Was it only a year ago we set off on our adventure?
The village had been without a band for well over 10 years, the bells only rung by occasional visitors, so I thought ‘how hard can it be to have the bells ring out?’ A wee message out to the village FB page and few conversations later and we had 12 potential learners none of whom had even been in a bell tower, never mind rung a bell.
I was grateful of the pointers a nearby village tower captain gave me about liaising with the Rector and church officialdom and who put me in contact with Sue Carter and her team at the Bradpole Training Centre.
The training demands meant not all of our 12 could commit to start, however an excited group of 8 set off for the foothills of what soon became a near vertical ascent of the ringing learning curve. We hadn’t heard of Ring for the King, we had just thought we’d ring for the village, but the future King had other ideas and so the push was on to get us ready for the Coronation on May 6th. Our first training session was February 16th – 8 new ringers, a new band, a silent tower, 11 weeks – was this Mission Impossible?
Life intervened for 2 of our number, so an intrepid 6 jumped on the relentless training wheel, Tuesdays, Thursdays, sometimes Saturdays. We each had good days, dodgy days, snaking ropes, bells we couldn’t get up and bells that came down at the speed of light, but through it all we supported each other, shared tiny things we had learnt that could be useful, and laughed – a lot – always we had laughter and lots of fun.
Meanwhile, the tower had to get up and running, and just 3 weeks before the Coronation we rang for the first time in St Martin’s, Shipton Gorge a 4cwt 6. Light bells, very light, quite flighty, but our trainers had taught us to take any bell in our stride so off we went again. Having a brand new band of learners makes ringing really tricky; the usual benefits of having confident, accurate ringers to fit in with and keep your striking steady were not available to us. Fortune was on our side though as 2 experienced ringers in the village came to join us, as did one who used to ring at the tower many years ago.
The morning of the Coronation was cold, windy and very wet. We met in the church in trepidation, many of our trainers came to ring with us…and then some villagers arrived, and then some more, by the time the Rector arrived to say a few words there were more people in the church than folk had seen for years. Someone brought sausage rolls and the handbells were a huge hit, it was quite a moment.
We soon realised this was only the beginning; our rounds were ragged, bell control inconsistent, and our handling and style needed ironing out, so practise nights became real workouts and other West Dorset Branch training events were invaluable in broadening our experience, ringing at other towers and meeting other ringers.
Now, a year on, we are starting to grapple with Plain Hunt, 4 of the original 6 have rung their first Quarter Peal on the tenor behind, we have welcomed another new trainee who is learning fast and we have another 4 possible trainees lined up for later in the year.
We were both proud and humbled to be awarded the Longridge Salver as SDGR West Dorset Branch Ringers of the Year 2023 however none of what we have achieved would have been possible without the unstinting support, encouragement, dogged tenacity and brilliant training we have received from so many of the Branch trainers led by Sue Carter. There are far too many names to list here but particular mention must go to David Barrance and Janet Robinson who, along with Sue, have been with us every step of the way, as have our amazing village who cheer us on and support all we do.
I suspect if we’d known then what we know now about how difficult it is to learn to ring we may never have started – and I am so glad we didn’t know, because ringing has brought us together, opened up a fantastic community to us, given us many happy moments and is just so much fun!
Elizabeth Ferguson
