Village life is a bit like Midsommer Murders, but without the murders. – As far as we know.  The Prestbury ecclesiastical parish administers the affairs of the churches, the 730 year old St Mary’s and the other one. The members of this Parish do things like flowers for the churches, maintaining the church, ringing the bells and holding fairs in the grounds of the Priory. The bell ringing that goes on and on for hours without melody, apparently does have a structure and a mathematical pattern. The bell ringing is taken very seriously. In order to perform their duty properly, the bell ringers practice weekly, so that when ceremony demands, the bells can be rung to the standard of the society who rung their maiden peal of true Grandsire doubles comprising 5040 changes on January 30th 1884 ……in two hours and fifty seven minutes

Now it is difficult for a temporary resident of the Priory to keep a low profile. So it wasn’t long before we were invited over to the tower to watch Tuesday night practice. Sarah, the current Tower Captain, explained that it takes a long time to learn the necessary skills to be part of the team. For a start one has to learn how to get the bell “up”. Then there is the fact that there is a vague interval of time between a pulling action and when the bell actually rings. Now, from my uneducated observer’s standpoint it seems that the prelude to the game is for the team of, in our case, eight ringers to dong in turn so that they play a descending scale with even time intervals. The actual game involves keeping the same strict time interval going, but having the ringers change turns so that a weird sort of progression happens with little danger of developing into a melody. The progression goes on and on until they get back to the starting point when everyone, including the surrounding villagers heaves a sigh of relief. Names of different progressions include Triple Bob, Bob major and little Bob major. On that basis alone this should become my new passion. At tonight’s practice about fifteen people attended, two lads age about fourteen years then an even age increase all the way up to young people like me. Thinking to escape into the darkness after a couple of hours, I found myself accepting the offer of tuition for beginners half an hour before next weeks practice. We were planning to be in Winchester next Tuesday, Tuesday after that the Isle of Man. Have to wonder just how serious I am about this new vocation.

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The other Prestbury Parish is the local government division of the County of Gloucester. This parish council deals with the non-ecclesiastical concerns of the community. Things like drains, monuments, public toilets and the village clock. That elegant piece of engineering, similar to the workings of Big Ben, was installed in the church tower in the early 19^th cent. For the technically oriented – a double three legged gravity escapement.  The church itself takes no responsibility whatsoever for the clock. Old Jim had been the clock winder for years without number until he died fifteen or so years ago. The lads in The Plough found that no one knew who employed Old Jim, just as no one knew who would now wind the clock every couple of days. Then and there they formed a liaison of clock winders. A crank of clock winders? Ever since, the team of a dozen winders have taken turns month about to wind the clock every couple of days. Did I mention the difficulty of maintaining low profile? Ian who is nominally on winding duty this month was called away on family business leaving guess who in charge of the clock for a week. WooHoo!! Magnificent machine. Separate mechanisms and hence winders for quarter hour chimes, the hourly dongings, and the clock mechanism itself. Elegant and all as it is, it does loose a couple of minutes a week. Making it necessary for the winder to give the works a bit of a nudge from time to time. Wondering if anyone ever takes any notice of the time on the church clock. What would happen if a wayward winder would wistfully & willfully whisk whole hours away? What consequence?

In case you were wondering, some of the bells are multitasking, so that during change ringing practice, the clock bell hammers have to be disengaged to avoid both damage to the clock and confusion in the village as to the sacred or secular nature of the noise. Our bedroom, being directly opposite and slightly below the tower, allows us to be completely informed throughout the night.

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