Out and About

You may wonder what Out and About has to do with learning to ring. Well to put it in a nut shell quite a lot.

I took up ringing and became ‘A Mature Learner’ at the age of lets say well past the big 50 about four years ago I was quite annoyed with myself at being away on holiday when our Society had its annual Summer outing. Since then I have always made sure one way or another I am there for it, experiencing towers where I would certainly not like to learn to ring, from long drafts and no rope guides, to ceilings so low that the sally disappears, and as a sally watcher when ringing I find that difficult when ringing a method.

But I digress, this is not the Out and About I am talking about. I had been ringing only four months and on returning from a holiday in the UK asked about the Bells I had heard practicing at in a small village I was staying at. I was told ‘Oh they are okay you should have joined them it would have been an experience’.

Well that was something I had not thought about so the following year I decided whilst I was away with my daughter I would do just that, much to her annoyance. As she put it ‘You’re on holiday and that is something you do at home’. Well I did not listen to her and took myself off to the local tower, making sure I arrived before 7:30 as I was not sure what time they started and if the door would be locked once everybody had arrived. Well the welcome I received surprised me as it was so warm. The only questions being ‘You Can Ring I Take it’, to which I answered ‘Just a little only Rounds, Call Changes and Treble to Plain Bob’. They said they would start with Rounds to see how I handled the bells, so with knees knocking I pulled off a bell that I knew nothing about and without the beady eye of my own tower captain watching for the faults he knows I have, and ready to save me if I have that dreaded early learners ‘PANIC’. Needless to say I had a very enjoyable evening with seven strangers and made to feel completely at home. Handling must have been okay too, as I was asked to ring at another practice later on in the week because they usually end up short and can only normally ring five of their six bells, and also ‘Can you ring on Sunday as we will be short?’. Well as you can imagine being one of the ‘mature learners’ I walked out of that tower on cloud nine, and could not wait to get back to my home tower and tell my tower captain of the successes. The icing was added to my cake when I did tell him, as his comment was ‘What are they like? I have not rung there’ and he has been ringing nearly 40 years. As far as I know he still has not rung there.

The following year I became even more ambitious, and leaving my daughter at home knowing she would complain, I stayed in the UK and spend an enjoyable seven nights 280 miles away from my home. I set off on the Saturday and joined another local society for part of their annual ‘tower grab’ taking in three towers, and was made very welcome. Of course I had checked before setting off that this would be okay with them. I left them at lunchtime and continued to my destination and looking forward to ringing at the five towers. I had contacted all of them before hand to make sure that they were holding their practices, as this was in the height of the holiday period. This was a cheap holiday as I was staying at my sister’s, and my fellow ringers in my home tower will tell you I do not let the moths out of my purse very often!

The other reason and main reason why I had chosen the area was to ring at the church at which I was confirmed. As far as I can remember when I lived there the bells were not rung. This was to be my first ring of the week and you can imagine my disappointment at being held up in traffic and as a consequence being locked out of the tower. Not to be put off by this and having kept all the information I had gathered of the area I found another tower that also practiced on Monday evening and joined them; my luck was in; their practice started later and I was made welcome. I have since found out that this tower is not normally so accommodating. I will not bore you with the rest of the details of this holiday except to say that I was made very welcome at all of the towers. Also at one of the practices I met the tower captain from the practice I missed and was invited to ring at a wedding there on the Friday. They have three bells in a straight line which are very loud and hung on plain bearings. Ear defenders are offered

You are now probably sat there wondering what this has to do with learning; in fact you are probably thinking this is just another tower grab, and perhaps it is. But I learned quite a lot. Whilst I was sitting in these towers waiting to ring, and in some there was very little sitting around, I had a chance to see how ringers I didn’t know handle their ropes, what methods they were concentrating on, and talked to other ringers about how long it had taken them to get were they are. At all of the towers I was asked what I could ring, which was at the time was just a plain course of Plain Bob Doubles, to which some replied that’s okay we don’t call bobs here! This surprised me, because at my tower as soon as we are comfortable with a method bobs are added. At another towers I had the chance to listen to a course of Bristol, which sounded spot on to me and very enjoyable.

I came away from this holiday will the feeling that perhaps I am not as slow a learner as I thought I was, a realisation that the demonstration from my Tower Captain on how not to handle a rope was not quite as exaggerated as I thought, but also with the ambition to continue with my ringing and take is as far as I could.