Last night I went along to the bell tower at St Nic's to watch the bellringers ring in the New Year. It is a long standing tradition for the Mayor of Newbury to do this. All four of us went along. The bell ringers room in the tower has quite a cosy feel to it. There are 10 bells, and the room is located close to the mechanism for the church tower clock.
A few minute before midnight, the Rev David Stone said a couple of prayers for the coming year, and there was a moment of silence, during which we could hear the loud ticking of the clock, reverberating through the walls like a heartbeat - an appropriate sensation for contemplation of time passing.
The ringers took their positions and after the countdown to midnight, one rang out 12 times and the other nine joined in. We wished each other happy New Year and then climbed the stone spiral staircase to the tower roof with the sound of bells loud in our ears. Stepping out into a wild windy night we peered over the crenelations to see fireworks going off in all directions, lighting up the sky.
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