My Passion With Andrea Walker

I HAVE been a bell ringer at St Peter and St Paul’s, Eckington, for about five years now and fell into it by default really.

As members of Eckington Church, my eldest son, Chris, needed an activity for his Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Award and my husband Dave suggested he learn to ring.

The Tower Captain dutifully took him under his wing and spent three months ‘showing him the ropes!’

It wasn’t long before our two younger boys, Will and Tom, wanted to have a go. My husband suggested we all go as a family, but I was adamant I was only going to watch as I really didn’t want to get involved with any more activities. Time was scarce enough as it was.

We arrived at practice and the boys and Dave had a go... and yes... So did I! And here I still am.

For me, it has been a slow process to pick up the requirements of bell ringing but it has now become a challenge and I won’t be beaten!

Although bell ringing looks easy when watching professional ringers, having a go showed it was anything but.

It takes several months of practice to actually learn how to control the bell and then to be able to ring it alone. Once you have mastered ringing the bell you then have to learn how to follow another bell and ring in time with it.

Once I had mastered call changes, where the bells are called in a different order, I progressed to ringing before the Sunday morning service and soon after was allowed to ring for my first wedding.

It was a very nerve-wracking moment, as I really didn’t want to go wrong on the couple’s special day and as the bride can often be late, you can be ringing for quite some time.

I have now moved on to methods, which although difficult, I am confident I will master eventually. I am proud to say that I rang my first quarter peel (ringing non-stop for approximately 45 minutes) in November 2011, in celebration of my mum’s wedding, and now my youngest son Tom will be ringing his first quarter peel in September.

The youngsters are far better and much quicker at picking up bell ringing and its methods. But there are no time constraints on how long it takes. It’s also a great way to meet new people and practice night very often culminates in winding down in the local pub.

Ringing isn’t always confined to our home tower though. We often join practices at other towers too and welcome many visitors to ours from all over the country.

Many social occasions are also organised from ringing tours, visiting several different towers in a day, to non-ringing events such as quiz nights. Anyone can have a go no matter how young or old!