You may have heard of rope-sight but have you heard of rope-sense? Podcast host Cathy Booth discovers that this highly developed sense of rhythm is just one of the many tools and techniques that has helped Rebecca Legowski on her ringing journey.

Rebecca, who has been blind from birth, is learning to ring on both tower bells and hand bells, and is already lighting up Bell Board, scoring her first handbell peal in March 2019. Rebecca talks to Cathy about both the extra pressures she faces to perform, given that peals by blind ringers are so rare, and the emotional highs, such as ringing for the Armistice celebrations in November 2018.

Although ringing presents some specific challenges to blind people, some of the secrets to Rebecca’s success are things that every ringer can learn from - great technique, good listening and lots of practice on a ringing simulator.

So, if you want to give ringing a go don’t be afraid – as Rebecca says, just go for it!


Links

• Tad Hill http://tadhill.com/ringing/,
• Abel, Mabel and Mobil http://www.abelsim.co.uk/

Top five takeaways

• If you’re visiting a new tower or ringing a different bell, ask if you can test your bell out to feel if it’s light or heavy so you’ll be able to tell how slow or fast the rope will come down.
• Always pull off in a straight line and have a long, smooth pull on the handstroke and then the sally will come down in a consistent place.
• Need some practice outside of the tower? There are several bell simulators you can use – for example, Rebecca mentions Tad Hill, Abel, Mabel and Mobil and an Android app called Methodology.
• If you’re looking for tips for teaching a blind or partially sighted person to ring there’s an article about teaching Rebecca to ring in the ART WORKS magazine http://ringingteachers.org/application/files/4215/2941/7864/ART_WORKS_June_2018.pdf
• Ringing is a great team activity so is the perfect way to widen your social network.

Ask the expert

Pip Penney answered the following questions in this episode:

• Jon: “Do you have to be a Christian to be a bell ringer?”
• Rob: “What is the main difference between a bob and a single, when called when methods are being rung?”

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