First Quarter Peal by Oxon Ringing School Student Rachel Mackenzie
On Saturday 12th August, Rachel Mackenzie, from Witney, who attended Oxon Ringing School Handling and Foundation practice sessions, achieved her first Quarter Peal on tenor at the first attempt at St Marys Witney, ringing 1320 changes of Plain Bob Doubles in 47 minutes. Many congratulations to Rachel, we hope there will be many more in future!
This is the first Quarter Peal achieved by an Oxon Ringing School student and so marks a special moment and represents some of the significant progress made by several of our ringers since October 2022. It is also the first Quarter Peal rung by an all-Witney band for several years.
Rachel said of her experience:
“I’m thrilled to have been able to get this important milestone under my belt. I didn’t think I was ready but thanks to amazing support and tutoring from The Oxon Ringing School, my home Tower of Witney and the Witney team on the day, I was expertly guided to the end of what seemed like a very long 47 minutes! I can’t quite say I enjoyed it but I’m jolly glad I did it. Many thanks to everyone involved – it all makes such a difference to the journey of improving learners such as myself.“
The record is on Bellboard, at: https://bb.ringingworld.co.uk/view.php?id=1650117 .
More Quarter Peal Attempts are planned in the near future for other ringers who have graduated from handling sessions so we hope to post updates in the near future.
Rachel Mackenzie’s (bottom left) first Quarter Peal Band