How did I ever start on this journey? Well it was by accident really. I am not an experienced ringer and I have very little rope sight but the same is true of our few ringers so as we
needed a Tower Captain I took on the role. We had an Open Day in July 2016 and found
ourselves with quite a few people who wanted to learn so a fellow bellringer and myself
attended the ART Module 1 course. I gobbled up lots of the resources and bought most of the
books to help but at one point, there was a problem with postage  so I was asked if I wanted
to have the 50 Ringing Things book in lieu of postage.I asked my mentor Alan Bentley what he thought and as he had an input in creating it he needless to say suggested I take up the
offer,

Well, it arrived and I opened it up.  I took one look and the first thing that jumped off the
page was ring a Quarter Peal – “no way” thought I, if that was the sort of thing you had to do!
On looking closer, I thought that especially as I was teaching and also tower Captain there
might be some hope I could achieve Bronze. (I have to mention here that these 2 things are
not in the least a necessity to enjoy and be able to do ALL of the Things! – I think it just
meant that I did it quicker than I would otherwise have done – trying to keep one step
ahead of my learners)!

I signed up on 15th April 2017. During this month I managed to tick off 8 Things . I started to think that there was hope and I found that I was enjoying my ringing more as I was getting more involved. Even though I am still quite a novice I was having to Call Changes in our tower so that was a tick. We were fortunate to have a Branch Quarterly meeting with tea this month which had not happened before so as I was Organising the tea there was a tick there and also I attended the Practice and the Service. I was already in the throes of trying to learn Bob Doubles and Using an App on my IPhone – I still struggle with a touch including Bobs mainly because I haven’t developed rope sight yet. Being on the LtR Facebook page and also the 50 Ringing things and our Dorset Branch I do put quite a lot on those pages so that was an easy one to Publicise on social media. Finally, we had started to teach call changes to our group of learners so I prepared a Visual Aid to help teach this. As I cannot move ahead with my own learning in our tower, I do try to go out each week to a different Tower practice so again this was an easy tick.

I was beginning to feel quite proud of myself but more importantly I saw that there was more to Bellringing than turning up on a Friday having a ring and going home. I was understanding more which led to more enjoyment.

May brought a wonderful 17 ticks and submitting for my Bronze Certificate.

Though we had some learners in our tower, I was lucky enough to find a member of our Church who wanted to have a go so I was able to Bring a non-ringer to our practice and to teach him the Parts of the bell. Being the summer, we had several Weddings booked so I was able to have a tick there and on the same day there was a Guild meeting in Wimborne. Sadly, I wasn’t able to take part in the Open Day or go the meeting as I was ringing for the wedding but I was able to go along later in the day to help with the tea and Attend the tea. As our ringers are not experienced enough to Raise and lower in peal, that was going to be a difficult one but I was able to tick that one when visiting Corfe Mullen on a Sunday evening. I had previously prepared Publicity about our bells and Bellringing prior to starting 50 RT but it needed updating so I duly did this to bring it up to date with our ringers, times and what we are able to do so another tick. What an opportunity and excuse to get our tower cleaned – yes I ‘roped’ everyone in and one Saturday morning we gave the Ringing chamber and bell chamber a really good clean. I don’t think this had been done since I have been ringing.

I had now achieved my Bronze certificate. I’m not an experienced ringer as I had thought I would need to be so now I started to look at other things I could do and noticed that maybe a Silver could be achieved.

I had heard about Coursing Order and being told to follow your Course Bell but was never really sure what I was being asked to do, so here was a great opportunity to find out!! The theory was easy and I really do hope to put it into practice soon. Some of our ringers also ring on a small island off the south coast; Brownsea, and when we all had a visit there I was lucky to ring a bell weighing 1-2-20 less than 3 Cwt – it was an experience. The Simulator session was on a listening course I attended but since then we have had one installed in our own tower so plenty of practice on that now. Our first Ringing Outing was to Brownsea Island which included a tour of the island with one of our ringers who was a tour guide and we then rang on the church bells in the afternoon. I have been on several Training sessions – and these have really given me more confidence. I have done Listening Skills, Safety and Safeguarding and 2 of the ART teacher sessions. Running a practice was not a difficult one to tick as I am Tower Captain but this should not worry anyone thinking of doing this as part of their 50 RT as with guidance most people would be able to organise the ringers (What do you call a group of ringers?). Before starting the challenge, I had written a flyer about the History of our Tower and also put some of it on our website but this desperately needed updating with some records which had been omitted and I enjoyed completing this ‘Thing’. Muffling the bells was going to be a challenge for one reason being so difficult to get into our bell chamber and I don’t think the muffles have been used since I have been ringing. However, we had an opportunity to Fit the muffles and to ring a quarter peal for the father of one of our ringers so, needless to say, I felt obliged to help and succeeded – made me realise we desperately needed some new ones. I did not feel confident to ring the quarter peal but I was able to Ring on muffled bells a course of Bob doubles prior to the quarter peal. I have always seen the benefit of taking short recordings of my ringing to see where I go wrong so adding to YouTube was the next step. I managed to demonstrate bad handling for my learners and Add it to YouTube for our eyes only!! – though I did add it to 50RT FB page.

Then June was upon us, and I was really keen to get that Silver. I did another Video and also a Recording which helped us listen to the bells and understand Handstroke gap. We were still a very novice band but the ringing Bonanza was upon us and I was really proud that our learner ringers encouraged each other to enter not 1 but 2 teams for the Striking Competition. They were great, coming second and third (OK there were only 3 teams but well done!) I made up a crossword for Ringing Jargon – easy when you use an online crossword maker so this counted as my Ringing Quiz. On this day I was invited by our Branch Ringing Master, Jack Pease to ring at Winchester Cathedral – you can guess my answer – what a great experience that was. On top of that a Silver had been achieved!

Though this is a 12 bell tower I couldn’t claim 2 Things but luckily later in the month we had a special joint practice at a local tower with 10 bells and earlier in the week I was encouraged to ring a heavier bell than normal at Spetisbury 17Cwt.

And into July, when I thought that just out of interest I would carry on and do as many other ‘Things’ as I could – as you need another 20 to get Gold. I thought that maybe at some stage I would reach that number but little did I realise that I had got the bug and I pestered Jack and Alan to help with some of the ‘Things’.

We have a ringer with Visual Impairment and I struggled to find any advice on how to help her with this so I Contacted the Guild and eventually wrote an Article. In July we had a Special Occasion when we rang for The Dean of Salisbury on the day of her final service in the Cathedral,  before taking up her appointment as the Bishop of Llandaff.

…..and by now I was able to tick off Regularly ringing for Sunday Services and Regularly ring for practice.

August was family time but I did Write an article about our journey from 4 ringers to 12 ringers and I was given the chance at a local tower to Call a Plain course of Bob Doubles.

At another wedding at our tower (and encouraged again by Jack0 I was able to Lead ringing up and down . He studied my 50 RT book and listed a lot of ‘Things’ he thought I could do – Place notation being the first so after he explained it to me I went home and wrote it out – unbelievable how that works. Also at the wedding, one of our other visiting ringers reminded me that his tower was a 4 bell tower so I arranged a visit. Maybe that Gold just might be possible. I was encouraged by a post on 50RT FB page of a tower that had done some training on splicing a rope and set to finding someone to do that. We did not have time or the ability on the day but we did learn how to whip a rope. Holiday time – can I persuade my husband to let me out?! – well he goes off to play golf and go fishing so ‘yes’ I was allowed out and really enjoyed Ringing whilst on holiday in Richmond North Yorkshire on their newly hung bells.

I couldn’t really count teaching at my own tower and we had a recruitment day before starting 50RT. However, our neighbouring tower in Lytchett Minster were having an Open Day so I went along to Help with recruitment there and then I Helped with a teaching session. Another outing: as Jack asked if we would like him to Organise an outing for us which I jumped at but asked if I could help organise it. A great day out going up Salisbury tower (Not easy when you are not very happy with heights but I got there) and then ringing at 3 more towers in the Wiltshire area supported by ringers from Brownsea. I was running out of things I thought I could do but Alan encouraged me to Learn about transposition. I have often wondered how experienced ringers can tell everyone what they should be doing and now I know but will I ever be in that position – very unlikely.

Only 3 more to go! I had to go up that tower again… that was Jack again encouraging me to Help with a maintenance check (now passed that job over to another ringer but at least I know what I am asking him to do) and while we were up there why not just Tie up a rope!

And finally, our Social Event held in one of our ringer’s houses with activities using ART ‘Come on Listen to it’ DVD, Crossword produced earlier and a wonderful play put on by another ringer also doing 50 RT who achieved a tick for studying the History of Bells, by creating a play about the Bells of Rye. Prizes for the first team were Gold chocolate coins (or clappers) and the second team got Bronze chocolate clappers and I got Gold + 50 Ringing Things in 28 weeks.

I had the icing on the cake as when Alan as my ART member checked my book he added another so I got 51 – Even though I cannot show progress learning the LtR scheme he said I could include it as I am actually teaching it.

You don’t need to be an experienced ringer to go for this challenge and if you are up for a challenge it is a great experience. Find out if others are doing it and ask for help and advice from more experienced ringers. Get out there and ring at other towers and see how it broadens your view of your very special hobby. There are at least 2 other doing 50 RT in our Tower and some of them have only been ringing for a year.