These bellringers were leaving for what could be described as a busman’s holiday.

The team from St Mary’s Church, Iffley, were heading to Cornwall for a long weekend ringing bells at 11 Cornish churches.

It was just as well that this latest annual jaunt took place in 1977 and not 1877. For 100 years earlier, membership of the Iffley Ringers’ Guild demanded much more than the ability to ring church bells.

The guild’s rules, drawn up in about 1870, were extremely particular about the kind of person allowed to be a member – everyone had to be a paragon of virtue.

Each member had to be vetted by the vicar and, once admitted, faced expulsion if he committed any of the following sins – going from the guild’s meeting or from the belfry to a public house, swearing or using profane language, making a bet, or otherwise misbehaving in the judgement of the vicar and churchwardens.

The full list did not last long. A copy of the guild’s record book shows two of the rules were soon crossed out. The sins removed were the drinking and betting ones, presumably because of members’ inability to resist temptation.

A note in the margin of the book made it clear that the rule about drink was removed by the unanimous vote at a meeting attended by every member except one. The relaxation of the rule was probably a great relief for bellringers at the time, and those who became bellringers later, including those who made the trip to Cornwall in 1977.

Team secretary Roy Goodwin said: “Bellringing is terribly thirsty work and we obviously like to get plenty of refreshment. The social side of the trip is as important as the ringing.”

No doubt, plenty of drink was consumed on this trip, as it was on previous outings the Iffley ringers had enjoyed.

The annual bellringing jaunts had begun after Jim Adams, one of the team, spent a holiday in a Cornish farmhouse, during which he did a spot of ringing with local groups. He enjoyed himself so much that the following year his colleagues asked to join him.

After that initial trip, the ringers travelled to Honiton, Ilkley Moor, Slovelly, the Isle of Wight, the Lake District, Fowey, Dartmoor and Lincolnshire.

The 1977 trip was a repeat of the first they had made, to the Cornish town of Mullion.

Everywhere they went, they stayed in a farmhouse.

Mr Adams said: “We always find we get well looked after. In fact, we take the place over, and if anyone gets a bit cross, we can calm them down with a tune or two on our handbells which we always take with us.”