Dear Friends,
Well the Year 2000 has come and gone, with all its somewhat superficial Millennium hype. Thanks to you our Guild made great efforts with recruitment and training, and I feel that we managed to make some real progress in the advancement of our ancient art, and welcomed many into our fellowship and fraternity. Perhaps inevitably not all our hopes and plans came to fruition, but overall we can look back with some satisfaction on a year with quite a number of solid achievements. The close of the year (marking the actual Millennium) found us in good heart, able to look to the future with renewed confidence.
Several restoration and augmentation schemes have been completed, and yet others are in progress, as is evidenced in the pages that follow. To my mind one welcome development was the work done at Crawley under the auspices of our Belfry Stewardship Committee, which was a very practical outworking of our concern to keep our bells and their fittings in good working order for future years, for the benefit of those who will follow us. A number of others guilds have an enviable track record in undertaking and funding major restorations, and perhaps we can take a leaf from their book and undertake similar schemes ourselves in future years, if we have the will and suitably trained willing volunteers available. Certainly we are fortunate in having a wealth of hands-on experience amongst our members.
Income to our Bell Restoration Fund exceeded £10,000 for the first time in 2000, and we need to sustain and enhance our fundraising to be able to do even more in the future. Our special thanks to those who organised a draw, and all who over the years have put on “Open Days” in each District, and to Roy LeMarechal for his most recent initiative in producing a CD with profits earmarked for our BRF. I can thoroughly recommend “Hampshire Bells”, and the bonus track 18 reminds us that none of us is perfect - mistakes happen!
So thank you to all of you who give your time and effort to further the work and purpose for which our Guild was founded, and continues to exist. Your endeavours for the Guild, the Church and our Ringing Exercise are much appreciated. My thanks too to my fellow officers for all their help and support over the years it has been my privilege to be your Chairman and Master.
Barry J Fry