The 2017 Annual General Meeting of the Guild was held on Saturday 25th November in the City of London.
It was a bright but cold day. The meeting had been organised by Geraldine Forster so that it was possible to walk between the towers and dinner venue and this was widely welcomed.
The day began with a quarter peal at St James Garlickhythe.
The remaining members gathered in the early afternoon. We had three interesting and fulfilling towers which the Guild had not visited recently as they are not often available. We began at St Bartholomew the Great, one of the oldest churches in London built in 1123 and the bells date from 1510. Rahere who founded St Bartholomew’s hospital is buried here. A tour of the historic building with the stunning contrasting statue by Damien Hurst was followed by bands ascending in order to ring on the anticlockwise 5. We were fortunate to be able to ring here but were restricted to a 30 minute time frame.
Next was the lovely ring of 8 at St Lawrence Jewry, said by many to be one of the best rings in the City. The bells here were recast by Whitechapel in 1957.
The last tower of the day was St Andrew, Holborn where there is a casing of an organ designed by Handle and an ornate interior. The bells here were recast by Whitechapel in 1961 using the metal from the original bells which were left cracked and hanging in the tower after the destruction of the 1941 bombing and fire.
Following some god quality and enjoyable ringing it was then a short walk to The Olde Watling, the venue for our AGM and dinner.