Tower Grabbing

In this episode Graham Nabb introduces Fun with Bells podcast host Cathy Booth to one of the most English of pursuits - tower grabbing. Graham is the ideal guide to the uninitiated, having notched up the amazing total of 5785 towers to date.

Rather like the twitchers of the bird watching world, keen tower grabbers are always on the look out for the openings of rare towers that they’ve never rung at. If you’re the collecting type then this is the podcast for you as Graham is full of tips on the best way to plan and record your tower grabs.

However, it’s not all about the thrill of the chase for Graham as he also tells Cathy all about the development of the Association of Ringing Teachers and the huge satisfaction that comes from teaching and developing new ringers.

Whatever your stage of ringing this is the perfect podcast for you - you won’t help but smile at Graham’s huge enthusiasm, great advice and his fantastic ringing stories.


Links

• Dove’s guide: https://dove.cccbr.org.uk
• The ART website http://ringingteachers.org

Top five takeaways

• There are around 6000 ringable towers in the UK, so get out and about and see how many you can ring at.
• Dove’s Guide is a great source of information about towers – why not use it to keep a record of the towers that you have rung at
• If you can ring why not consider going on an ART course to learn to teach – it’s immensely satisfying. Find out more on the ART website
• ART is also a great place for new ringers to find out more – there’s the website, videos, booklets and all sorts of resources to help you learn.
• Yes, some of the bells at other towers might be a bit rough, but getting out and about will help improve your bell handling no end.

Ask the Expert

Pip Penney answered the following question in this episode:

Sarah: “I’ve got my first quarter peel coming up shortly. In practice and Sunday Service we only ring for short bursts of time. Have you any tips for maintaining focus and technique for longer periods of ringing?”

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