Mancroft Ringing Discovery Centre / Blue lines and pickled eggs

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.

Well, there’s been so much going on it’s hard to know where to start! Training courses at all levels, lunchtime pay as you go sessions, band visits, junior ringing and ringing festivals all feature. That’s when the team is not out and about taking ringing into schools and letting hordes of excited novice ringers have a go on 12 bells at Great Yarmouth.

But what of lockdown? Cathy discovers that both Simon and Nikki have actually been doing more ringing in lockdown than ever before - extending their handbell repertoire, honing their conducting skills and setting themselves ever more complex challenges in Ringing Room.

For those of you who are more advanced, you might want to learn to ring Cambridge Suprise. Or maybe that's not the best place to start! How about starting with Cornwall first? This podcast also includes an excerpt from Matt Austin's conversation with Don Marrison about less traditional steps to learning surprise methods, first broadcast in our North American sister podcast, Treble's Going.

Whatever your level and whatever your pathway, once everything is safe, take yourself and your band for a weekend in Norwich and try out your new skills on the MRDC training bells. You know you want to.


Top takeaways

• Check out the Mancroft Ringing Discovery Centre www.mrdc.org.uk and get ready to book a visit once it’s safe to get out and about
• Not tried Ringing Room yet? Go on, give it a go! If you need some help to get started pop into the Ringing Room Take Hold lounge on Facebook
• Interested in St Peter Mancroft’s bell ringing heritage? Listen to Nikki’s talk for Heritage Open Days 
• If you’ve got a suitable 12 bell tower in your area, have a think about letting your novice ringers loose – they’ll love every minute
• Don’t just print off the blue line to learn it – why not write out the method by hand from place notation and really get inside it
• Catch up with the rest of the Don Morrison ‘Cornwall first’ interview at treblesgoing.com

Sponsor: This podcast is sponsored by the Association of Ringing Teachers (ART).  To find out more about learning to ring, learning to teach or other resources to support your ringing go to bellringing.org

Podcast team:
Anne Tansley Thomas
Emily Roderick
John Gwynne
Emily Watts
Cathy Booth

Ringing by:
The Cambridge Youths (supplied by David Richards) and for later episodes, The Liliputters Guild (supplied by Simon Edwards).

For bellringing training and support for teachers and ringers see: bellringing.org