Like all towers we reached a point where we desperately needed more bell ringers due to ringers leaving for various reasons. The question was how to recruit learners. We tried an open day which resulted in no takers and a broken stay.
We are a combined Roade/Ashton band and one of our ringers is a Sunday School Teacher at Ashton. One Sunday morning she explained to the children why the bells were not rung for service that Sunday morning. Within two weeks we had six young recruits and after 18 months we have still got four of these who are now ringing call changes and starting plain hunt. Two weeks ago we had another young recruit making our young ringers total up to five (ages 10 to 12 years). So recruiting from the Sunday School has been good for us. Also we recruited 2 adult ringers from the church congregation, one has retired due to health problems. So at the moment Roade/Ashton have a band of 11.
Two points. First, is that all of the learners came from the church community in both villages. Secondly, the church congregation ad the rector/church wardens know the ringers and we are part of the church community where we receive recognition and support.
Alan Cozens, Roade
» Return to the recruitment and retention home page
» Return to read more about other groups you can work with