Category Archives: Special Events

Leicester Diocesan Guild Quarterly Social

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On Saturday evening (17th January), Ab Kettleby played joint host to the Leicester Diocesan Guild’s Quarterly Social event, with Long Clawson. (It was Melton District’s turn to host!) A contingent of 5 ringers from Ab Kettleby went over to neighbouring Long Clawson at 6pm and met with 30-40 ringers from all around the county. After an hour’s ringing of everything from rounds and call-changes to Yorkshire Surprise and Cambridge at Clawson, everyone made their way to Ab Kettleby to take advantage of a last opportunity ring our 3-bells as a 3! Cue methods such as Plain-Hunt Singles and Stedman Singles..!

By 8pm we had all made our way to the Sugar Loaf for a welcome drink and splendid buffet. Various donations of chocolate, wine and beer had been given as raffle prizes; cue frantic selling of raffle tickets to both bell-ringers and local villagers! We managed to raise £145 for the augmentation fund – and caused a bit of confusion in the process by using three books of raffle tickets, coloured Dark Green, Light Green and White!!

Watch our Bells Being Cast

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The Tenor

The bell-ringers in Ab Kettleby are very keen to get three more bells into St James’ church, to add to the existing three. We are therefore looking forward, with some considerable excitement, to the casting of two brand new bells for our tower which will take place in February!

We have a very limited number of spaces to watch history literally being made as the new bells for Ab Kettleby will be cast at John Taylor & Co Bell Foundry in Loughborough on Thursday 5th February 1:30 pm. Tickets are £10 each, on a first-come-first-served basis.

To reserve your place on this “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunity, drop us a line via the contact us page, making sure you include your phone number and email address.

Restoring England’s Heritage

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About a year ago, the BBC visited St James’ church, Ab Kettleby to film a section for ‘Restoring England’s Heritage’. The programme was first shown on BBC ONE in December 2013 and also takes a look at Taylor’s Bell Foundry in Loughborough (where two of our three donated bells will be cast in due course.)St James, Ab Kettleby

If you missed in last time around, a repeat is being shown on BBC TWO on 11th October at 18:00.

More details available on the programme page

Sunday Service Ringing

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Learn to RingSunday 7th September sees a significant milestone being reached for the bell ringers of St James’ church. For the first time in living memory, the church bells will be rung full-circle prior to the Sunday services at St James’, Ab Kettleby.

Our newly recruited band of ringers are looking forward to putting their skills to the test on Sunday morning at 08:45, leading up to the main service of the day which starts at 09:15.