PEAL RECORDER’S REPORT

There were 108 peals rung for the Guild in 2025, 76 on tower bells and 32 on handbells. This is an increase from the 101 peals rung in 2024. In total 154 Guild members rang in the peals and this includes 8 ringers who rang their first peal.

I would like to thank Andrew Craddock for sharing statistics generated by Pealbase and Tony Smith for the database of compositions rung by the Guild. These databases, along with Bellboard, assist me greatly as peal recorder and provide valuable information to the ringing community. We are fortunate to have them in our Guild.

Finally, a reminder that peal fees are due within one month of the peal being rung and can be paid electronically using the details found on the Guild website. I apologise for the change in these details this year. This was due to the peal recorder bank account starting to charge for its services. The fees now get paid into the Guild account, so the details should no longer need to change. I would like to thank all the conductors and organisers who regularly make payment on time.

Tower Bell Peals

There were 76 tower bell peals rung for the Guild in 2025 involving 132 ringers. This is a 20% increase in peals from last year with only a 5% increase in the ringers but encouragingly the number of ringers ringing their first peal has doubled from 4 in 2024 to 8 in 2025. Roy LeMarechal once again was the top of the leader board with 47 peals and was again the leading conductor with 29 peals, an increase from last year. The top three towers were the same as last year but in a different order, Awbridge was the leading tower with 13 peals, Bishopstoke second with 12 peals and Portsmouth St Agatha’s third with 5 peals.

The Guild officers would like to congratulate the following ringers who rang their first peals in 2025:-

James A Wedley, Annabel R Clements, Toby A Marriott, Rosie E Barrett, Daniel W Holmes à Court, Janet M Orsborn, Carl G McBean and James C Peal.

Other notable peal milestones included:-

150th peal on the bells of Romsey Abbey

Congratulations to all other ringers who achieved a ‘first’ during 2025 and those who celebrated a significant anniversary of their first peal.

Handbell Peals

A total of 32 handbell peals were rung for the Guild in 2026 by 22 ringers. The Guild is fortunate in having two centres for handbell peal ringing.

Plain Bob Major was the most common method rung this year, 10 peals, followed by Yorkshire Surprise Major, 5 peals. The peal of Deva Surprise Major was the first in method in hand for the Guild and the peal of 24 Spliced Plain Major by a Winchester District band is the most major methods in hand for the Guild.

Congratulations to Andrew G Booth who rang his first handbell peal in 2025 and Martin J E Daniels who rang his 400th handbell peal. Also by ringing a handbell peal of Plain Bob Major Frank R Morton rang his 1000th peal of Plain Bob Major. Congratulations to all the handbell ringers that rang ‘firsts’ of any kind in 2025.

Martin J E Daniels