Originally timed to coincide with the 75th anniversary of VE day, this unique episode sees host Cathy Booth, joined by a whole cast of ringers, bust the myths about ringing during World War II. This is the full version of ‘thirty voices, seventy-five years, one story’. And what a story!
Bell towers across the country are currently silent due to the coronavirus pandemic. Unprecedented is currently a much-used word, but in this case not warranted, as we discover that 2020 is not the first time in living memory that ringing has had to stop.
Cathy discovers the true story of this earlier ban on ringing, brought to life from archived letters and articles, and the amazing true-life experiences of people who were there, including Dennis Brock, Britain’s oldest bell ringer and Eric Hitchins who rang his first peal on VE Day 1945.
The parallels with the current situation are striking. We discover that ringers’ concerns echo down the years, with their distress at the prospect of not being able to ring at Easter felt as keenly then as now. And, it appears, they were just as resourceful when locked out of their towers. Oh, and not much has changed with the locals either – always complaining about the noise of the bells, until, of course, there’s a ban!
We obviously all know end of the story as we wouldn’t all be here today had the ringers not got back to their towers, rolled out their recruitment plans and shared their passion for ringing. This is a hopeful, positive and inspiring tale – truly a story for our times.
Story behind the story
Harry Badger sent a letter to the Ringing World about the ringing at Thame for the victory at El Alamein
Knowing bell ringers were missing their ringing due to the Coronavirus ban, Cathy wanted to produce an episode of Fun with Bells that looked back at the time when bell ringers endured a similar ban – in World War II. Believing, as many historians do, that the ban was only lifted on VE Day, she asked Alan Regin to help her find bell ringers who had lived through the ban and could tell her about not being able to ring and what it was like being able to ring again.
Alan replied to Cathy, by return email, with suggestions of who Cathy could talk to and also sent 41 attachments, mostly scans of articles and letters published in the Ringing World during the war.
Cathy enjoyed reading the eloquent language in the Ringing World and realised that, as well as the original idea of interviewing those that were there, there was a story portrayed in these Ringing World passages that was not widely known. She then pondered how to put this across in the podcast until she hit on the idea of having current day bell ringers reading the passages.
As she only thought of the idea on the 23rd April and wanted the podcast to be published on 7th May, to coincide with VE day, there was only 2 weeks to get everything done.
Some of the people doing the recordings had links to their predecessors including Stephen Hoare from Thame who read the letter from Harry Badger. Stephen sent in a photograph of a peal board with Harry’s name on it.
And there were laughs as somebody sent in the wrong recording which contained frustrated expletives!!
Fortunately bell ringers are great at teamwork and with many people’s input, most notably Rose Nightingale and Steve Johnson the project was completed in time.
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
