Ring of Confidence

Saturday was a Bellringing Festival at Buckfast Abbey - part of the celebrations to mark the millennium of the Abbey and the culmination of months of planning and organisation by Devonshire ringers and the  staff at the Abbey.

Devon is a vast, predominantly rural county with hundreds of village churches. Many of these have rings of bells, but there is a shortage of ringers.

2018 also marks the centenary of the end of the first world war, and there is currently a national drive to recruit 1400 ringers to replace the estimated number of ringers who were killed during the WW1.
The festival was just one way the ringers is Devon are encouraging folks to learn to ring or to tempt lapsed ringers back on to the end of a rope.




Two mini rings of bells had been assembled in the grounds of Buckfast Abbey, to allow anyone who was interested to have a go at ringing a bell.

Even the KHT was tempted to have a pull.
I think tower bells seem too big to her, but a mini ring feels more like a toy.

Actually, they are not as easy as they look, and the required action is reminiscent of milking a cow - pull the rope with one hand then grasp the 'sally (the fluffy green bit) with the other give it a little bit of a tug before releasing, and repeat.

How wonderful it would have been if the sun had shone and people could have sat around and listened to the quiet tinkling of the mini rings, which sounded like windchimes, and perhaps lingered longer, instead of rushing from one relatively dry spot to the next. Instead we had drizzle, intermingled with outbreaks of rain.

The KHT also enjoyed the bell-themed craft activities and designed her own clay bell and flag. There was also an art exhibition and the usual attractions of the Abbey to enjoy.




Throughout the day the bells of Buckfast Abbey bells were also being rung by teams of ringers from across the West Country - their magnificent deep tones ringing out across the valley.
We tagged along with the Mid Devon ringers.
Let me tell you, it is a long, long, long exhausting climb up to the ringing chamber.
At one point you appear on a balcony above the chancel crossing. It was all rather vertigo-inducing, but not as bad as the notorious Pershore Abbey, where the bells are rung from the infamous cage!

On the way down I got my husband to take this photo leaning slightly over the parapet, while I kept the wall steady. It was a tough job, but someone had to do it...
"Just don't drop the phone, dear!" 





DH got the chance to ring the heaviest ringing bell, which weighs nearly 42 cwt - or just over 2 tons! Talk about heavy metal!
DH found it easy enough to start, but stopping was trickier, as you have to take it just past the balance point and rest the bell against the stay. Let's just say he didn't succeed the first time,
or the second,
but he got it just right eventually, or we would still be there...

The highlight of the programme was The Big Ring, when the bells of Buckfast Abbey, and the former bells of Buckfast Abbey (now situated in the ruin of the burnt out church at Buckfastleigh) were going to ring simultaneously.
Around 60 people waited in the room where the live feed would show both the Abbey ringers and bells turning full circle.
Unfortunately there was a technical hitch and the screens were resolutely blank. Various people wandered up to the screens and examined them knowlegeably, before admitting defeat and retreating. As luck would have it, the techy was up the tower on the end of a bellrope...


We wandered over to the conference room, where the live feed was working, and enjoyed watching some 'four in hand' handbell ringers in action. I struggle to ring one handbell, let alone four!



At 4pm there was a special ringers service in the Abbey to bring the days activities to a suitable conclusion, over which one of the monk who could ring, presided. A Ringers Choir, led the enthusiastic and harmonious singing.
Before the service, the organist was going for broke with loud triumphant chords resounding off every pillar.
As we were sat in the choir stalls, we could watch closely, as shutters opened and closed. as the volume crescendoed and diminshed.













Afterwards we looked up at the stunningly ornate ceiling of the chancel crossing and I exclaimed
"We were above there! Our feet were on the other side of that ceiling"
followed shortly by 
"Goodness, isn't that balcony high!"
Yes, THAT was the balcony DH took the third picture in this blog from.










We on pour way to the car park, when we passed the video room and noticed that the live feed was now working so we popped in.

While we were there the lady from the craft tent appeared and watched the demonstration with interest.
"I've never seen bells ringing before!" she admitted, to my surprise, as I had assumed that she was a local ringer, not someone roped in by the Abbey.
"I had a go on the mini rings." she went on to say. I thought this was very encouraging and encouraged her to go and find a tower where she could to learn to ring.




What will be the outcome from the festival?
No-one will ever really know.
Visitors come from far and wide to visit Buckfast Abbey. In fact the first group I heard a helper talk to, were from Russia!
It is easy to wring your hands and say no-one wants to learn, and that applies to any activity, not just bellringing. So all credit to those who put time and effort into making today happen.

It will be impossible to evaluate the effect that this day has had, for most of the people who had a go at ringing were not from the local area.
As a consequence people could go to a tower anywhere and ask to learn to ring,
or even prompt the start of a bell project to get an unringable bells made ringable again,
or even start the ball rolling to get a new set of bells hung and a band trained to ring them.
If they do, will anyone ever tell the Devon ringers?

Stand.