New Year 2026 Stratford

Group photo below and other pictures from Hayley. Tour report at the bottom of the page.

St James, Alveston

Holy Trinity, Stratford upon Avon and White Swan

St Peter, Welford on Avon

New Year Outing 2026

It started as a very cold morning getting on the minibus at Holmer Parish centre. This year we had a very sociable minibus because we had 3 seats facing backwards and 3 seats facing forwards, this meant for alot of talking (mostly about ringing) ..... unless, you were the 3 in the front who couldn't quite hear us well enough. As it was probably the coldest day of the year so far, we stopped at a M&S garage to grab a very warm coffee and breakfast whilst picking up Alison.

10am we arrived at St. James Church, Alveston, this was a very pretty church, with an upstairs ring of 6. The ringing chamber was through a glass door into a room and into another room with glass panels. This meant that once all the doors had been closed, you could not hear the bells ringing at all, which was very off putting. In the ringing chamber however you could just make them out. Outside, the bells were very loud..... this was very confusing. The bells went well, after we had adjusted to them and as we had met up with our friends from Bodicote at this tower various methods were able to be rung.

It was then on to Holy Trinity Church, Stratford upon Avon. This church is where William Shakespeare was baptised and is buried (a few of us who knew this was inside the church went to visit his burial place). After a long, narrow ascent it was into a very spacious ringing chamber with 10 bells. These bells went very well and we had some lovely sounding

call changes, rounds and even Grandsire caters. Half way through the ringing we looked up and noticed some of the ropes holes were very large.... at this point we were lucky the young lad with us was a very good ringer, as he would have fitted through the holes! Outside the locals were wondering whether we were ringing for a wedding, I informed them it was an outing and they were very appreciative of the good ringing.

We then took a short, cold, walk through the very pretty Statford, past the family home of William Shakespeare (1597-1616) to a welcoming and more importantly warm, White Swan pub for lunch and drinks. This pub had some lovely original artwork from 1360, preserved behind glass for people to appreciate. And some lovely big open fires, which they did try to light for us. Lunch, and drinks, went down very well and as far as I am aware there were no complaints.

Back out into the cold, to the minibus, and on to St. Helens Church, Clifford Chambers. This was a welcome ground floor ring of 6, especially after food and drink. As with most towers after lunch, the enthusiasm had gone down a little, and from what I remember they were rather difficult to ring, but Dave persevered and there were various methods rung and very well. As the lady who let us in had stayed, this is where the group photo was taken, it really does not show how cold it was as we are all still smiling at this point, however that could have been the good company we had.

The last tower of the day was St. James, Welford on Avon.

These were a lovely ring of 8. However, the ringing chamber scared everyone. To get to it, was up a very lovely staircase..... with a shutter door that needed to be closed to ring 2 of the bells. This was not a problem while ringing was happening, but while swapping the bands we had be extra aware no one fell down the very large gap it created.... this was a lovely tower to end the very cold day on and we even managed to ring various 8 and 7 bell methods.

As with all outings it was onto The Bell Inn, Welford on Avon for a debrief of the day. This must be a very popular pub as it was very full, however, they were very accommodating and managed to find 20 very thirsty bell ringers a seat, I think we all appreciated that, especially as the pub was so nice and warm. It is here we need to thank Dave Powell for another successful, and well organised day out! (Just next time, maybe make it a bit warmer please, haha).