For many, of the most enjoyable perks of learning to ring Church bells is  the tradition of visiting and ringing at other towers. Ringing outings give us the chance to explore some beautiful Churches, ring a variety of bells and socialise with other ringers.

Ringing on the Steel Bells at Waddesdon

Like a lot of bands, every year, Marsworth team arrange an annual summer outing, where we visit 5 towers and have a nice lunch together. Not only is this good for ‘team building’, but it offers all of us the chance to gain experience ringing on different bells and improve our confidence with bell handling. As we take plenty of experienced ringing teachers along, even very new ringers who have recently achieved their LtR L1 certificates are most welcome to come along and ring rounds – and there is always someone available to stand with them, offering support as they adjust to the feel of an unfamiliar bell.

We had plenty of experienced ringers on hand to ‘stand behind’

One very experienced ringer who joined us for the day remarked at how confident all our newest ringers were. He observed that those who had learned with the LtR curriculum were totally unphased by new bells and showed no signs of nervousness at all. Over lunch, we discussed whether this might be because having started learning with the bell ‘down’, ringers had always felt totally safe as they gradually learned to handle a bell with small, manageable steps.

Enjoying the sunshine outside North Marston Church.

When choosing towers to visit, we try to select rural Churches (to avoid town centre traffic and parking issues) and are which are within easy travelling distance, so we can spend more time ringing and less of the day driving.

Last year, one of our ringers was recovering from foot surgery, so we particularly chose ground floor rings and one tower with just a few steps, so that she was able to join in.

Ringers of all ages enjoyed the day out together

We loved the easygoing bells at Wotton Underwood, marvelled at the stunning interior of the Church at North Marston and some of us gained our first experience of a ‘chancel crossing ring’ at Bierton. The unusual sound of the steel bells at Waddesdon was quite a talking point and we were given the opportunity to concentrate on our long, straight, ringing styles when challenged by the long, unguided draft at Hardwick.

Because Marsworth is an ART teaching tower, we always have plenty of visitors from other Churches, so the outing invitation was extended to quite a large group.

Ringing on the Long, Unguided Draft at Hardwick

As everyone paid £1 per tower, after paying the customary tower donations, we found that we had a little profit on the outing – and all of those present unanimously agreed to donate this to the Association of Ringing Teachers, as a thank you for all the learning support that the team have benefitted from.

This year, our annual outing is planned for the 22nd August and takes us to five towers in Bedfordshire.  We are very much looking forward to a fun day out, and hopefully donating any surplus funds to ART.