Hot on the heels of the launch of the new Learning the Ropes Advanced Call Change Scheme, show host Cathy Booth chats with four call change aficionados. Clare, Dee, John and Ian are all delighted to see the new scheme in place and look forward to the huge benefits it will bring. With the focus on good listening and bell control, the scheme aims to recognise the skills of call change ringers across the country and result in accurate, musical and stylish ringing. But should you call the...

What should you do if the number of ringers is falling, your towers are in dire straits, and you need emergency measures to give ringing any kind of future in your area?  This was the problem faced in the Lizard in Cornwall prior to COVID lockdown, and in this episode, podcast host Cathy Booth talks to the team who, against all the odds, have turned the situation around.  The first step, is seems, is to find a Hayley, Miranda, Andy, and someone called Bob who has lots of mojo! By coming...

In this month’s fascinating episode, Simon Aves takes host Cathy Booth on an entertaining romp through Scotland’s bell ringing history. You may be surprised to learn it is very different to England’s. Who knew the Scots were so fond of peace and quiet? Cathy learns that in the past the best way to annoy people in Dundee was to travel up there and ring all their bells. And beware of the constable waiting at the bottom of the tower to arrest you for that very noisy peal you just rang. Or worse...

In this inspiring show, podcast host Cathy Booth meets Tim Sunter and hears about his amazing seven-year ringing journey from learner to teacher and Association of Ringing Teachers committee member. Who could have imagined that a thought-proving tweet in the middle of a field could have such a domino effect, propelling Tim on a path to both individual fulfilment and a new way to reach out to his local community. But such is the power of bell ringing. Tim shares the deep satisfaction that...

In this special Anniversary episode, podcast host Cathy Booth has two special guests discussing both the beginnings and the future of ART. No, Cathy’s not exploring painting or sculpting, but a landmark development in the teaching of bell ringing. ART stands for the Association of Ringing Teachers, currently marking it’s tenth year. Founder member Pip Penney and current Chair, Lesley Belcher, celebrate the success of the scheme and its plans for the next three years. Pip, a physiotherapist,...

This month, show host, Cathy Booth meets with three frank and formidable female ringers to understand the reasons why, although women make up about half of all ringers, they are greatly underrepresented in positions of responsibility and peal ringing, and conducting. Elva Ainsworth, Julia Cater and Tessa Simpson - who have all participated in ‘groundbreaking, record breaking and point breaking’ ringing - talk freely about their own experiences and the self-fulfilling prophecy where lack of...

Fingers on buzzers, or perhaps that should be “look to”, as host Cathy Booth resumes the role of quizmaster in this latest Fun with Bells podcast quiz. This time the focus is on the bells themselves, so tune in, listen up and get set for a different sort of hearing test.  Everyone can play along, whatever their level, with straightforward questions for those new to ringing, alongside more obscure challenges for seasoned bell fans. However, if you’re a regular listener to the show you may very...

Show host, and adulty adult, Cathy Booth meets three more young ringers in this month’s episode, this time all founder members of the Young Change Ringers Association. Josephine, Emily and Matt share the aims behind the new association, discuss the support that enables young ringers to become tower captains of the future and reveal the power of pizza. There can be no better advert for YCRA membership than listening to these engaging, enthusiastic, and insightful leaders talk about how the...

What’s got 40 members, stretches across a large part of the country and is a brilliant way to have fun, improve your ringing and make friends? Well, if you are a young bell ringer, the answer must surely be the Liliputters. Not, as host Cathy Booth discovers, a group from the fictional kingdom of tiny people, but an exciting national Guild for young ringers. In this upbeat podcast, three Lilliputters - Simon, Molly and Euan - talk enthusiastically about the Guild, what it means to them and...

Avoid all ladders, black cats and don’t whatever you do break a mirror in your rush to listen to this month’s Fun with Bells podcast on bells and superstition. From birth, through to death and beyond, bells have had played a fascinating role in the customs around our key rites of passage. Amongst the many special powers of bells include making the devil flee, warding off plague and pestilence, and easing childbirth. It’s curious to note that none of these warrant a footnote on Bell Board...

Just as change ringing on handbells requires each ringer to have two bells, this perfectly formed podcast on the subject has two guests. Host Cathy Booth chats with Tina and Simon, authors of the latest must-have handbell manual. As always, this podcast asks all the right questions. What is best, tower or hand bells? Will online ringing last post lock-down? Is bell ringing music? And should you start with hand bells and then move onto tower bells, or vice versa? As well as addressing the big...

You may not have given ringing simulators a second thought before, but this episode will definitely get you scrambling up your belfry, with some sensors in hand. Steve Farmer, tells host Cathy Booth the fascinating story of Simbell. Wanting an easy way to get get extra rope time without annoying the church neighbours with his noisy novice ringing, Steve took the unusual step of inventing his own ringing simulator. Now simulators are not new, having been a thing since the advent of The...

Take a few deep breaths, relax, and tune into this month’s episode where host Cathy Booth meets ringer, counsellor, hypnotherapist and trauma care practitioner, Nicky Carling to talk about building up confidence for returning to the tower. Yes, it’s probably time you changed out of your pyjamas, dragged yourself momentarily away from Ringing Room and ventured out to the exciting world of real-life bell ringing. However, if this thought makes you at all anxious then Nicky offers lots of...

Cathy Booth’s special guest this month is ringer and project manger par excellence Tim Keyes who gives us the inside scoop of Ledbury’s rather exciting bell restoration and augmentation project. Tim very helpfully talks through all the different stages of the project, step by step, with plenty of top tips for those of you planning your own bell project. Cathy hears about the challenges faced, exacerbated by Brexit and COVID-19, but also the enormous highs that come with engaging the whole...

In this fast-paced episode, podcast host Cathy Booth meets 20-year-old ringer, Oliver Lee, and discovers his passion for ringing and ringing history.Oliver is clearly fascinated by all aspects of ringing and takes Cathy on whistle-stop tour of a huge...

In this month’s show, podcast host Cathy Booth transforms into the next Anne Robinson as she joins the ringers of St John’s in New Alresford for their fortnightly Zoom quiz.Fingers on buzzers as the ringers introduce each other and ask their two...

One of the very best things to have happened over the past year is the development of the online ringing platform, Ringing Room. In this special Valentine’s podcast, host Cathy Booth interviews Leland and Bryn, the driving force behind this amazing achievement and now one of ringing’s most famous couples.

Love is very definitely in the air at the Fun with Bells Podcast this Valentine’s Day, as host Cathy Booth explores ringing’s tender side.

For Don McLean over in Ireland, one of the joys of bell ringing is teaching others and delighting in their achievements. In this charming episode, Cathy Booth, podcast host, shines a light on Don’s motivation and his own considerable achievements, including masterminding the training of 17 new recruits at St Mary’s Kilmood on ‘The Peace Bells’.

What do ringers do when they are not ringing? Well, judging by this latest episode they write, film, podcast and blog about it! Podcast host Cathy Booth chats to no fewer than six leading lights in the ringing community who are all doing their bit to share and support the hobby they are all so passionate about.

Home of the first true peal, St Peter Mancroft in Norwich is now home to the brilliant Mancroft Ringing Discovery Centre. Podcast host Cathy Booth catches up with Simon Rudd and Nikki Thomas to find out what’s been happening.

Ringing can be spooky at the best of times - you may get shivers down your spine with a nicely struck touch of Stedman, or perhaps an eerie sensation of being watched when you’re on the treble. However, for Halloween, Fun with Bells turns up the terror with this chilling collection of ghostly goings-on. Yes, this episode is even scarier than the ringing cage at Pershore Abbey.

Following on from last month’s edition, podcast host Cathy Booth reveals another dodgy dozen or so weird and wonderful towers. WARNING - this podcast contains details of hair-raising ringing environments, definitely not for the nervous ringers amongst...

These tales of weird and wonderful towers are definitely not for the faint-hearted ringers among you.   Podshow host, Cathy Booth, invites us behind the scenes of 15 of the most outlandish ringing environments from across the world, featuring trap...