Ringing Forums

I hate to say, but the purpose of a church is not to provide a venue for bellringers to practice their art, nor is to waft our mathematical melodies across the countryside. If the demographics of the area have changed and the church no longer receives viable support from its locality, then it is likely to be declared redundant.
Of late I have been helping a neighbouring church to re-establish its ringing team. It is a large Victorian sandstone structure seating about 500 or more, with a 23cwt ring of eight by Taylors from 1884. BUT as we came out of the tower one week recently, there were more ringers coming out than there people attending the service for which we had just rung. Redundancy must surely be on the horizon.

Thank you Mark! I’m not sure that any of the local ringers in Wigan are part of this forum so I will pass on your message through the Lancashire Association to the Wigan band.

Have any territorial associations started to form committees, policies or guidance for churches facing closure? The long term implications for ringing mean church closures are something we should not ignore. I am not overlooking the wider church issues, but trying to focus on what we can do as a guild to support ringers in our area who are facing church closure, as well as the long term care of the bells.

Very good of you, thanks Lucy.

I understand that the Essex Association is collecting data on each church with bells in their association based on the risk rating proposed at the Central Council AGM weekend by @Simon Linford. Might be worth asking them what they're planning.

Hi

Here in Devon we've begun collating information from our local contacts - here is a request we sent round in this month's newssheet :

Help us identify churches At Risk
The recent Central Council meeting ended with a thought provoking presentation about the likelihood of churches closing in future with a particular focus on identifying those with bells that may be At Risk.

The presentation is available to review on YouTube if you missed it :

https://www.youtube.com/live/Xv_VhWRj8NQ?si=6Vh4M6dC41s_mNhH

This checklist was presented - if the answer is Yes to the majority of these questions then it is possible your church may be At Risk.

<snipped image from presentation showing checklist>

Figures were presented suggesting there may be quite a high number of churches in Devon which would unfortunately pass the checklist test and there are more rings of bells in Devon than any other county so there is a possibility that some rings we are currently able to visit may become unavailable.

It was also suggested that early knowledge of the possibility of church closure is really helpful to enable planning for possible re-location of bells to another church.

So we would like your help please?

Please take a look at the checklist and let the branch officers know if the number of Yes answers is in the majority for your church.

Thank you, I will take a look at this, very helpful.