All Saints Church in Newland, known as the Cathedral of the Forest, has a new rope handrail, thanks to a collaboration between its friends’ group, Gloucester Rope and Tackle Ltd (GRTL) and the Sea Cadets.

Spokesperson Laura Stevens said: “After many years of good service the rope handrail in the church tower finally snapped.

“The friends, who raise funds and help to support the parochial church council to maintain and care for All Saints, were very fortunate that Dave Clare of GRTL supplied new rope for the handrail and Mike Pritchard and Dave Williams of the Sea Cadets volunteered to install it.

The Sea Cadets used traditional rope working skills and finishing it off with a fine decorative knot known as a ‘Monkey’s Fist.’ The result is beautiful as well as functional.

“There are about 50 narrow steps in the spiral staircase which we use to reach the clock mechanism and the bell-ringing chamber, it can be a scary climb and the new handrail looks great and will make everyone feel far more secure.

“The collaboration with the Sea Cadets has been really enjoyable and we hope to have a traditional rope-work and knot skills workshop at All Saints at some time in the summer so that adults and children can learn about these fascinating techniques that were such an important part of our maritime heritage.’

•BELLS rang out from Priory Church of St Mary in Chepstow on Saturday (February 4) to mark the 65th anniversary of the Queen’s accession to the throne.

Composer and conductor, Nick Jones, said: “Ten experienced bell ringers from across south-east Wales and Gloucestershire came together to ring a successful peal known as Grandsire Caters.

“The peal consisted of just over 5,000 unique sequences of the order the ten bells were rung and took more than three hours to complete.

“For centuries, church bells have been rung to celebrate events of both local and national significance. As our current queen is the first British monarch to celebrate a Sapphire Jubilee, I felt that ringing a peal on the bells in Chepstow would be a fitting commemoration.”