Bell Ringers - Bells Ring out 2013 and In 2014

As the last few minutes of 2013 ticked away the bells of All Saints rang out to wish it farewell and as the year faded out so did the bells. On the stroke of midnight the tenor bell struck 12 before the remaining five bells joined in to sing out joyfully to welcome 2014. Some beautiful rounds and call changes were rung with one or two ringers breaking out in a sweat due to the speed of the ringing! Once we finished ringing a bottle of champagne was produced and with a loud pop the ringers toasted in the New Year. Then came another tower tradition the singing of Auld Lang Syne in the porch!
The New Year band consisted of Ted Conyers, Mark Tweedie, Helen Watson, Fiona Joisce, Richard Joisce, Janet Pender-Cudlip, Michael Pender-Cudlip, Lee Fox and Tower Captain Aaron Hall. Victoria Joisce took on the important duty of Time Keeper!

The Friends - All Saints in the News

The Dereham Times have run an article on the work going on at All Saints Church. In it includes an article from the Friends' of All Saints secretary David Stone, who outlines the next project at All Saints. To read the article click here. 

Bell Ringers - Bells Ring Out 2012 and in 2013

Once again the ringers of Swanton Morley took part in the age old tradition of ringing out the old Year and ringing in the New. The bells rung out for the last few minutes of 2012 before one by one standing, fading out along with the old year leaving just the tenor to strike 12 on the stroke of midnight. To welcome the new year the original 5 bells pealed out in joyful celebration.  The band was 1. Mark Tweedie, 2. Fiona Joisce, 3. Helen Watson, 4. Ted Conyers, 5. Aaron Hall. After the ringing the ringers took part in their own tradition of singing Auld Lang Syne.

PCC - Harvest at All Saints

The Harvest Service was well attended with many people commenting what a lovely service it was and how beautiful  the Church flowers looked. Thanks must be said to the Flower Team for doing such a great job as well as to everyone who kindly contributed produce which was distributed to the elderly within the village.
The harvest supper held in the village hall on 28th September was very successful, there was approximately 50 attending and made a friendly gathering. Thanks must go to all the help received from the ladies of the church and a very big thank you to Dougal Smith and members of "reprise" who entertained us after the meal with songs from West End shows. We were very fortunate and made a total of £200 after expenses for the Heating Fund for the Church.

Bell Ringers - Thank You Letters

The ringers of All Saints were very tocuhed today after recieving 31 thank you letters from the Year 3/4M class from Swanton Morley Primary School after their visit to the tower on Thursday 5th July. For that night ringing was suspended so we could all read the beautifully written letters. It become apparrant that all the children had a fantastic time, especailly watching their teacher having a go. There were also some fantastic questions asked, for example how heavy is the tower and how do you become a tower captain...lets hope they are keen enough to learn in the future.

Bell Ringers - The Day of Two Zip Wires

The Ringers' annual Teddy Bear Zip Wire took an unusual twist this year when the weather took a turn for the worse! The afternoon started off in beautiful sunshine with the Zip Wire taking its usual place from the top of All Saints Church Tower to the tree beside the West Gate. Many of the stalls were dotted around the grounds with refreshments and cakes being held in the church. We were also delighted to welcome the Firemen from Dereham Station, who allowed children (and adults) the chance to look around one of their Fire Appliances. There was as usual a wide variety of games and stalls around the church with one, the bean bag game, becoming very competitive between families and friends!
During this time our two brave volunteers up the tower, Darren Hall and Lee Fox, had noticed that there were some rather dark clouds starting to surround the village! At 3pm a huge flash of lightening grabbed the attention of everyone outside and so started the ad dash to get everything inside the church, take down the zip wire and get everyone off the roof before the storm hit (no mean feat!). After only ten minutes and with help from members of the public the zip wire was reborn inside All Saints Church! It now ran from the trap door of the ringing chamber to the pews below. The biggest cheer of the day went up after the first brave bear took a test run on the new styled wire!
The first prize of the raffle was won by David Stone. Lauren Cooke correctly guessed the name of the teddy for a second year (Henrik) and Anne Boston had the highest score on the Bean Bag Game.
We would like to thank everyone who took part in the event and helped to raised £253.87.

Bell Ringers - Celebratory Quarter Peal

The bell ringers rang a quarter of 1260 Plain Bob Doubles to celebrate the Golden Wedding Anniversary of Celia and Gordon Barker before the practice tonight. The band was made up of Ted Conyers, Sheila Smith, Sarah Seaman, Brian Laing, Aaron Hall (conductor) and Fiona Joisce