We have had a few people ask us whether there is coordinated ringing for Ukraine. A suggestion that we might be able to coordinate ringing across the whole of Russia overestimated our capabilities somewhat. Last week the Mayor of Lviv called for ringing around the world which had some responses. The Council has a policy on what we promote or encourage ringing for so that we don’t have to apply too much subjectivity, and we steer clear of anything political unless the Church specifically asks us. This is one where deciding to ring would be a local decision. The Church has actually said that they are going to wait and call for ringing when peace comes in whatever form.

There is more certainty over the timing of ringing for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee – not that that will matter to those ringers who, when faced with a four day Bank Holiday weekend, will ring every day. Those wanting to coordinate something special with others will be pointed towards ringing at the same time as the service at St Paul’s Cathedral on the Friday, and we have promoted the details of the weekend’s arrangements to the front page of the Council website. However, even those with access to the St Paul’s Cathedral diary have been unable to determine the time of the service. It just hasn’t been decided yet.

Two years ago we were working with the Churches Conservation Trust on a ‘Learn to Ring’ campaign, before Covid stopped us in our tracks. We have rekindled that enthusiasm and are working with them on a limited pilot event as part of their Platinum Jubilee activities. We are focusing on eight CCT towers spread around the country where the Trust will promote the ringing experience and local ringers will deliver it. Hopefully we will learn the extent of the CCT’s social media reach and the local bands will be rewarded. That’s the plan anyway.

I am trying to track down two newspaper articles that were in Sunday papers the last two weeks. The first was in the Mail on Sunday as a result of a journalist picking up from my blog that we are recording short videos for use on social media including TikTok. The second a week later (last Sunday) was the Sunday Times picking up on the same theme. The journalist was rather sceptical that young people would be interested in bell ringing “in this day and age” so I hope I put her straight on that. They were particularly interested in the TikTok theme, and in my saying that we needed to find an influencer who would like to spend less time going to Dubai and more time learning to ring bells.

Also bubbling along in the background are the plans for the Old Black Lion in Northampton, the site for our new ringing centre. We have a bi-monthly meeting with their project team. The project has moved back a little because the CCT are now changing the letting bedrooms upstairs into office space and hence have had to go back to planning. They are going to be cutting it fine on being ready for the Peterborough Diocesan Guild’s 100^th anniversary but hopefully the combination of improved ringing facilities at St Peter’s next door, the ringing centre, and the pub, will make Northampton a major ringing destination.

A small team is working on arrangements for the Council Annual Meeting weekend in Nottingham in September. It is a small team which we really wish was a large team! The intention is for the weekend to be more than just about the Council having its meeting but involve local ringers in ringing activities, and ringers from further afield coming to the Mini Roadshow on the Sunday. We are working on the exhibitors and speakers to provide a varied show. And I am confident the new Mobile Belfry will put in an appearance.

Speaking of which … the Mobile Belfry project team met last week to discuss trailer types, towing weights, and getting the Mobile Belfry built and ringable in advance of having the trailer to tow it. I am pencilling in a peal on it for the Platinum Jubilee, having only ever rung one tower bell peal outdoors (in the rain). We’re veering away from a standard Ivor Williams (how did they corner the trailer market?), to some sort of bare twin-axel chassis, and it looks like the weight is coming down further which will enable a greater range of vehicles to be able to tow it. A number of people have asked if they can contribute to this project so I am going to be setting up a crowdfunding account that will take gift aided donations.

Robert Wood is working on a document to go to Environmental Health Officers to educate them on bell issues. This is an area in which he has professional expertise so he is helping with this SMWG project. Complaints about bell noise are fortunately relatively uncommon as bellringers are on balance sensitive to this risk but this paper should be a useful tool to support any ringers with issues in the future. I like his line in the preamble “Prior to the industrial age, the only louder man-made sound was cannon fire.” I had never thought about that.

World Book Day is now the biggest day of the year for fancy dress costume sales, as parents try and pretend that the Disney Princesses come from the original novels. Harry Potter is fair game and quite cheap, but Elsa is unacceptable in my book. Anyway, after Charlie amused her classmates at Christmas by telling them her dad had given her a copy of his own book (unsigned), she went one better on World Book Day last week by going dressed as Superlative. It was a proud moment a week or so ago when I went in to see why her bedroom light was still on to find her reading “The Core Seven and Beyond” in bed.

Simon Linford
President CCCBR