I needed only one more ‘Thing’ to earn Gold Plus and, as I had already grabbed 47 towers and needed just three more to obtain a ‘Green Thing’, I organized a ringers’ mini-tour of Hatton, Lapworth and Honiley, celebrating finishing my 50th Tower and 50 Things Gold Plus at Honiley with fizz and cakes – yey!
I have had a fabulous time collecting ‘Things’, and was a relatively new ringer of just 19 months experience at the time of completing Gold Plus.
Celebrating together at Honily, L to R: Graham Nabb, Kathryn McCarthy, Gillian Hosking, Sue Marshall
I have learned and done so many ringing things that I would not normally have thought of doing as a new ringer if it hadn’t been for the ‘50 Things’ challenge. I have fitted muffles, spliced rope, whipped an end of rope, learned about transposition, organized a ringing tour, given a radio interview about recruiting bell ringers for the centenary of Armistice, organised a bell ringing recruitment open day, and many more.
Some of the ‘Things’ that have stood out for me and that I have enjoyed the most are: visiting Taylor’s bell foundry, experiencing a ringers’ service and ringers’ tea, ringing on a mobile mini-ring (the Maplestead 8, which has a 3.916kg tenor), ringing at Coventry Cathedral, helping with judging a striking competition, and organising a Ladies Who Lunch day out in Oxford to hear a bell over 5 tons (Great Tom). Fabulous
I joined forces with another ringer who was also collecting ‘50 Things’, Kathryn McCarthy, and we have attended many of the ‘Things’ together which has made this so much more fun; like the day we made our model bells – what a laugh! So thank you, Kathy, for your company.
I should also like to say a big thank you to Sue Marshall and Graham Nabb for all their encouragement and support. They have both been wonderful in my learning to ring experience
and ‘50 Things’! I couldn’t have done it without them.
I would highly recommend ‘50 Things’. It has been a challenge, but great fun!
This article was originally printed in the April 2019 edition of Tower Talk – the free quarterly newsletter, especially for new ringers. To sign up for future copies, please fill in your details here