YCG - Events - London / Brighton Outing

London / Brighton Outing - 5th-7th May 2006

Outing

No - we didn't get to ring here...

Our story begins one pleasant Friday afternoon over in Chemistry, where two YCG members began trundling towards York station in the (almost) sweltering heat of a hot summer's day, loaded to the brim with coats, sleeping bags, clothes, food, and other survival essentials - such as ringing diagrams! At the appointed time of 18.10, Kevin and Allen met Matthew on platform 5 to begin the journey South.

Two hours, some sandwiches and possibly a Yorkie bar later, we were deposited in London at King's Cross station. Kevin announced that this was the furthest South he had ever been and promptly started hyperventilating, whilst I was generally scared of being trodden on. Luckily, Matthew knew where he was going and expertly guided us towards the underground where he taught us how to use those (pretty nifty) ticket machine things. Any pretence of doing work whilst on the train to Brighton was quickly abandoned to talking about ringing.

After an early start from Brighton, (and reluctantly having to turn down the offer of being extras in the forthcoming film London Floods) the first tower of the day in London was St. Lawrence Jewry. Entering the ringing chamber, we found several cans of beer. It was also at this point that Matt G and Arthur joined us. I don't really feel qualified enough to tell you what the bells were like, but from my perspective they were definitely the easiest to ring of the day.

Jumping back on the tube, we headed towards the South Kensington stop and the site of the old Imperial Institute to ring at the Queen's Tower. A 38cwt ring of 10, this was a very scary experience - the tower movement was incredible, and the bells themselves were, shall I say, 'challenging' to ring. There was however a magnificent view across London from the top of the tower.

St. Mary-le-Bow was up next. Peal boards were the dominating feature here, reaffirming the fact that this was a very prestigious tower, and I shouldn't have been there. St. Giles Cripplegate followed a short walk in the rain. After we rang some call changes and plain hunt on 11, Matt G tried to escape but his plan was unsuccessful.

A few drinks and a pub meal concluded the day in London, before heading back to Brighton.

As if Saturday wasn't enough, Sunday turned out to be another ringing extravaganza, consisting of two towers in Brighton; train back to York; North Street; St. Laurence and finally YCG practice, followed by a well-deserved visit to the pub.

Things I've learnt:

Call changes are difficult.
In order to ring, one needs to pull the handstroke.
It's quite natural for any normal member of the public to be at least mildly disturbed (and usually quite confused) by some of the terminology associated with ringing. After developing a complex code to talk about the different aspects of our elite sport on the way to Brighton, further looks of confusion/embarrassment/generally being quite scared were for the most part avoided; we only had to apologise to one other group of people throughout the entire trip.

Special thanks to Matthew J for inviting us, to Matthew's parents for letting us stay (and for providing bacon sandwiches), as well as to the Brighton ringers for letting us join their outing.

Allen Eccles