We have three Ringing Centres within the area covered by the Guild. They operate completely independently of our branch and Guild structure but are frequently used for branch and Guild ringing courses and other training.
Bradpole
The Bradpole Training Facility is situated in the West Dorset branch and many of the branch’s courses are held here.
It is owned by Holy Trinity Church, Bradpole and its administration is delegated by the Bradpole Sub-Committee of the Bridport PCC to the Officers of the bell tower.
The facility comprises a ground-floor ring of 8, 15-0-10 in F# and a Bagley system driving all 8 via Abel software. There is disabled access, a toilet, a small kitchen and ample space for group work outside the ringing room. The tower is readily available to any group led by a ringer of demonstrable competence.
For ALL enquiries, bells open or tied, please contact the Bradpole Tower Correspondent.
More information about the location and other details on the tower page
Bryanston
Please visit the tower page for contact information
Edington
Founded in 2010 by members of the Devizes branch the ringing centre at Edington Priory aims to offer a range of learning opportunities to a wide range of people of differing ringing abilities.
Wells Bells (Alderney)
The ChanneI Islands’ Ringing Centre
Wells Bells are at at the heart of the Channel Islands’ Ringing Centre – a purpose built training venue – incorporating a Higby simulator with large TV running Abel and a 3 cwt peal of 8 which ring/turn as if they weighed 5 cwt …
What is a Ringing Centre?
The Ringing Centres and Education Committees of the Central Council work closely together on creating new ways of training the ringers of the future. A Ringing Centre is a combination of people, tower bells, technology and other facilities designed to help people learn to ring. Centres are intended to promote high standards of teaching, and to also train teachers of ringing. They provide a useful facility, which is an enhancement of the training facilities available in their area and make a contribution to the training of ringers beyond the local band. Potential users of a recognised centre know that both the facilities and the teaching will be of high quality.
Each centre has its own management team and access to competent teachers, and the tower will usually have an active band of ringers with their own weekly practice and service ringing. The facilities will normally include a simulator, classroom space, and other teaching aids such a dumb bell, a video camera and playback equipment.
Achieving Central Council recognition is likely to benefit centres themselves in a number of ways:
- Belonging to a networked community of similar centres will enable considerable pooling of experience and ideas for new developments,
- The support of the Council is likely to give recognised centres enhanced status when applying for external funding.
- There is evidence from existing centres that retention rates for learners are likely to be higher when they are taught in a well-structured programme.
There is an annual prize awarded in recognition of outstanding contributions to the teaching of ringing. The grants are administered by the CC Ringing Centres Committee and are used to assist existing or new ringing centres to meet a sufficient number of the requirements to justify CC recognition.
