Call Changes at St Thomas, Oxford

Saturday, 28th December 2019, and the annual Lilliputters Guild Christmas Outing took some 25 members to the beautiful and historic city of Oxford. Some of the group were up at ungodly hours (5am alarms seemed fairly standard!), yet everyone arrived in good spirits – the festive season had not yet taken its toll!

The first tower of the day was the pretty light Taylor ten at St Thomas. Until the 1990s, these were an old ring of six but, spearheaded by the late Stephen Ivin, the third was recast in 1992, the bells augmented to ten in 1993, when the tenor was also recast, and, finally, the other bells replaced in 1996.

With excellent sound control, they are used regularly for peals, and have had a few long lengths rung on them – including the young ringers’ double-peal of Bristol Royal the week before our visit. The front end are very light – the treble is the lightest bell in Oxford – and do need controlling; the bells are also very oddstruck and not easy to ring accurately. Nonetheless, a very pleasant start to the day, where our repertoire also included Stedman and Grandsire Caters and Cambridge Royal, before breaking for a three hour lunch break!

Tenor 11-2-6 in G.