From Virtual to Tower: Wensleydale Ringers' Ringing Room Success

What, if anything, is worth keeping from the COVID lockdown period? Well definitely the Wensleydale Clusters online ringing course! Host Cathy Booth hears from ART award winners David Scrutton and Jonathan Couchman, who tell the story behind their successful recruitment scheme, now in its third year.

In just five hours of online learning and practice in Ringing Room, the course gets wannabe ringers up to the stage of understanding plain hunt and eager to be matched with a local tower captain so they can begin ringing for real in a nearby tower. The retention rate is impressive too!

Lots of tips here for any ringing project - bring together talented people with towers in need, keep things friendly and informal, and don’t intimidate leaners by exposing them too early to the ‘scary ringers’…

Top 5 Takeaways

• Check out all the other winners and runners up from the ART awards as there is plenty of inspiration there! www.ringingteachers.org/awards
• Committees and formal structures can sometimes put people off – keep your project agile with just a small team at the top
• Interested in following Wensleydale’s example? Check out their materials: www.funwithbells.com/wensleydale-ringers-resource
• Think about timing for any recruitment, or project come to think about that. People need something to do and look forward to in the cold, dark nights in January and February
• Consider the benefits of online ringing for people with health conditions, carers and others who find it hard to leave the house. So much potential to bring ringing, and the wider community, together.

Sponsor: This podcast is sponsored by the Association of Ringing Teachers (ART).  To find out more about learning to ring, learning to teach or other resources to support your ringing go to bellringing.org

Podcast team:
Anne Tansley Thomas
Emily Roderick
John Gwynne
Emily Watts
Cathy Booth

Ringing by:
The Cambridge Youths (supplied by David Richards) and for later episodes, The Liliputters Guild (supplied by Simon Edwards).

For bellringing training and support for teachers and ringers see: bellringing.org