The latest fund raising event for the Village Hall extension, on May 23, took the form of a concert for hand-bells, under the direction of Daphne Simpson. It has been encouraging to see how her team of ringers has gained in confidence and ensemble over the years. The programme moved from the comparatively simple, nursery rhyming of Oranges and Lemons (which proved to have fascinating historical undercurrents to it) via the serenely pastoral atmosphere of Gounod’s Angelus to the harmonic complexities of Jeremiah Clarke’s Trumpet Voluntary, thrown of triumphantly.
Interspersed with the music were readings about bells (mostly church bells), both familiar – in poems by Betjeman, Hardy and Houseman and in Dorothy L Sayers’ The Nine Tailors – and less familiar, for instance Idris Davies’s poems about church bells in Wales that reflected the black years of the thirties Depression. The poem ended with voice and bells together, as a gentle pair of bells faded into the final cadence of the poem – a truly magical moment.
The fifty of us present were able to enjoy as well an excellent ploughman’s supper with dessert and a glass of wine. This is a format that sits snugly and sociably in the Hall. Many thanks to the bell-ringers and the five readers, and to all those who so expertly prepared and served the food and drink. A truly convivial occasion which raised the sum of £291.
Peter Gardiner