. We played quite a wide range of pieces from Morning Has Broken to an arrangement of the William Tell Overture.  Unfortunately, we heard not long after our visit that there was a fire at the club house which has caused a lot of damage.  According to the Fire Service this was a deliberate act of arson.  

 We were glad to get back to being able to accept invitations to play for local organsations.  Our first one was in July when we played for Davenham WI.  The programme included Beautiful Dreamer, Country Gardens, Radetzky March and the Can Can.  We closed the programme with the Ukranian and British National Anthems.  Members of the audience also had a go!

We are now preparing programmes for visits to Holmes Chapel, Middlewich and Winnington. 

 LOCKDOWN UPDATE

Following our get together at Lowes Farm Coffee Shop in July 2020 we arranged a pilot practice session at Byley Village Hall.  Due to the restrictions we had a rota as we were only allowed 6 people indoors.  This worked very well and we used the chimes instead of the bells.  We continued with this on a weekly basis until December but it was then curtailed due to a further lockdown.

Since we were all confined our resident arrangers produced 25 new pieces for the time when we could resume practising.

The next get together was in June 2021, again at the Coffee Shop, and we were able to arrange to re-commence our practices at Willowmere which happened on the 26th July.  

Luckily we were able to continue there and finished the year with a Christmas Celebration at Willowmere.  This was requested by the manager and involved the Rev. Liz Woode from St. Michael and All Angels Church and the bell ringers and was well received.  It involved prayers, readings and Christmas music on the bells, and singing carols with the help of a CD!  We even managed a new arrangement of "O Holy Night".

We are now looking forward to being able to take bookings for 2022

Although restrictions are easing, we still can't meet for practice so some of us met today at Ginger and Pickles tea room at Lowes Farm Shop, Byley.  It was good to catch up and we will repeat it if we can.

We celebrate the new decade with new outfits and photos and a video during a rehearsal.

What did we do last year?

In June we entertained  St. Helens Mothers' Union at their Strawberry Tea to which other Mothers' Union branches had been invited.

In October we visited another Mothers' Union branch in Holmes Chapel with our talk "Making Music with Handbells" and even persuaded some of their members to "have a go" which they did very well.

We had two outings in November, the first being to the Church Hulme Probus Ladies Group in Holmes Chapel and their members too were encouraged to join in!

Also in November we were invited to play at Hartford Wednesday Club who also enjoyed "having a go"

Our year finished with visits to Hartford Ladies Fellowship, the Lion Salt Works, Richmond Village and Sharston House Care Home.