The power of good public relations.
We rang a very smart but poigant quarter peal this morning at Great Gransden for the Hunts District Quarter Peal weekend. https://bb.ringingworld.co.uk/view.php?id=1846810
About half an hour in and a group from the Cambridge Ramblers came into church and many of them stood and watched us ringing. I waved from the ringing room.
They were still there when the QP came round and I immediately went down and asked if any of them would like to come up into the ringing room. (We always do this). Word quickly got around to some who had gone outside and in the end all of them accepted the invitation. With instructions to leave bags downstairs and not to touch the ropes, about 15 or so climbed the 12 stairs.
The ringers immediately went into ‘host mode’ and the room was full of chatter about how we ring and how bells work etc.
After a while we rang some call changes to Queens and back to give them some ringing room experience. They were, to a person, impressed, several saying that it had made their day.
The most important things coming out of this were that a former ringer said he wanted to return, and another person said they would like to take it up.
That’s what I call a Result!!!
Now, the excercise may never see them again, but you never know when chance meetings will generate interest, even if its just giving people a new experience.
My thanks to the ringers for helping, and for a jolly nice quarter peal.
Great Gransden Bell Ringers 