25/07/2026
This morning we had the pleasure of welcoming Ashley’s family to the official opening of the Ashley B Wilson STARS Studio. (More information here - https://www.stannesringingschool.uk/about-us/the-ashley-b-wilson-stars-studio)
We started by letting the children have a go at chiming a bell downstairs.
Then we all headed up to the Ringing Room where Stuart (STARS Leader) explained what we had done in Ashley’s memory and Fr Martin (LACR President) offered a blessing. We then asked Vicky, Philip and Liz to unveil the board we’d installed, giving information about the Ashley B Wilson STARS Studio. Ellis then demonstrated how the new system that we have installed works.
The children had a go at ringing on our dumbbell (and some of the adults too!) Definitely some potential future ringers there! I think we broke records for the highest stack of boxes and the youngest ever ‘ringer’ at 17 months!
Ashley’s family then headed back downstairs to enjoy tea and cake while we rang a quarter peal to mark the occasion. We chose Cambridge Surprise Minor as that was Ashley’s first peal back in 2001 and we were delighted to be joined by Ashley’s long-time friend Paul Tiebout, who rang in that peal with Ashley.
We are very grateful that Ashley’s family kindly decided that donations in his memory should be used to set up this facility to enhance the teaching of ringing. As the donations were so generous we hope to also be able to add a training bell in the near future, to help with initial bell handling training.
