After quite a few years of being unable to ring in the New Year at Trowbridge we finally had enough ringers to ring in 2025 and were given permission by the PCC to do so.
As we had not been able to ring for New Year for a long time I thought it would be a good idea to let as many residents as possible know that this is what was planned; the logic behind this being that the more people who knew about it the less likelihood there would be of any complaints.
I put a message that this was what we planned on as many of the groups for Trowbridge on Facebook as I could and received over 140 positive responses.
Wiltshire Sound picked it up from social media and did a short piece on it and The Wiltshire Times published an article linked to the ringing for New Year.
We did receive some enquiries about the possibility of learning to ring but for various reasons no new recruits materialised from this publicity, but I think the important point to take from this is that using social media to raise awareness opens up the opportunity for enquiries about the exercise itself, sometimes from unexpected quarters.
It seems that informing people of why we ring overall has a positive effect and this being the case I started a Facebook group, Friends of the Bells, St James, Trowbridge. It is a select group at present but I am hopeful that it will expand with time just as the Devizes Branch Facebook Group has done.
I now notify as many Trowbridge Facebook groups as possible of special ringing events such as the VE Day 80th Anniversary and the VJ Day 80th Anniversary ringing.
Using social media to raise awareness has proved highly effective and valuable, and is something that I plan to continue. I would certainly advise other towers to make as much use of these channels as possible.
Veronica Newman
Trowbridge
