Background
The Chairman of Westley Group, Tom Westley, has again kindly agreed to sponsor the Westley Award for Church Bell Maintenance and Improvement. The first Westley Award was made to Barry Garrett of Carlisle Cathedral in 2019, and the second award to Sue McClaughry of Calstock in 2020.
For 2021, we are retaining the overall aim of recognising the recruitment, training and development of skills of people new to belfry maintenance and improvement. For 2021, we are expanding the criteria as many such activities have been limited during most of 2020 and into 2021. The awards will be presented in September 2021 at the CCCBR AGM.
The Award
The award will be made to a person who has engaged in supporting maintenance and improvement of tower bell installations for the first time in the last 5 years, and shows the most commitment to developing and using their own skills, and developing such skills of others. Activities may be in towers and elsewhere, for example advice, videos, demonstrations, preparation and presentation of training materials, etc.
Applications
Nominations may be made for yourself or for someone else. Female nominees and younger people are particularly encouraged to apply! Those who applied in 2019 and/or 2020 may enter again in 2021. People who are or have been employed by a professional bell foundry, bell hanger or similar organisation are NOT eligible for an award.
The closing date for nominations will be noon Sunday 30th May 2021. Applications, on the form provided, will be reviewed during June and the winner announced in July.
Please note that the judges may wish to contact the applicants to ask for clarification of points in the application.
Prizes
Westley Group will award the winner £100 and a certificate. The judges may also commend other applicants and present a certificate to them.
Judging
The judging panel will be drawn from members of the CCCBR Stewardship & Management Workgroup, independent members and previous winners or runners up. The judges’ decisions will be final.
The judging criteria will be:
- Benefits of the work under taken by the nominee
- Nominee’s approach to learning about tower bell maintenance and improvement
- Nominee’ssupportforothersnotpreviouslyinvolvedinmaintenanceandimprovement
- Scale and scope of activities under taken in the last 5 years (The number and cost of projects are not primary criteria)
Please return the Application form to the Workgroup Lead () by noon on Sunday 30th May 2021.
The application form and guidance can be downloaded here: