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Activities Review 2013
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The Adult Choir has continued to enhance the patterns of worship during the year by providing communal leadership in congregational singing, enriched by a varied and diverse range of English choral church music. Throughout the year, members of the choir meet regularly on a Thursday evening to rehearse, sometimes augmented with additional voices for special concerts and services, and on behalf of the Parish we thank all members for their commitment, fine musical contribution and enthusiasm. (Return to top)
A welcome feature of many festival and special services has been the contribution of the ‘Young Voices’ (our junior choir) who have continued to extend their repertoire and confidence in part singing. The participation in various community events such as the Dymock Festival by some of the senior members has provided a further incentive and justifiably promoted their talent and ability. Plans are in-hand to develop a second ensemble featuring the impressive musicianship of some of the younger members of the ‘Young Voices’. (Return to top)
In addition to the regular worship patterns, there has also been the pleasure of singing Evensong in St Mary’s, Kempley as well as a busy year of concerts and special events. These have included the Midsummer Festival, Remembrance, Community and Christmas Concerts. (Return to top)
2014 will be a year of special significance for the community of Dymock as we continue to commemorate both the centenary of the Dymock Poets and pay special tribute to the First World War casualties that are named on our village war memorial. The combined choirs will be actively involved in these and other events whilst continuing to provide the important function of weekly choral leadership. (Return to top)
We had some problems during the year, mainly the head joint on the treble bell disintegrated, rendering the bell inoperable. We invited Taylors Bell Foundry in Loughborough to carry out an inspection, issue a condition report, and provide a quotation for repair. The quote was quite substantial and involved taking out all the clappers, removing the flats on them where they strike the bells and refitting them with new leather washers. Also, all the plastic guide sheaves had worn due to the new polypropylene bell ropes and these needed replacing. The Treble Bell needed to be taken out of its ringing position and a new cast resin head joint fitted and the bell then to be re-hung. The cost of this was in the region of £4,000. (Return to top)
We invited the bell expert in the diocese to offer advice and as a result we had a local bell rope supplier fit a new resin joint, new hardwood sheaves on roller bearings and leather washers for the clappers and three of our own ringers provided the labour. The cost of this was just £800, which was a great saving. The bells are much improved and ring a lot smoother. (Return to top)
The Editor tries to include in the magazine every article that is sent to him, but what he can’t do is include what isn't sent! Some groups are extremely efficient at passing on their news and reports, but there are a number of groups that rarely, or in some cases never, submit items to the magazine. A short while ago he received a complaint from a regular reader that here was too much news from a certain source. His reply was that it’s everyone’s magazine and it’s up to everyone to send in what they want included. (Return to top)
He made this plea: "Don’t worry if you’re not very good with a computer; just send me your items, preferably as a Word document, and I will tidy them up, sort out the page layout, spelling, grammar, punctuation, syntax and font style as best I can, and then put them into the magazine. All I ask is that you send them in as early as possible because it does take me quite a while to produce each edition." (Return to top)