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Home arrow Church Bells arrow Bell Ringing Group arrow Learning To Ring
Learning To Ring

Anyone can learn to ring! It's open to all ages and gives you new skills, new friends and takes you to new places!

Bellringing is great FUN!

  • You don't have to be particularly strong or mathematically-minded to ring. A good sense of rhythm helps though.
  • Bellringing can be physically and mentally challenging, but it doesn't matter how long it takes you to learn. Even as a beginner you become a valuable part of the team.
  • There are about 40,000 bellringers in the UK. Bellringing is a great way of making new friends and meeting people.
  • All sorts of people are bellringers, whether they go to church or not. Anyone aged from about 10 can learn to ring.
  • There are over 5,000 rings of five or more bells hung for change ringing in the UK. Bells usually weigh between 1 cwt (50kg) and 4 tons (4,000kg) and are made from an alloy of copper and tin
  • Bellringing is a really good way of visiting lots of new places. It is practised mainly in Britain, but also in Australia, New Zealand, USA, Canada and South Africa too!
  • "Ringing the Changes" or change ringing involves ringing bells rhythmically in sequence. The bells start by ringing down the scale. This is called ringing rounds. Bellringers learn sequences of changes called "methods" such as Grandsire Triples, Plain Bob Major and Stedman Cinques.
  • Change ringing has a great history and really started to develop in the early 17th century.
  • Although rings of bells are usually called peals, the word "peal" also means when 5,000 or more different changes are rung non-stop. A peal takes about three hours to ring!
If you would like to learn to ring, please go to the 'Contact Church Bells' link. We practise every Monday at 7.30pm till 9pm at Woolpit.
 
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