St Mary's Ringing Band meets regularly to ring:

•  9.00 - 9.30am (every Sunday)

•  6.00 - 6.30pm (2nd, 4th & 5th Sundays)

 

Practice is on Tuesdays at 7.30pm, usually followed by a visit to the pub

 

Visitors and new ringers are always welcome. For more information contact bells@welwyn.org.uk

 

What is Change Ringing?

 

Change Ringing is something peculiar to this country, with a few towers in former colonies such as Australia and Canada. We don't ring tunes, we ring "methods" - changing the order of the bells in various patterns.

 

It's a hobby everyone can share and most bands have a mixture of ages. The minimum age is 10 and there is no upper age limit, as long as you can climb the stairs to the ringing chamber (spiral stairs, 35 steps). Quite a few ringers start at 60! Ringers do not have to be church-goers but, once you are competent enough, you will be expected to ring regularly on Sundays.

Ringing isn't a skill that you can master in just a few weeks, but that makes it all the more interesting. Once you can control the bell there's whole world opening up before you. There are regular ringing meetings at other towers in the district and occasional ringing outings. Once you've learned how to ring reasonably well you can turn up at any tower in the country and you will be made welcome.

 

It's one person on each rope, so to ring all our 8 bells we need 8 ringers. The bells are all different weights but even our youngest ringers can ring the heaviest bell once they have mastered the technique.

 

It goes without saying that if you have rung in the past and are not currently part of a band that ring on Sundays, you'd be very welcome at Welwyn.