the bells

Yesterday we went down to south Somerset and visited Ham Hill, Stoke-sub-Hamdon Priory, and the Treasurer's House in Martock. The people in the Treasurer's House recommended that we visit the church, so we did, and it was very splendid, with Baroque paintings in niches. While we were in there, we met one of the bellringers, and he invited us to their practice. We thought it sounded fun, so we went off to Barrington Court, then went to South Petherton to look for somewhere to eat dinner. The pub in the main part of the village was shut, so we asked a passer-by if he knew a pub that might be open, and there was one on the road to Martock, called the Wheatsheaf, which was very nice and friendly and had excellent food. I think I also sold them the services of my dad to build them a new website. Then we went on to the bellringing, and our new friend took us up into the bell-loft, and they let us have a go with the the end of the rope. It was cool. There was even a very small girl at the ringing practice, standing on two boxes so she could reach. Aww. Also they showed us how the bell-wheels work; that is why you get that unique cascading sound from English bells. It was all a nice example of serendipity - if the people in the Treasurer's house hadn't recommended the church, we might have rushed off to Barrington; we wouldn't have tried to find a pub if we hadn't been going to the bellringing; if the other pub hadn't been shut, we wouldn't have found the Wheatsheaf.

Edit: Photos uploaded to flickr (including belfry ones)