The 2007 Annual General Meeting of the Guild was held on Saturday 17th November in the North East of London, towers kindly having been organised by Judy Bourne.
There was an unsuccessful quarter peal attempt on the eight of St Mary-atte-Bow in the morning. Members then refreshed themselves and gathered with others at St John at Hackney for the start of the afternoon’s ringing. The special method for the day was Erin triples and caters.
The 14th century tower of St Augustine’s church remains standing at the site of St John’s Hackney and plays a symbolic and ceremonial role in Hackney. There are 10 bells, eight dating from 1957, following a fire in 1955. Two new smaller bells were added in 2004. The church and tower here were well cared for and there appeared to be a very active community life.
Our next tower of the afternoon was the 8 of St Saviour, Walthamstow. Sadly unlike the previous tower there was no resident band. With draughty broken windows and more than a few cobwebs we made our way through Plain Bob, Grandsire, Cambridge, call changes and Erin.
Our final tower of the day was the 10 of St Mary, Walthamstow. This church was founded in the 12th Century and retains over 150 brasses and monuments the oldest from 1436. It is fair to say that the cold had appeared to affect us by this stage and at times our brains seemed a little numb so this did not yield the best ringing of the day.
Some members were unable to join us for dinner but the rest of us adjourned to the nearby Menzie Prince Regent Hotel in Chigwell. We had a screened area of the restaurant but there were in fact only two other residents in the restaurant and they seemed very interested in our affairs, so we were made very welcome. Twenty-six of us sat to an enjoyable meal and this was followed by the business meeting. The meeting closed in the normal manner with hand bell ringing at 9.40.