Become a Tower Bell Ringer

We need some more people learning to ring at Ecclesfield.

It could be the interest you are looking for.  There is a place for you.  Come and see.

Do something different, be part of a village tradition, keep the bells ringing out over Ecclesfield.

There are over 40,000 people ringing bells in the UK at over 5,000 towers.  It's a fun hobby open to everyone.

Contact us now, email: ecclesfieldtower@hotmail.co.uk for more information.

Church bell ringing is a team activity that is good mental excercise, it challenges you to use your brain and helps to keep you fit.  In learning to ring you will be part of a global group of friends, start a lifelong learning experience, maintain a traditional skill and serve your community.  People from all over the world ring tower bells.  It is a fun hobby open to everyone.

We are always interested in meeting anyone who would like to learn to ring our church bells.  It doesn't matter what age you are, adults or young people are all welcome.  This ancient art will only continue if we pass it on to others and to another generation.

It's something unusual to do in this age of IT, TV  and games consoles.  Bring a friend, learn together, Ecclesfield must keep it's bellringing tradition going, please be part of it.  The bells are part of the village's sound landscape, probably the oldest musical instrument still being used regularly, you are hearing and could be performing on instruments that are several centuries old.  They are a link to the past.  Ecclesfield residents hundreds of years ago heard exactly the same sounds.

Ringing does not require a large amount of effort, only an ability to count, a sense of timing, a willingness to ring for Sunday services and attend practice nights as often as possible.  No musical knowledge is needed and no music is used.  Children must attend with a parent or carer on their first visit and lesson and should be at least 11 years old.  We have a Child Protection Policy.

    View of the ringing chamber

The purpose of this page is not to teach you to ring, rather to make you curious enough to come and see how it's done.  Come and see how the bells work, how ringers can control bells weighing from a few hundredweights to several tons with only a rope.  Find out how change ringing  is done and what ropesight is.

Tower bell ringing is still done in the same way as when it began in the 17th century.  Come and watch, we would be pleased to meet you. 

Access to our ringing chamber is by a spiral staircase and a short flight of steps.  To learn to ring at Ecclesfield you must be able to climb the 42 steps.  If you are not able to climb steps, contact us and we will advise you where your nearest tower is with a ground floor ringing chamber.

Our practice night is Tuesday from 7.30pm to 9.00pm.

Sunday Service ringing is usually from 8.45am to 9.30am.  The access to the tower is round the back of the church through the small wooden door opposite the old vicarage.  Climb the spiral stairs, keep going up the straight stairs and wait by the wooden door until the ringing stops, then enter.  We will show you round the ringing chamber and belfry, you will see what we do and meet the ringers.  Hopefully you will like us, like what you see and want to be part of it.

We have ringers who learnt when they were young, had a break then have taken it up again.  If you can ring and are wondering whether to start again, please do come and see us.  If you have moved into the area recently and you can ring, please call in.

Our 8 bells require 8 ringers, but in order to provide enough ringers for services and weddings and cover for absences such as holidays and other commitments we actually need many more than 8 ringers.  If we are short of ringers we have to ring fewer bells but it does not sound as good as all 8 and as we have 8 we like to ring them all.

COME AND HAVE A GO

The Tenor bell in the up position ready for ringing.  The little Sanctus Bell in the background

What is Bell Ringing all About

The Central Council of Church Bell Ringers represents all who ring bells in the English tradition with rope and wheel, have a look at their website by using this link. 

Learning to Ring

Once a ringer has mastered bell control (taught individually as a 1 to 1 with an instructor) and can ring rounds (the bells descending down the musical scale), the next step is to learn to ring call changes.  In call changes the team continue to ring the same repeating sequence until the conductor changes the order by calling a new change.  This provides a bit of variation but its repetitive nature is pleasing to listen to particularly for weddings.  Many ringers are quite happy to reach this standard and do not wish to move onto the art of change ringing.  There is no requirement to learn change ringing if you don't want to.

Change Ringing

Church Bell Ringers centuries ago realised that if you had 6 bells there are 720 different combinations of the 6 bells that could be rung.  If you could change the order at every pull you would produce an ever changing sound and make ringing the bells much more interesting.  This however required all ringers to know how the order changed at every pull and have a method of remembering how they changed.  Thus change ringing was born.  The changes (called Methods) are hundreds of years old but new ones are being composed regularly.

For many ringers the challenge of ringing methods is part of the reason they ring bells.  They strive to learn ever more complicated methods and ring them to quarter and peal length.  For a band of ringers the ability to ring methods allows the art to continue, handed down from generation to generation and ringer to ringer.  Ecclesfield does have a change ringing band so we can continue the long tradition of ringing the changes at St Mary's.  But only if more people take up bell ringing.

If a ringer reaches the stage where they can ring a method to a quarter peal they can become full members of the Yorkshire Association of Change Ringers (YACR).  There are associations of change ringers all over the UK.  The YACR was established in 1875.

What else do ringers do?

To make bell ringing more interesting ringers visit other church towers.  There are over 5000 towers in the UK.  The majority of change ringing bells operate the same way so if you can ring at Ecclesfield, you should be able to ring at other towers just as easily.

As a ringer you will always be welcome at another tower's practice night.  Anyone interested in architecture, history, photography or memorials will find even more of interest as you can have a ring and get to look around a Church, take some interesting photos and see the local area as well.

Keeping a log of towers visited, bells rung along with photos is something most ringers do.  If you holiday in the UK the temptation to go and have a ring where you are staying will probably find you attending a practice night or getting up early on Sunday to join the local team for Sunday Service ringing.

Every tower is different in its layout, access, the way the bells feel to ring, the sounds and the weights.  the more unusual might have a detached tower (Wykeham N Yorks), a tower you go down into (Whitby) a ringing cage (Pershore Abbey), a small ringing chamber (Walkley), ropes that don't form a circle (Marr), ropes that go anti-clockwise (Foxholes), ropes that are in the Chancel (Melbourne Derbyshire) and many more out there to be discovered. 

Most bell ringing teams including ours at Ecclesfield have a social side as well.  We might go out for a meal, a night in the pub, an outing to ring at towers in another part of the country, barbeques, catching up on news (gossip) at practice night, handbell ringing, etc.  To get an idea of what we do have a look at the Latest News section of our News and Links Page.

In March 2007 we had a ringing outing to Derbyshire, an account of our travels can be found on our News and Links Page.  In October 2007 we joined in a ringing outing to Evesham area and in April 2008 we were ringing in West Yorkshire at Holmfirth and New Mill, details are on the News and Links page. 

The Yorkshire Association of Change Ringers hold monthly ringing meetings at different towers for ringers to meet other ringers, try new methods, ring at another tower and generally socialise.  Often the host tower's ringers will provide food known as a ringers tea.

There is much more to do as a ringer than just ringing the bells at your local Church.  This link explains more.

To contact us about anything on this web site or ringing at Ecclesfield, please email: ecclesfieldtower@hotmail.co.uk