By Gail Bell on 26-Nov-2019 - It all started after having a go on a mini-ring at an open day at Lincoln Cathedral, when my daughter and I were invited to try a ‘real’ bell. I started to back-pedal – busy lives, teenage kids, working shifts – however,Sandra Underwood, who became our teacher, was not to be deterred. (With a name […] Read more
By Mary Jones on 22-Jul-2019 - From years of experience as a primary school teacher, I know that children are wired differently to adults – if a task is not fun, they get bored and shift their attention to something more interesting, unlike most adults who have learnt to complete a task, whether they like it or not. (Although I have […] Read more
By Ruth Suggett on 18-Jul-2019 - In the second quarter of 2019, 258 certificates were awarded to ringers at the various stages of Learning the Ropes (LtR) as shown below (last year’s numbers given for comparison) Level 1: Bell Handling 132 (144) Level 2: Foundation Skills 79 (63) Level 3: Introduction to Change Ringing 19 (23) Level 4: Novice Change Ringer […] Read more
By Cara Tatterton on 11-Jun-2019 - I started my ringing journey in March 2015 and within 3 months I was well and truly hooked. In January of this year I rang inside to five-spliced Surprise Major. I would describe my ringing journey so far as being peppered with good fortune coupled with a lot of hard work. Here are my top […] Read more
By Roger Booth on 29-Mar-2018 - “Many thanks for an excellent course. We all learned a great deal and are most grateful to you for the positive, encouraging way you allayed our nerves and fears” “Very inspiring and informative, now I need some new ringers” “Thank you for a very useful course. It helped me having watched an ART Teacher over […] Read more
By Vinni Sullivan on 12-Jan-2018 - Anne-Marie Adams, a ringer at St Mary’s Wargrave, became the 800th ringer to be awarded LtR Level 2, Foundation Skills, having completed the final exercise by calling call changes on Wednesday 3 January 2018. Tower manager John Coombes presented her with her certificate on the next practice night, when she rang the treble to plain […] Read more
By Roger Booth on 14-Dec-2017 - Coming top of the Google search lists, the Association of Ringing Teachers (ART) currently receives around 400 enquiries a year, mostly from people wishing to learn to ring. However, some of the more unusual enquiries include people wishing to learn to ring tunes on handbells, restore their tower bells, or for an unusual ‘experience’ as […] Read more
By Debbie Phipps on 01-Nov-2017 - 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 […] Read more
By Debbie Phipps on 26-Aug-2017 - St Mary’s Church; Lytchett Matravers On Friday 25th August 2017 we marked the presence in our Guild (at the Dorset Steam Fair) of the Ypres Memorial Bells on their way to Belgium. Our band comprises of mainly novice ringers following the ART programme of learning so we were unable to ring any special Method but as […] Read more
By Ginette Pardoe on 29-Jul-2017 - In 2013, a fellow ringer suggested we start a monthly practice at Broseley in Shropshire with a view to establishing a new band; there hadn’t been an active band there in several years. I mentioned this to a friend, Teresa, who is also the landlady of a local pub (so I see her quite often!), […] Read more