On Saturday 10th March St Mary & St Giles Church hosted the Buckinghamshire Handbell Festival, with 12 teams from across Buckinghamshire coming together to ring handbells. It was a very relaxed, enjoyable afternoon of music, with more than 150 ringers of all ages (there were 3 teams of school children, including our Church school St Mary & St Giles CE Junior as well as more experienced ringers). The theme for the day was Her Majesty the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, which resulted in some imaginative interpretations of the theme, meaning that only one piece was chosen twice, with different tunes.
The programme was as follows:
- Massed ringing – National Anthem
- Launton Handbell Ringers
- Belmont Handbell Ringers
- Chiltern Handbell Ringers
- St Michaels School (Stewkley) Handbell Ringers
- Woburn Trefoil Guild Handbell Ringers
- St Mary & St Giles CE Junior School Handbell Ringers
Interval
- MK Trefoil Guild Wednesday Handbell Ringers
- MK Trefoil Guild Thursday Handbell Ringers
- Buckingham Handbell Ringers
- Bedgrove Junior School Handbell Ringers
- Leckhampstead Handbell Ringers
- St Mary & St Giles Church Handbell Ringers
- Massed ringing – English Country Gardens
I took these photos using a very good Nikon and an unfamiliar zoom lens which I had difficulty focussing, so some of the photos are not great, but they still capture a flavour of the day and the sheer enjoyment which the ringers gave themselves and each other as well as the audience sitting in the gallery. For the complete set see the Photos on Flickr, below is a small sample:
