Welcombe Bells

 The Welcombe bell ringers have restarted with ringing at all services where possible.
It is intended to practice on Monday nights at least fortnightly.

Dear Friends,

As you may have heard on Sundays, the bells of St Nectans Church Welcombe are once again ringing out after a long period of silence, due to the pandemic.

It was a bit strange to pull those old ropes again after over a year had passed but just like not being able to riding a bike for a while it all comes back to you when you try again, and okay I’m not that good at riding a bike either. When I started learning to ring the bells it seemed incomprehensible that everything I had to think about would eventually become second nature, just like diving a car.

Because the bells are well balanced you do not have to be a weight lifter to keep them ringing. In fact if you pull too hard on the rope at one end you then have to hold it back to stop it going too far on the other end causing a lot of unnecessary effort and sweat. The rhythm will come naturally to many and has its own feeling of calm amide the clamour of the bell peel, and the clever way that you can change the resonance and reverberation by moving bells to ring in front or behind each other is quite remarkable.

St Nectans, Welcombe is well known for its particularly melodious six bell peel and its short tower and therefore shorter ropes making it much easier to ring for learners. At the moment our team consists of equal numbers of male and female ringers but we only have enough ringers to ring all six bells on a good day if we can all make it.

So, if you would like to have a go at bell ringing or just come and watch for a while on Monday evenings from 7.30pm during July and August please just turn up or you can contact me on 331700 if you have any questions at all.

Mick Dollimore, Nectans Meadow.