Bristol Rural Branch
Mayday 2002

                                                                                                  MAYDAY 2002 – Herefordshire

The day dawned dark and wet but the thirty-eight of us who were on the annual Mayday outing were all on time and ready to go when the coach arrived, apart from a minor panic by the branch secretary about things left in the car we left on time at 08.15.  The roads were clear and we headed for the M5 North, just before the appointed time we arrived at Aston Ingham(6).  The tower contact was there to meet us and under the watchful eye of Martin Blanchard the ringing commenced whilst the branch deputy ringing master and a few of the ladies put the kettle on for a well deserved cup of tea/coffee and a biscuit, by now the people in cars had arrived and over fifty of us enjoyed the welcome refreshments, and of course the ringing.
It was soon time to move on to Bridestowe a reasonable eight, everyone had a ring and on to Kingscapel(6) this tower made us appreciate the other rings of the day for our last ring before lunch. We then cleaned the sides of the coach by travelling to lunch along some very narrow and windy lanes. We arrived at the Greenman Hotel at Fownhope a little late, however the restaurant was ready for us, and we had an excellent meal with very good service.
Our first tower after lunch was back over the river Wye and along some very bumpy roads(we could have been on the boat to Lundy) to Holm Lacey the home of the Scudamores. Ringing completed under the eye of Henry Taysom(this was a tower that Henry's father visited many years ago on his bicycle when he lived locally) we moved to our last tower Much Marcle. The tower was quite impressive, we almost had a lockout, the tower contact had forgotten to come to let us in. Once we were in the ringing commenced and if you look at the pictures you will see the walls were very well ornamented with ringing changes and methods. Whilst the ringing took place the ladies produced tea and cake for everyone. Ringing and tea complete it was on to the coach and into the cars for home. We arrived home at about 19.00. I think I can say that everyone had a very special day, many thanks to Henry Taysom for arranging the towers and the excellent lunch, Mary York for the coach arrangements, the morning coffee and biscuits also the afternoon tea and cake.
We must also sat a big thankyou to all the people who came on the coach and those who came by car, we all enjoyed a fine day of ringing, eating, and everyone's company which contributed to the excellent day out.