Thank you folks, you’re amazing…. we have raised over £1,000 for BBC Children in Need. https://www.justgiving.com/page/a-peal-for-pudsey and there’s still an opportunity for it to increase further until the end of the month!
Bellringers from Cumbrian towers (Barrow, Dalton and Ambleside), Lancashire towers (Kirkby Lonsdale, Bamber Bridge, Nelson) and Yorkshire towers (Pontefract, and Leeds Cathedral) converged on the Parish Church of St Lawrence and St Paul in Pudsey near Bradford/Leeds, leaving as early as 7.15am to get to the church for the 10.30 start.
Pudsey bear cuddly toy watched over us as we rang the bells.
The peal attempt was supposed to take 3 hours, but unfortunately it was unsuccessful after a mistake about 30 or 40 minutes into the peal, and a subsequent quarter peal attempt came undone (literally) when the rope of the heaviest (tenor) bell unravelled its tucks about half way through and an extra metre of rope was whipping around, forcing us to abort the attempt for the safety of the tenor ringer.
The ringing was going really well otherwise and the bells sounded great while it lasted.
Photos from the day are included above, along with videos from outside Pudsey church, and a recording of us practising the first two leads before we started the peal, that we rang to send in to BBC Northwest Tonight (who included a 12 second clip later in the 6.30pm news bulletin … without the sound of the bells at 20:18 into the programme https://www.bbc.co.uk/…/north-west-tonight-evening-news…).
We will have another attempt to successfully ring the peal sometime over the next 12 months, but probably closer to home at St James in Barrow, or another tower in Furness & South Lakeland such as Kirkby-in-Furness or Flookburgh.
Once again, thank you to everyone who donated and wished us luck.