Ely District

Welcome to the website for the Ely District of the  Ely Diocesan Association of Church Bell Ringers.

Bell ringing is a team activity that stimulates the brain and helps keep you fit ... it also makes a glorious sound! 

This website is primarily intended to keep local ringers informed of news and district events. We hope other ringers will find the details of towers, practice nights and the district ringing programme useful.

About Bell Ringing

Dates for the district 

Here are dates for the District, the Association and the Stretham REC shown in a Google Calendar. A larger calendar, showing these dates and dates for all the Districts and for the Young Ringers, with space for more entries at a time, and with options to view a whole week or month, is available on the Ely DA website here. 

Ely DA Membership Renewals for 2024

Please continue to support your local District and Association by renewing your membership for 2024. Subscription rates have not increased for a long time and remain at £10 for Adult Ringing Members and £5 for Juniors (<21). There is no longer a 'free' category for older members although those who already claimed this membership status are allowed to keep it!

Louise Dobson has taken on the role of Membership Secretary from Janet (thank you Louise!) and is contactable via elymembership@elyda.org.uk.  You can pay by:

If you are not a member and would like to become one so that you can support ringing, including youth ringing, locally then please download a membership form here, get a current member to propose and second you, and send the form plus your subscription off to Louise. Elections are held at District Business Meetings, and the next of these is at Wilburton on 9th Mar 2024, 3-5pm ringing followed by meeting in the church.

Ely District AGM - Histon, 6 Jan 2024

A good crowd attended our Annual District meeting, and thanks to the Histon Ringers for looking after us.


We had the pleasure of some of the Association Officers in attendance - Bob Cox and Ann Seaman representing the management; Shirley Warbrick reminding us about safeguarding, Jon Warbrick telling us about a plan to put the Association membership management online, and Tom Ridgman talking about putting the Association Subs up (from £10 to £15 for adults) and why. 


Other District Officers gave their reports. Kit mentioned Bells Advisory visits to Over, Sutton and Littleport. Questions were asked about the state of Doddington bells. Roy talked about the state of the bank balances, at the end of which he proposed that the District give £1000 to the Stretham Tower Enhancement Project (STEP) which was seconded and carried. Two new junior members were elected.

 

Phil thanked all those stepping down from their District roles - Janet Garnett, Helen Mould, Roy Mould, Dee Smith and Matthew Webb - and all those willing to continue. The various officers and committee members were successfully elected leaving all but the Education Officer role filled, so if you think you could have a bash at this, do get in touch!  The full list of appointments is here. Thankyou to all our willing volunteers, especially those new volunteers willing to give it a go!

 

Lesley Boyle (me) and Conrad Braam have taken over looking after the Ely District website from Janet. And the District is looking into getting a card reader so as to do cashless payments at meetings - talk to John Mitchell if you have any information or experiences to share. The refreshment charges at meetings are to rise to £3 for a tea with sandwiches and £1.50 for tea/coffee/biscuits.


Ely DA AGM 2024 on Saturday 4th May at Swavesey

Details in the calendar entry.  More to follow. Discussion topics will include membership subscription rates.

Ely DA Annual Report

The Ely DA Annual Report for 2022 is available as a pdf file to Ringing Members, Junior Members and Honorary Members of the Ely DA. Please request a file from the District Secretary (elysec_at_elyda.org.uk) or the Report Editor (elyweb_at_elyda.org.uk). Paper copies will be available. We will print one copy for each active tower and copies for individual members by prior request. 

Recent archive - little did we know how things would pan out...

"Ely District ringing and Ely DA AGM update (17/03/2020)

In the light of yesterday's announcement by the Government - to avoid all non-essential travel and social contact - and the latest update from the CCCBR (see https://cccbr.org.uk/2020/03/16/coronavirus-covid-19-update/ ), the Ely District committee has decided to suspend all District ringing until further notice. This includes the District outing scheduled for 4th April, and the District striking competition scheduled for 2nd May. Philip Bailey is hoping to rearrange the outing to the same towers next year, and also suggests that we could look at holding the striking competition later in the year.  

All sessions at the Stretham REC are also cancelled until further notice.

In addition, the General Committee of the Ely DA has agreed to postpone the 2020 AGM from the date of 30 May 2020 to a date later in the year when the peak of the Covid-19 epidemic has passed and more members will be able to attend. The intention is to transfer the AGM and striking competition to Saturday 3rd October, which is the date which was proposed for the Autumn Event, and to hold the AGM and Striking Competition in the Wisbech District at Downham Market as originally arranged, but these details are not fixed yet.

CCCBR advice on Coronavirus covid-19, 16/03/2020

See https://cccbr.org.uk/2020/03/16/coronavirus-covid-19-update/

Executive summary: new updates on the Coronavirus have been issued by the UK government today, which include avoiding any “non-essential” travel and contact with others and avoiding pubs, clubs theatres and social gatherings.  If you haven’t already decided to cancel ringing activities, it seems that now is the time to do so."

Advertise your tower open day with the Ely DA banner

This 2.5 metre PVC banner is available for any tower that needs to advertise an open day or similar ringing-related event. The only proviso is that you hold it on a Saturday and have at least some of the attractions listed under the title, temporarily blanking out what is not on offer.

The banner is available to borrow, with the mobile demonstration bell and display stands. For more information, and to make a booking, see the Mobile Bell page on the Ely DA website.