Feckenham, St John the Baptist

You can find Feckenham Parish Church up a short lane off the north side of the village square. It is a quite a large church with a rather squat looking tower. Access to the ringing room is up a short flight of steps. It is a big room with a glass wall overlooking the main body of the Church.

I visited for the first time on Tuesday 15^th May 2007. There were only six of us but they really put me to work and stretched my meagre talents! I should have got an inkling that they were a talented bunch when I noticed that there was a method on the wall called "Feckenham Surprise Major". After ringing up we started with a few gentle call changes, in this tower they call changes towards the back. During the evening we rang call changes and Plain Hunt on 5 several times on the back 6 bells.

The "interesting" ringing only used the back 5. I rang Plain Hunt Minimus on a couple of bells, I rang Plain Bob Doubles on bell #3, something I am used to doing on 6 bells with the Tenor covering at the back. With only 5 bells leading is a little trickier and it all goes a bit faster. I then rang Plain Bob Doubles on bell #2 which I found difficult since I had no chance to look at what needed to be done, I had to rely on what I knew in theory but have not much experience of doing in practice. I failed to get this right most times but did get it on a couple of tries. This was really good practice for me since I do want to learn to do Plain Bob Doubles on any bell so that I can progress on to a full course with bobs.

If all that wasn't enough they got me to provide cover on the Tenor for some methods I had never done before. We did Stedman Minimus and Norwich Surprise Minimus. Luckily for me they were very good and I managed to stay at the back without a great deal of difficulty. I had a really enjoyable night!

The tower has a peal of 6 bells. When I visited again on Tuesday 22^nd April 2008 I found a lot more information about the bells. Church Bells in Worcestershire has some more information on the history of the bells.

Bell	Note	Diameter	Weight ?	Inscription
1	G	27"	4-1-24
2	F♯	27½"	4-2-20
3	E	28¼"	4-3-22
4	D	29"	5-0-7
5	C	31½"	5-3-15
6	B	31½"	6-2-5
7	A	36"	8-0-17
Tenor	G	41"	11-3-26

There is some additional information provided by Worcestershire & Districts Change Ringing Association.