As some of you already know, this year, I am taking part in the Oxford Diocesan Guild of Church Bell Ringers Young Ringers Award; which involves attendance to practices, progress in ringing and much more.

One of the things that I have to do for the award is tell others about ringing. The first thing I did for this section was to hold a tower open event at North Marston, my home tower. We started around about 4pm and went through to 6pm and had around 20 people come along. I had asked Alan Bentley if he would come along to give people a go, and we ended up having almost everyone who entered the church door having a go.

Some also had asked if they could go up the tower – a journey that is not easy! I ended up climbing the tower 4 times, but didn’t mind too much. It is something that I intend doing again in the future for North Marston and if anyone wants to have an open day; I would be happy to help.

In connection with the "telling others" section of the Young Ringers Award scheme I have organised the Lichfield mobile mini ring (with help from Aston Clinton Ringing Centre) for the 11th October 2008, to be in Kingsbury Square, Aylesbury.

Arrangements are in hand with the Town Council and it is anticipated that the mobile belfry will be available from noon until late afternoon on the 11th October.

I want to attract members of the public to find out more about ringing and get them to ‘have a go.’ There will be instructors to give people a taster on the mini ring and if they want to continue, we can tell them a tower where they can go to carry on learning. Also I’m sure that it will attract some of the ringers from the area… so any ringers asking the question “Can I come and have a go??” well, the answer will be yes!!

There will be demonstrations that will last a few minutes at a time every so often.

So if you are thinking of going into Aylesbury on the day then please come see us. Equally if you know someone that may be interested in learning: tell him or her about the event.

We look forward to seeing as many ODG ringers as possible on the day.

Thank you,

Ryan Noble, Assumption of The Blessed Virgin Mary, North Marston