“Houston, we have a problem!”

Although bellringing is not quite in the life or death state that the Apollo 13 astronauts found themselves in, without help we could find that over the next few decades it will fall into decline.

Bellringing has been part of English communities for centuries. The bells of St Cuthbert’s are part of Wells’ historic heritage and tell the story of the generations of people who have rung them. WABS (Wells Amateur Bellringing Society is the band that ring at St Cuthbert’s and Wells Cathedral) are very keen to do all they can to ensure that this activity continues into the next centuries.

So, what exactly is the problem?

Generally, the bellringing community is aging. Young people have many calls on their time and bellringing is often not on their radar as a fun activity. Even when we have young people interested in ringing they become disenchanted with it because they find progression slow – incidentally this can also apply to older learners. 

At St Cuthbert’s the bells are particularly testing to learn on. They are a very heavy set of 8 bells and are notoriously difficult to ring, because they are not hung on a frame that allows for efficient ringing. Even relatively experienced ringers find ringing the St Cuthbert’s bells a challenge. Unless learners can handle these tricky bells, any progression on to interesting ringing is impossible. 

There have been national initiatives in the past to raise the profile of bellringing. Most notably the Ringing Remembers campaign in 2018. The aim was to recruit 1400 new ringers nationally to commemorate the centenary of the First World War Armistice – one for each of the 1400 registered bell ringers who lost their lives during World War 1. 

WABS had a programme to support the 3 new members who came out of this initiative, including Saturday training sessions. However, only one of the ringers is still ringing at St Cuthbert’s Church, with the other two falling by the wayside. The main problem was the heaviness of the bells and the difficulty of ringing them, which meant that learning was too frustrating and challenging. 

The post COVID period also saw some elderly ringers give up bellringing. The time spent in lockdown and away from ringing meant they found it too demanding to climb to the ringing chamber and then ring the heavy bells.

So, something needs to change and the Wells Bells Project is our answer.