A Yorkshire pilgrimage

Submitted by simon on
Arthur Craven's headstone

While preparing my video about Yorkshire Maximus, I discovered that Arthur Craven, who composed Yorkshire Major and its extensions, is buried in Sheffield and has a marvellous headstone. Last weekend I happened to be in Sheffield visiting my sister, and we decided to go and find the grave.

Arthur Craven is also mentioned in my video about Bristol, as he was involved in the discussion about how to extend it from major to royal - although I'm not absolutely sure he was the originator of the extension as this obituary suggests.

Visiting Craven's grave was a bit of reconnaissance for an evolving idea. As the Central Council meeting and Ringing Roadshow will be taking place in Sheffield during the first weekend in September, I am hoping to assemble a handbell band to ring some Yorkshire next to the grave. Maybe even a quarter of either major or royal. In a while I will try to use the magic of Facebook to recruit ringers, but meanwhile if anyone is expecting to be within range on Saturday 6th September and would like to join in, please let me know.

General Progress
Yorkshire

Handbells @ Home

Yesterday we were supposed to be ringing a quarter of Lincolnshire Royal at Angela's house. After the instruction in the afternoon to begin social distancing, we had to cancel it. Cancellation of all tower bell ringing swiftly followed. There has been some speculation about remote handbell ringing via video conferencing...

Compositions of CYNR

We did well with our quarter of CYNR this week, so I would like to go for a peal of it during the handbell weekend that I'm planning in April. Here's a survey of compositions to choose from. First, some essential criteria. I'm looking at tenors-together all-the-work compositions. It's possible to...

Cambridge and Yorkshire

After ringing our quarter of Cambridge Royal with 3-4 unaffected, our next step was to ring a quarter of Cambridge Major, definitely not choosing a handbell-friendly composition. The idea was to give Peter a workout including as many positions as possible. If I remember correctly, Jonathan called this one:

1280...

Plans for 2020

We've got a whole new year stretching ahead of us, ready to be filled with handbell projects. Here are some that come to mind.

  • The most significant development is that we have an extra ringer for our regular band in Glasgow: Peter Kirton, who has just finished a couple of...