Towards the end of last summer, The Inn Ringers put out an appeal to find a new home.
Having started back in 1977 the team originally practised in a room above the Red Lion in Stone. Later they moved to a classroom in St Dominic’s school and for the last 12 years they have used St Luke’s Church Hall in Tittensor as their base. After reviewing their long-term prospects, it was clear that for a whole host of reasons the team needed to find an alternative location for their permanent base.
Following their appeals the team received several offers from various locations but it was Tittensor Village Hall who were able to meet all the team’s requirements.
MD for the team, Paul Mellor says ‘we were very grateful to receive a call from Kate Kenyon, the chair of the village hall, offering us the facilities we needed. The only issue was that hall was not available for our traditional Monday evening practises. The hall was available on Tuesdays and thankfully every member of the team was able to do the Tuesday evenings’.
‘I know that several of the team have had to make changes to their weekly routines to accommodate the change to our practise nights, for that l am really grateful’.
‘We officially moved into our new home on 6th January – every member of the team is really pleased with the facilities the hall has to offer and appreciate the support we have received from the village hall committee in facilitating our move’.
‘We have already welcomed two new recruits to the team and they are doing really well’.
The team are now focusing on their next event which is their annual charity concert. This year the concert will be in aid of Oak Tree Farm Rural Project.
Rowena Dawson the secretary for the team says ‘the move to our new home has done really well – everyone is enjoying our new rehearsal space. We are delighted to be doing our charity concert for Oak Tree Farm, a local good cause which we are all familiar with and the work they do within their local community. Many of us visit their site to take advantage of their shop and Tea Room, they do terrific work supporting those with learning difficulties.
Next year the team will be celebrating their 50th anniversary. Paul went on to say ’keeping a handbell team going for 50 years is a great achievement. Over the years we have seen so many handbell teams come and go, it is a cause for celebration. There will be a special concert to mark our five decades together as a handbell team and I am sure we will come up with a few more ideas to mark this event. In the meantime, the team are putting together the programme for their charity concert to held at Meir Heath and Rough Close Village Hall on Saturday 9th May at 2.30pm.
