May 2006
Although we have had a very busy month there is not much to report because all of our work has gone into the preparations for the party launching the Bell Fund on Saturday April 29th. I'm writing this a week before the big day but you won't be reading it until the day after. Anything I say now will be tempting fate. There will be a full report in next month's Grapevine and I'll get the details and photographs on the web site (www.alvechurchbells.org.uk) just as soon as I can.
We have just taken advantage of a new BBC web site and registered our campaign at http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/actionnetwork/. If you go there and type 'alvechurch' into the search you'll get to a page with details of our bell fund. It won't tell you anything that's not on our main site but the BBC page does give you the chance to post comments and suggestions. As yet, it only seems to be ourselves and the Hopwood incinerator campaign who are making use of the site but it does look as though it might grow into a useful resource.
Apart from the party, Easter was our biggest job during the month. As is traditional, we kept the bells silent for Holy Week and then rang for the first service on Easter morning. We followed that by ringing for the two normal service on the Sunday and then opened the tower on Monday for visitors from the Worcestershire and Districts Change Ringing Association. About thirty ringers came through the tower that morning and gave us some of the best ringing we have heard for a long time. They also filled our collecting box with donations for the Fund so it was a successful morning all round.