Weird and wonderful towers (1 of 2)

These tales of weird and wonderful towers are definitely not for the faint-hearted ringers among you.  Podshow host, Cathy Booth, invites us behind the scenes of 15 of the most outlandish ringing environments from across the world, featuring trap doors, vaults, ventilator shafts, crawl ways and external ladders. Clock cases also play a starring role, along with gas lamps and one particularly chilling occupant! 

Some helpful tips here, though, should you find yourself faced with one of these terrifying towers. Need more ventilation as the ringing room is turning into a sauna? Just take the door off its hinges! 

And it seems that a whole new set of skills is needed to ring in these peculiar places. Ropesight won’t hold you in much stead in many of these challenging ringing environments, and listening will be difficult too, underneath the headphones you’ll need to use to preserve your hearing. Extra kudos, however, if you have the skills to get a barrel of beer up an external ladder – maybe a new module is needed for this in the ART ‘learning the ropes’ scheme … 

Featured towers in the August 2020 podcast episode

St James, Garlickhythe, City of London

The Waterloo tower, Quex Park, Kent

For more information see : http://www.quexringers.org.uk/pages/change-ringers.htm and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQ3nKr1aNXo

St Mary, Launton, Oxfordshire

For more information see : https://www.facebook.com/stmaryschurchlaunton/

St Mary the Virgin, Cottingham, Riding of East Yorkshire

Steve Johnson read to us about Cottingham. For more information see : https://www.stmaryscottingham.org/

St Patrick’s, Patrington, Yorkshire

Chris de Cordova tells us about Patrington …. and the Patrington crawl

For more information see : http://www.stpatrickspatrington.org.uk/the-church-building/the-bells/ and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zb1Fh8q2XNM

St Cuthbert’s, Cotherstone, County Durham

Gordon Gray tells us about St Cuthbert’s church, Cotherstone. For more information see : https://northeastbells.co.uk/cotherstone/

East Bergholt

For more information see : http://www.constablecountrychurches.co.uk/bells, http://www.eastbergholt-bells.org.uk/ and https://www.eadt.co.uk/news/weird-suffolk-east-bergholt-devil-1-6132132

Various other towers around the UK and the World