Ringing Forums

Whilst I applaud the decision to run the census I'm concerned that an opportunity is being missed to ascertain "other reasons" why the responses are what they are. The condition of the bells and the number of local ringers are not necessarily the prime reasons that a tower has restricted or very limited opportunities to ring. Similarly, the opportunity is not being taken to trawl for things like, "is your entry in Dove's correct, if not, why not?", "are your bells chimed as well as rung full circle" etc. Such additions to the questionnaire could usefully establish / quantify alternative use of the bells, find some of the remaining unlisted bells etc. Would it not be the opportune time to actually seek to obtain a response regarding every tower, (especially including silent towers). Surely that would obtain a better picture of the asset base than can be 'seen' from responses structured around what people are doing in the active towers alone? The exemplary work by the Dove's team has continued to increase our knowledge of what's "out there", now including as they have the chiming towers, but it is still an incomplete picture of tower bells across the country, let alone the rest of the World. If I were to ring Veronese-style somewhere during Census Week, should that be included? My home towers bells are in limbo as regards full-circle ringing, but they are chimed regularly on Sundays, as they will be during Census Week - should that be included?

Hi Mike

The tower census has options for handbells and Ellacombes, and you can add in chiming as well. There is opportunity for you to select whichever tower you are responding on behalf of. The tower listing are what is currently listed on Dove, but there is also an option to add anywhere else that's not on Dove. It also asks whether that tower is currently ringing or not, and subsequent questions to define that better.

Thanks. I'd assumed that the actual form would have more than had been mentioned to date.