Ringing Forums

Should we charge for bell ringing lessons? It is a question that has interested me since I first started to learn to ring. I was astonished that no-one charged me, but would it have made a difference if they had? Probably I would never have signed up in the first place because I was not that interested in learning to ring – I just wanted to see the peal boards. It was only once I started that I began to see the attraction and then I made a voluntary contribution because it seemed the proper thing to do.
These days I am happy to pay for targeted sessions at the Mancroft Ringing Discovery Centre in Norwich because someone has to pay to keep this excellent facility financially viable. Surely it falls to those who use it the most to contribute the most? However, on balance, I believe that if we want ringers to take on the implied contract that, having been supported in our development as ringers, we are duty bound to support others following on behind (at whatever stage we happen to be at), then it gets a bit muddied when a financial transaction is introduced. Some people may feel that having coughed up £50 or whatever, that releases them from the responsibility, a year or so later, of turning out while learners crash around them. They have “bought” their training and there is no obligation to contribute their time and effort. I wrote something on the subject a few years ago that people might find interesting https://dingdong887180022.wordpress.com/2020/10/31/should-we-charge-for-bell-ringing-lessons/
Things are rarely clear cut.

I was struck that, of all the possible benefits of change ringing, the role of the bells in calling people to worship and announcing the presence of the church in the community was ignored. Given that ChatGPT mines existing information on the internet, that suggests that we are coyly hiding what for many ringers is their primary purpose for ringing. It might be sociable, good for toning the arms, mentally stimulating, a means to celebrate local and national events etc. but have we really moved so far away from the original purpose that bells were hung in church towers that ChatGPT did not come across mention of ringing as a service to the church? Has that connection gone or are we too embarrassed to mention it?