How to ring church bells explained by the bellringers of Edith Weston

For someone who is tone deaf and barely capable of tapping a rhythm on a table, bellringing didn’t seem a likely pastime.

But having been shown the ropes by a county ringing master - the aptly named Ian Bell - it turns out the main skill is counting to eight.

Surely even a journalist can manage that?

The bellringers of St Mary the Virgin Church, Edith Weston, are an amiable lot - happy to welcome newcomers, and given they were four folk short of operating their six-bell tower until the coronation called us to ‘Ring for the King’ back in 2023, that’s no bad thing.

There are about a dozen who can ring at St Mary’s now, and among their number is tower captain Tracey Lawson.

She led me up a tall-yet-tiny stone spiral staircase to see the bells and explain how pulling on the end of a rope turns a wheel onto which each bell is mounted, allowing the clapper to strike.

Perched precariously between the bells, Tracey points out the smallest, always called the treble, and the largest, always called the tenor. I was expecting to find a mezzo-soprano somewhere in between, but they are instead called bells two, three and four - which works for me.

Each wheel has a ‘stay’, a metre or so of ash wood that turns with the wheel and comes to rest against a ‘slider’, which prevents the wheel turning more than 360 degrees and winding up the bellrope with it.

The purpose of the stay is also to hold the bell upside down ready to be rung. With these structural elements now in mind, I was warned not to go at bellringing ‘like the clappers’, since stays can be snapped. Not only is it tricky to get a Black and Decker Workmate up a spiral staircase, finding ash isn’t easy either, since ash dieback became a thing.

Back at the business end, Ian took me through the motions of bellringing.

Without getting too technical, there’s a handstroke which involves pulling on the Sally (the fluffy bit of the rope) and a backstroke, which involves not losing the non-fluffy tail end of the rope as it heads upwards towards the bell, and instead pulling it back down, moving the wheel and the bell in the opposite direction.

Standing on a block of wood to give me more height, I was talked through keeping my hands together, feet apart and pulling gently and smoothly down in a straight line, keeping some tension in the rope. There's no need to enter a squat at this point, or even to bend the knees. It remains dignified.

Then, not letting go, I was encouraged to allow the rope to pull my hands and arms back up to a full stretch.

It's here, I must warn you, that dignity could be in danger. Wearing a long top tucked in can prevent flashes of flesh. Let’s leave belly dancing to the church hall groups.

There’s something very satisfying about knowing your actions can be heard throughout an entire village and beyond. In fact, Edith Weston has heard the loudest noise I’ve ever made.

And by sticking with bellringing as a hobby, other satisfactions will soon follow. Listening to bellringers ring a ‘round’ of the six bells - each one pulled in turn around the circle to create a pleasing sound, not a cacophony - it’s easy to see how appealing it would become.

Those who aren’t musical needn’t worry. As recent recruit Toni Wilkin puts it: “I can’t read music, I don’t go to church, and I’m quite old.”

Jean Tinsley, who was involved in ringing a 42-minute quarter peal for her 70th birthday, explained that bellringers can’t play tunes, although with practice they can perform a variety of sequences, with the ringing master calling out changes to the regular ‘round’ pattern.

She also rings at the Church of St Kyneburgha in Castor, where a ringing school takes place on Saturday mornings.

Tower captain Tracey started bellringing for the King’s coronation, having moved to the area a short time earlier.

“It was a way of finding out about the area and meeting lovely people who I now call friends,” she said.

“To be able to ring at church services and people’s weddings is very exciting.”

As well as now having plenty of people to keep the bells ringing at Edith Weston, a new generation is having a go, with several teenagers choosing it as an activity towards a Duke of Edinburgh Award.

Anyone interested in finding out about bellringing can visit rutlandbellringing.org