The role of the Master is to set the direction for the Guild, Chair Executive meetings and provide leadership.
Vicki Rowse became Guild Master in 2022 and, in a characteristically modest way, she says, “I’m not in the Master role because I’m an expert ringer, I’m here because I love ringing and think the Guild can and should play an important role in enabling all of us everywhere to continue to enjoy it.”
Vicki started ringing at Chelsfield in Kent when she was 14, as the result of walking to school with a girl whose family were all ringers. “I think I was a very slow learner, as although I have no memory of actually being taught to ring, at the end of 4 years I was ‘only’ hunting the treble and ringing the tenor behind, which I did for a few quarter peals, my first being in 1976.”
In 1979 she left home to go and train as a nurse at Great Ormond Street and her ringing effectively stopped. “Partly shift work, and partly because I assumed (probably wrongly, I know now) that everyone ringing at a London church was an expert ringer and there was no place for me. I still rang when I went home to visit my parents but that was it.”
Then in 1997, having worked in Zambia for 6 years Vicki was offered a Community Children’s Nursing Job in Bath and she rented a house in Nunney, Somerset. The first weekend she was there, Princess Diana died and the bells rang out in her memory, which prompted her to think that perhaps she might return to ringing to meet people and start to make friends locally.
The local Tower Captain, George Wareham, took her under his wing and introduced her to Grandsire Doubles, quarter peals, ringing outings and open days. With his encouragement, her ringing journey took off and to date she has rung 429 quarter peals, 9 peals and she has rung at over 1400 different towers including The Cathedral and Old Post Office Tower in Washington DC, USA.
In 2010 she moved to Fovant, 10 miles west of Salisbury, where she now lives and rings. In 2012 she was asked to take over the Tower Captain role, “because no one else wanted to do it”, and then found herself with no band. She helped the Nadder Valley Group of Ringers to form, comprising Fovant, Dinton, Compton Chamberlayne and Barford St Martin, telling us, “Thankfully they agreed and it works really well. We practice once a month in each tower and all share wedding and other occasion ringing; managing, with a bit of rushing around, to ring all 4 towers for special occasions such as the Coronation of King Charles III.”
Over the years she’s taken on various roles on the Branch Committee including Secretary and Training Officer, standing down in 2019 when she became Guild Secretary, though she’s remained on the Branch committee as a Committee member and is now back in the Training Officer role.
She says, “I think the thing I like most about ringing is teaching, seeing others get the bug, have eureka moments and start to progress; and I LOVE teaching handling.”
In 2013 she went on The Association of Ringing Teachers (ART) Module 1 and was accredited in June 2014 after being mentored by Andrew Howes. Modules 2F and C followed thanks to the support of Alan Bentley, and following full accreditation she became a Mentor and is now an Assessor for ART. She does this because, “I love teaching practical skills and seeing others gain them too, possibly something from my nursing days when I was teaching lots of practical skills.”
“I am largely a doubles ringer, occasional triples. I did once reach the dizzy heights of Cambridge Surprise Minor and I rang 3 quarter peals of it in 2015 and have now forgotten completely due to lack of opportunity to ring it.”
During her time as Master, Vicki has been central in the drive towards modernisation and has been highly active in each aspect of the project.
“My hope for the future is that ringing thrives under the Salisbury Guild and we have lots of new recruits to keep our Art going into the next decade and beyond”
Andy Waring
