Badsey, St James

The Badsey Parish Church of St James is in the South of the Village and can be accessed from both Chapel Street and High Street. It is set in a large well maintained churchyard but surrounded by houses.

I visited for the first time on Saturday 31^st January 2009 to join the WDCRA Southern Branch practice.

The ringing room is reached by climbing a short steep stair/ladder that starts inside the tower. It is a nice room with plenty of room to ring the 8 bells. There were as many as 16 in the room at one time without hindering those who were ringing. There is an large arch that looks East over the nave.

There were quite a few ringers and most are much proficient than I am. We only rang on 8 bells which is a challenge for me as I do not know any methods on 8. However, I did enjoy the opportunity to ring on 8 and rang Rounds and Plain Hunt on 7 a couple of times. I also rang bell #2 and bell #3 for some plain courses of Grandsire Triples. I have only recently started to learn Grandsire Doubles so it was a bit of a stretch to ring Grandsire Triples. Plain hunting on bell #2 went ok but while I did muddle through when ringing bell #3 I cannot claim to have made no mistakes.

The Bells

The tower has a ring of 8 bells with a tenor weighing 15-0-4 in F. Additional information on the Church and bells can be found at Dove's Guide and WDCRA.

The Parish Church of St James in Badsey is affiliated to the Worcestershire & Districts Change Ringing Association.