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Once upon a time and a long long time ago, Brian Sanders, Ringing Master, had an idea to promote bellringing and recruit ringers for the Central Branch of the Yorkshire Association. The seed was well and truly planted when Brian presented his case to the Central Branch committee in January 2005. Having secured the approval of the committee Brian then had the task of making all the arrangements, no mean feat he would soon realise.

The Lichfield Mobile Belfry was to be commissioned for Saturday 16 July, the venue would be Barnsley town centre and the helpers on the day would be ‘volunteers’ from within the Branch. Advertising for the day was kindly organised by John Courtney who rings at Wakefield Cathedral and the local newspaper ran an article promoting the event 2 weeks prior to 16 July and it was advertised on the Central Branch Website by John Earnshaw, Webmaster.

Well, several phone calls and late nights later, everything was organised. Final details were confirmed with the committee in May 2005 – the show was truly on the road.

The morning of the 16 July came and the willing volunteers turned up bright and early at 8.30am and just this once Brian was on time. It was noted that one other volunteer and may I add, committee member, chose that day to oversleep!

The helpers met Dennis Clive, of Lichfield, in the centre of Barnsley to erect the mobile belfry. The day started with the sun rising very early and looked on us kindly for the rest of the day and as regular readers of the ‘Ringing World’ will know the belfry is protected by a cover so we were not too worried about any rain. The town was just waking up when they arrived and the instructions could clearly be heard coming out of the silence. The task was finally completed at 10.30am – a job well done and several cups of tea were ordered to sustain the weary workers.

The visitors to the mobile belfry trickled in just after 11.00am and by lunchtime everything was in full swing. The bells sounding out over the crowds now gathering to the sound of plain bob minor, plain bob doubles and Kent treble bob from our experienced ringers. Drawing the crowds and the spectators in with their proficient method ringing and handling of these, at times, naughty bells, the day continued in a very positive way and what a lovely surprise when extra volunteers arrived from as far afield as Tadcaster, Wakefield, and Howden. Several hundred visitors later, we remarked on how well the day was progressing and what a superb public relations exercise this was to raise the profile of bellringers and bellringing within the area.

Lunchtime came and went and we fully expected the enthusiasm of the shoppers to fade, not so – they continued to arrive in their droves until well into the afternoon and by 4.00pm it was decided to dismantle the belfry in readiness for its trip home. We attracted many visitors to the mobile belfry throughout the day and attribute this to good advertising, good management and the enthusiasm shown by all ringers in attendance during the day. Photographs were taken throughout the day to be placed in an album as a lasting record of the event.

One wag was heard to remark, during the dismantling of the belfry, ‘this is the best lower we have had all day!’ – what can I say other than ‘ssssshhhh don’t tell the volunteers’!

The day was a resounding success; a message of thanks was subsequently posted on the Yorkshire Association e-list to this effect and thanked the volunteers and visiting ringers who assisted for their help and hard work during the day.

Several of the visitors to the tower showed a real talent for bellringing which was soon spotted by our eagle-eyed Tower Captains. These visitors were given details of their local tower and tower contact should they wish to take up ringing in the future. We anticipate that 4 or 5 new ringers will contact their local tower and as such, this will be a measure of the success of the day. Correspondence will be sent in the next few months to tower contacts within the branch as a follow-up to the day to gain this information.

Our thanks go to Dennis for traveling to Barnsley with the mobile belfry and for his assistance on the day – Dennis we couldn’t have done it as well as we did without your expertise.

Gillian M Green
Joint Secretary, Central Branch, Yorkshire Association of Change Ringers