What has worked – stories from teachers and their ringers

Recruiting young ringers

I have used various approaches to recruit young ringers. I confess that I find the most effective way of recruiting young ringers is to constantly be on the look out for young people of around ten years old, preferably with their parents, so I can get to know the parents and when I have gained their trust, then ask if their children may come and try ringing.

Susan Read

Heritage Skills Festival

Arranged by the Cathedral, this event was the largest festival of its type to be held outside of London. The number of displays were too numerous to mention all, but included embroidery, glove–making, clock making, saddlery, flower arranging, stained glass, calligraphy, stone masonry, wood turning, lead plumbing, and of course … bell ringing.

Sandra Underwood

Starting a new band

Four years on, my original 4 learners are all still ringing and we have a team of 8, plus 3 new learners. We don’t have as many helpers as we’d like, so it can take a time for us to master something new, but the team has bonded strongly by facing these challenges together; often cheering or applauding each other when they accomplish something for the first time.

Ginette Pardoe

Intensive training

A recruitment exercise that went wrong - a tower open day generated 13 people who wanted to learn to ring. The traditional way of teaching wasn’t going to work so we decided to take intensive teaching to the extreme and commit to getting everyone up to ringing rounds on four within a month. This being a leap year February gave us 29 days!

Lesley Belcher

Duke of Edinburgh success

We’ve had some good experiences over the past decade. Being adjacent to Harrow School helps so we have a relatively easy “recruitment channel” drawing around four new recruits each year. The track record throughout D of E and post-D of E is pretty good with recruits continuing to ring - going on to ring hundreds of quarter peals and becoming officials at local towers.

Christopher O'Mahony

Older ringers

This was not Christine’s first attempt at learning to ring. It was in fact her last attempt at learning before throwing in the towel. She overcame considerable problems with anxiety about bell handling to finally master the skill and has subsequently come a long way. She has become a competent method ringer and has now rung over 30 quarter peals

Clare McArdle

The Scottish experience

As a member of the congregation and a lapsed ringer, I was volunteered to find recruits to ring our new bells. Advertised locally in magazines and by word of mouth, one by one, I had various people approach me, who were already ringers or who liked the idea of learning to ring. 25 turned up at that first training day, most of whom are still with us ...

Debbie Johnson and Judith Frye

Forming a young ringers’ group

When The Edington Ringing Centre opened in 2010 The Western Daily Press did a four page spread detailing our recruitment drive. We managed to attract six young members all around 11 or 12 years old. They very quickly bonded and we held another “open” session during the summer holidays of that year when we managed to welcome four more ...

Christine Purnell

What's next?

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