Lilliputters AGM day to Peterborough (March 2024)

This year, the Lilliputters Guild descended on Peterborough for its AGM day. No fewer than 4 towers including St Mary’s, Peterborough Cathedral, St Mary - Stanground and St John were rung at. It was a great day out for everyone and as always, lovely to see everyone. Feel free to skip to certain parts - this is quite lengthy video.
Our first venue was St Mary’s, a lovely little 8cwt 8, about a 20 minute walk from Peterborough station. The church seems modern, the ringing area and hall almost seeming more like a corporate office space. The bells go very well, easy to ring, sound lovely - if a tad clinical. Despite some Saturday morning energy drops, we still managed to achieve Plain and Little Bob, Stedman, Cambridge, Grandsire and forwards and backwards rounds.
Second on the itinerary was the Cathedral. Acoustically crystal clear in the ringing room, with the odd bit of oddstruckness and stiff rope here and there. Overall a lovely tuneful ring of bells and definitely on the list for a quarter peal day! The AGM itself, well, 15 minutes, a few laughs and decisions - including when we visit the next pub - job done! Just how they should be!
After lunch, we made our way to St Mary’s Stanground. Given it was match day, hearing the roar of the stadium and experience a bit of second hand atmosphere personally for me, added a highlight. The bells themselves are hung in a peculiar layout, with treble of top and the back 5 below, with the tenor and treble drawn through a significant draft. The tenor, whilst only being 12cwt, felt more akine to ringing a lot heavier. This was explained by a large canon retaining wooden headstock. The bells could benefit with a bit of TLC being done to them - which would make them into a lovely ring.
Walking back into the center after assisting with muffling Stanground, we ventured to St John’s, a rather lovely, old, and heavy 8. A fantastic tone to them and plenty of grunt. It took us a bit of getting used to them, but once we did, 3 leads of Bristol, a course of Bob Major and Stedman Triples, plus rounds and calls came round very nicely. The tenor was remarkably easier to turn in than I expected.
0:00 Titles
0:26 St Peters
5:30 Peterborough Cathedral
17:10 Stanground
25:56 St Johns

[@srwilson3s2k14]

do I see a carillon machine or clock chimes at st Johns? :D