A very successful garden meeting was held in Bournemouth at the residence of the Rev. R. L. C. Newhouse on Saturday last, when upwards of twenty ringers and friends met on the lawns and listened to or indulged in handbell ringing. A very welcome visitor was Mr. John Jagger from Birmingham, who was in Bournemouth for a few days and took the opportunity to meet friends from the Salisbury Guild and the Winchester and Portsmouth Guild.
The company attended evensong at St. Peter's at 5.30 and were addressed by the Rev. F. A. Sanders, who will shortly be instituted to the living at East Meon. The Vicar, Canon Hedley Burrows, had been prevented from attending the service, but managed to get back to St. Peter's in time to see the ringers before they left the church.
After tea, Mr. A. F. Martin Stewart proposed, a vote of thanks to Mr. Arthur Davis for arranging the meeting and expressed the pleasure it gave him to feel a continuity was being maintained against the time when the ringers could once again ring the tower bells.
Mr. George Preston seconded the motion, which was carried, and Mr. Davis, in response, suggested that the gratitude of them all was really due to the Vicar of St. Peter's, who so kindly gave the handbell ringers a room for weekly practice and was always ready to help, and also to the Revs. C. A. Phillips and R. L. C. Newhouse, who had made the organisation of the meeting that day so easy. He promised to convey the thanks of the party to those gentlemen. Handbell practice takes place every week at St. Peter's Hall (Tuesdays from 6.30 to 9.30), and all ringers are welcome.
Ringers were present from Poole, Christchurch, Bournemouth (St. Peter's and St. John's) and Hampreston. Mr. W. Cheater cycled from Ringwood 15 miles away.
The Rev. C. A. Phillips offered to entertain the ringers at his house at the next meeting, to be arranged some time in September.
The Ringing World No. 1584, August 1st, 1941, page 363