Annual General Meeting 2025

The Central District is looking forward to welcoming Ladies Guild members to the AGM on Saturday 14th of June 2025. For members who will be travelling to the area the day before we have arranged a couple of events on the Friday which we hope you will enjoy. Any non-ringers with you are very welcome to join us for the service and meals.

Outline for Friday 13th June - because we aren’t superstitious

• An opportunity to ring a quarter peal or two in the afternoon, or have a general ring if quarters aren’t your thing and we have sufficient interest.

• Social event: 7pm group meal at the Rose & Crown, Harefield Road, Rickmansworth, Herts WD3 1PP.. An email will be sent round nearer the time to confirm menu choices.

Outline for Saturday 14th June

• Starting at 10am (but please note that if ringing at the Cathedral you will need to arrive at 9.30am prompt to be signed in and be ready to climb the tower - which can take a group 15 minutes - when our tower guide meets us, so please arrive early to avoid being disappointed as the door will be locked once the group has gone up). 

There will be two alternative ringing routes: one centred around the 4 towers in St Albans (St Albans Cathedral, St. Peter’s, St. Michael’s with St Mary’s, and St. Stephen’s), and the other close by, but starting with a lovely ground floor ring (Radlett, Aldenham, Bushey & Bushey Heath). 

You can ring in as many towers as you like, switching between routes. More information on parking and addresses for towers to follow. All towers have toilet facilities.

• Lunch: To fit in as much ringing as possible, we haven’t arranged a lunch stop, so you may want to bring something with you to have between towers. If you would prefer to stop somewhere, local pubs are likely to need to be booked in advance, but central St. Albans has many sandwich shops etc.

• 4pm Church service at St Peter’s Bushey Heath, led by Reverend David Stevenson, a local ringer.

• 4..45pm AGM at St Peter’s Church Hall, Bushey Heath.

• 6.15pm Cooked supper in Church Hall (please inform us of any dietary requirements when booking).

Outline for Sunday 15th June

• Sunday morning ringing: A list of nearby towers that would welcome ringers for their Sunday morning service will be sent out nearer the time.

We do hope you will join us

Return date for booking form: by 14th April 2025 to secretary.lgcentral@gmail.com. The booking form is available here (and also above) for download as a Word document. Please download your own copy, fill it in and return it to the Central District by email. You will not be able to fill in the form online - the version on the website remains as a template for everyone to make their own copy. Any problems, please contact secretary.lgcentral@gmail.com.

Accommodation: Both St. Albans and Watford have the usual Premier Inns and Travelodges, as well as a Hilton midway between the two, and independent hotels and lots of Airbnb accommodation. We advise looking online at options. Both locations are close to the M1 and the M25, and we hope that this makes them easily accessible. Hotels on routes into the area may also be an option to consider. Watford has a mainline train station, and St. Albans is served by a branch line from Watford, but you will need to travel between some towers by car, so we urge you to speak with others from your district who are attending to arrange car sharing where possible. None of the towers we will ring at are in the area where the congestion charge or ULEZ - Ultra Low Emission Zone - apply, so you do not need to worry about those.