The 2025 Summer Annual General Meeting of the Guild took place in and around Bury, Greater Manchester and South Lancashire. We are very grateful to Ken (George) Lee who organised tours on a route around the more rural area on the Friday and route taking us through some of the industrial past for the Saturday. Our base was the Bolholt Country Park Hotel, Bury and they served us very well. We were also blessed with a warm and sunny weekend.
There was an opportunity for some ringing on the Thursday evening at the 8 of St Mary, Radcliffe and at All Saints, Stand where a quarter peal of 1260 Grandsire Triples was achieved. As we were to ring at Heywood our method of the weekend was Heywood Major which we did successfully complete on a number of occasions. including at Heywood.
The Friday began at 9.00am promptly at the eight of St. Paul, Ramsbottom, a pleasant 1900 Taylor eight, followed by the rarely rung eight of St James Haslingden and the Taylor eight of Immanuel, Oswaldtwistle. We had a leisurely lunch in the sunshine before the afternoon program of the six at St Peter Darwin and the majestic 23cwt eight of All Souls Bolton in a redundant church converted into an interesting modern community centre.
In the evening there was an opportunity to join the practice night of a small local band on the ring of twelve at St. Peter, Bolton. It is fair to say that the twelve certainly stretched us.
Although initially cloudy, the sun soon broke through as we began our Saturday morning at St Luke Heywood a superb 1921 Gillett and Johnson eight. This was followed by the oldest church and our tour, St Leonard, Middleton built in 1412 and with a wooden belfry added in 1667 which accommodates the current eight augmented by Mears in 1891. The last tower of the day was St Chad’s Rochdale with its new light ring of ten installed in 2024.
Before dispersing into town, we had a photograph in the archway to mark the Guild’s 70th Birthday. We then had a leisurely lunch break with much choice of venue, including the Marlett Kitchen in the newly restored and grand Town Hall and a nearby Wetherspoons.
The afternoon program was the Warner eight of St James, Milnrow, followed by the eight of St James, East Crompton, the only ground floor ring of the weekend. For some of us an error in the postcode had meant a detour to another town first.
For most that ended a very enjoyable and varied long weekend of ringing, but some members took the opportunity to join the local band to ring for the Sunday service at the eight of St Mary, Bury.
The Annual General Meeting was held at 6.45 on the Saturday evening at the Bolholt Country Park Hotel and that was followed by a dinner and handbell ringing.