I have just returned from ringing at “Shakespeare’s Church”, Holy Trinity in Stratford-upon-Avon, a wonderful 10-bell tower. I rang with a group who call themselves the Wombelles, and I have been so impressed with the way the group is run, and how much fun everyone has, that I felt it was time to tell others.

Years ago, after a simulator was installed in the tower at Whitnash, regular Monday morning practice sessions were started, and I joined them. One member of the group started to call us the Wombelles, a contraction of “Whitnash on Monday bell(e)s”, and the name stuck.

As more people joined, the session was divided in two, with beginner and intermediate sessions one week, and intermediate and advanced the next. But, as time went by, the more advanced ringers started to feel that they wanted more rope time and then, when the tower was due to be closed for several months for roof repairs, they went off to ring somewhere else (and took many of the helpers with them). So what were the rest of us to do?

Ringing at Saintbury – Photograph by Mike Rigby

One of the learners, Keith Archer, had the bright idea that if we went to a different tower each week we could ring on open bells without causing too much disturbance, and there were quite a few rarely-rung towers where visitors of even our relatively early ability would be welcomed. So he booked some towers and persuaded a couple of more advanced ringers to join us. We kept the name, too, but changed the meaning to Wandering on Monday bell(e)s.

Pub lunch – photograph by Mike Rigby

Earlier this year Keith organised a third anniversary tour of four towers in the Cotswolds. We started at St Nicholas, Saintbury, a wonderful but now redundant mediæval church in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust. Then on to St Eadburgha, Broadway; St Michael & All Angels, Stanton (grade I listed); and St Peter, Stanway (adjacent to the manor with its famous water gardens).

Saintbury Church – photograph by Mike Rigby

Over the three years since Keith had the idea, the group have rung at over a hundred different towers in Warwickshire and beyond. That has given us a bit of a reputation in our local Guild as tower-grabbers, but that belies the fact that ringing on different bells each week is tremendously helpful in acquiring good bell control. It also gets new ringers over the fear of ringing in ‘strange’ towers, and we all get to see beautiful historic churches in new places.

We never miss a week unless the Monday is a public holiday or it’s Holy Week. Wombelles is popular because nobody is turned away, and no pressure is applied in any way. It’s remarkable how people have progressed, too. Only occasionally do we ring anything harder than Plain
Hunt, because that’s not what we’re about. We aim for good striking (of course!) but the group is just as much about the social side as it is about the ringing. People only come to a tower if they want to, but we are never short of ringers.

And Holy Trinity actually asked us to go back again.

Would a group like this work where you are?

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