I am sorry to announce the death of Allan Bishop, a ringer who was known to many members of the District, particularly in the Swale and Gillingham areas. Allan’s funeral will be held on Friday 25th May at Hartlip. The service is at 11:00 and his family have asked if Read more…
Jessie, born 11th July 1920, was a member of the KCACR for over 60 years, joining in 1946 at her home tower of Hoo. She considered herself as primarily a Sunday service call change ringer, although she could manage some of the simpler methods if really pushed. Jessie was taught Read more…
The construction of Chris M Trafford’s portable mini-ring is nearing completion. There are six bells cast by Taylors in 2003 with the tenor weighing 38.9 lbs in E. Chris (tower captain at Bobbing) is hoping to have the district’s newest addition up and ringing in the next few months, and Read more…
The bells of Milton-next-Gravesend today rang out for the first time since damage was caused during a storm a few years ago. During the summer of last year Gareth Lawson (District Ringing Master) made enquiries with the tower secretary, Maria Yetman as to why the bells were silent. It became Read more…
The bells at Milton-next-Gravesend have been silent for sometime. Gareth Lawson contacted the secretary in the summer of 2006 to establish why, and found out that a louver had blown in during a storm and fallen on the wheel of the 3rd causing damage. As a result pigeons made the Read more…
The bells at Hartlip are now back and ringing on new bearings. The old iron staples have been removed and the clappers refitted with independent staple bolts. The tenor is now easily ringable, whereas before keeping at the back in rounds was a struggle. The treble is so light that Read more…
Cliffe bells are now back in action following their return from Taylors, Eayre & Smith. On 13th March 2006 the restoration project began and the bells were taken to Loughborough for turning, tuning and new fixtures (wheels, bearings and headstocks). The bells returned to Cliffe on Saturday 3rd June 2006 Read more…
Saturday 21st May saw 32 ringers, family and friends of the Rochester district descend upon the seaside resort of Brighton for the annual outing. The coach departed a rather sunny Sittingbourne at 0800hrs and picked up ringers from the central and western parts of the district. Despite a huge downpour Read more…
It was a glorious sunny day in Chalk, where this year’s Rochester district striking competition was held. Three bands entered the contest, which was judged by Alex Britton and Rachel Backhouse (Lewisham District). After having a ring themselves to sample the ‘go’ of the bells the competition got underway with Read more…
After a long wait and a lot of hard work by many the octave Rochester St Margaret were at last back in action on the morning of Sunday 26 March 2006. This was the time when a capacity congregation saw the Archdeacon of Rochester, the Venerable Peter Lock, dedicate the Read more…