Show host Cathy Booth aims high this month in conversation with accomplished ringer and leading light Linda Garton.
Linda strongly believes that “success breeds success” and, as you’ll hear, this is amply illustrated in both her own ringing career and the winning bands that her leadership has inspired.
So muster your motivation, make a plan and put some of Linda’s practical ideas on training and development into action. You’ll then be set to celebrate all levels of ringing, from rounds right the way up to the Society of Royal Cumberland Youths* and beyond.
*Other ringing societies also available
Top 5 Takeaways
Sponsor: This podcast is sponsored by the Association of Ringing Teachers (ART). To find out more about learning to ring, learning to teach or other resources to support your ringing go to bellringing.org
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).
Show host Cathy Booth aims high this month in conversation with accomplished ringer and leading light Linda Garton.
Linda strongly believes that “success breeds success” and, as you’ll hear, this is amply illustrated in both her own ringing career and the winning bands that her leadership has inspired.
So muster your motivation, make a plan and put some of Linda’s practical ideas on training and development into action. You’ll then be set to celebrate all levels of ringing, from rounds right the way up to the Society of Royal Cumberland Youths* and beyond.
*Other ringing societies also available
Top 5 Takeaways
Sponsor: This podcast is sponsored by the Association of Ringing Teachers (ART). To find out more about learning to ring, learning to teach or other resources to support your ringing go to bellringing.org
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).
[00:00:00] LINDA: Traditionally, some of the districts in the Association have had quarter peal days, but obviously by having the expectation of ringing a quarter peal, not everybody is going to be able to attain that. So we decided we would have a firsts day, but realised that in order to have a day and include as many people as possible, because you're going to need to use your experienced ringers to form the backbone of what people are trying to achieve. It extended to a week and then gradually actually It extended to a month,
[00:00:38] CATHY: [Bells ringing]
My guest today is Linda Garton, who is in her second year as the president of the Bedfordshire Association. She has previously been a master of the Society of Royal Cumberland Youths and has been very involved in helping young ringers. I'm going to talk to her about her prolific ringing career, ringing in Bedford, and what's happening in the Bedfordshire Association, including its "Ring a first in February" initiative.
So Linda firstly, when did you learn to ring?
[00:01:06] LINDA: So I think it was 1972 and I was about 11, I think. it was roundabout then anyway, so a few years ago.
[00:01:15] CATHY: What did you find the most difficult thing to learn in your ringing career?
[00:01:20] LINDA: Oh gosh. In my ringing career there's probably two things I could say.
So right at the very beginning of my ringing career. I remember actually finding it really hard to learn to catch the sally. I'm not the most coordinated of people and, ball sports hand and eye coordination at school, I was rubbish at tennis and things like that.
And actually catching the sally, I found really quite scary. However I've mastered it and I guess at a different level, learning Chandler's 23, all the work was probably the most challenging thing I've ever rung in terms of learning methods, concentration, keeping right that was, oh goodness, about 12 years ago now.
And actually I think since Covid, I'm really out of practice with the learning methods. So I think now it would just be a mammoth task to learn something like that again.
[00:02:19] CATHY: Yes. Can you tell me a bit more about, that particular method?
[00:02:23] LINDA: Okay, so it's 23 different surprise major methods.
And there every lead is different. So some of your listeners will know some methods have some leads which are the same, which then makes learning them a little bit easier cause you can just say to yourself, that's the same as that method. Chandler's has got lots of very difficult spiky methods, some of which are really quite challenging to ring even on your own, let alone ringing them spliced together so that you have to remember each little bit of each method. Each lead of each method. So it's a real test of brain power. Well it certainly was in my case anyway.
[00:03:04] CATHY: It sounds like it. Yeah. Sounds like it would be in anybody's, I've heard that you, and I'm just changing the subject a little bit.
I heard that you rang hand bells in unusual locations. Can you tell me a little bit about that?
[00:03:16] LINDA: Yes, a quite a few unusual locations. Part of that started when I was at university, I was at London University and, rang with the UL and Roger Bailey taught me and many others to ring hand bells.
And one of the fun things about ringing hand bells is that you are not constrained to a tower, a church. You can ring them anywhere really. And so we did used to go and ring hand bells in all sorts of, um, unusual places, as students. So that included, we had a day trip to France, Boulogne, in the days before the tunnel.
So this was when we had to go by ferry and we decided it was a lovely hot day. So we decided we would ring our peal on the beach. So we dug ourselves a hole to sit in. One of us who was a geographer really should have known that tides come in. So unfortunately we lost, we lost that attempt.
A bit later on we rang a lady's peal at Greenham Common, which was quite pertinent at the time. Quite political I suppose. Um, which wasn't approved of by everybody. In more recent years, I suppose inspired by Roger who rang handbell peals in, so many countries. I dunno how many, my husband and I, when we've been visiting other countries, if there's been other ringers around, we've rung handbell peals in different countries.
And just before Christmas, so in November, we were fortunate enough to go on a, a trip to the Antarctic, happened to be there with some other ringers and we rang handbell peal on the boat just off the coast of Antarctica and, just off the coast of South America, which completed a peal in every continent, which I was quite pleased about because traveling is my other love apart from bell ringing.
So that was a good combination of the two.
[00:05:07] CATHY: Excellent, I now want to move to, your time as master of the Society of Royal Cumberland Youths. For those that don't know who they are, could you tell me a little bit about them?
[00:05:18] LINDA: Okay, so the Society of Royal Cumberland Youths, or the Cumberlands, as we tend to call them, is one of the two national societies both dating back three or so hundred years. The other one being the Ancient Society of College Youths, which I will mention, but we're the other lot. and you have to reach a certain standard before you can be elected. The Cumberlands have got members from all over the ringing community all over the world, Australia, America, but based in London, headquarters St Martin in the fields.
But practice in London every Wednesday evening, but also have events all over the country. So there are members all over this country. And one of the great things is I guess one of the positives of Covid was that with the, the growth of Zoom, our business meetings now are attended, not just by London members or people who are able to travel to London or wherever the meeting is, but from our members in America or Australia and so on, which is really good.
[00:06:20] CATHY: Excellent, and what are the differences between the Cumberlands and the College Youths?
[00:06:28] LINDA: There's a question. I suppose the obvious difference until the, I think it was the late 1990s, was that until then, the College Youths didn't admit women or hadn't done since about the 1920s, whereas the Cumberlands had always admitted both men and women ringers. That's not the case anymore, fortunately.
So I, in many ways there isn't a huge difference. I would certainly say, the Cumberlands is a really welcoming society. we make a big effort to involve members from all over the country, and give particularly new members, younger members, opportunities that they might not get in their local area.
But I guess if you ask that same question to the College Youths, they would perhaps say the same thing.
[00:07:17] CATHY: And you ring in different towers in London, don't you? Is that right?
[00:07:22] LINDA: Yes, to some extent. Although there's, for example, this week, in fact two days ago, I went down to London, and the Cumberlands had a practice at St.
Paul's Cathedral, which historically has been more of a College Youths tower, although many members of the St. Paul's Cathedral band now are members of the Cumberlands as well. So I think there's less of a distinction between it being Cumberland Towers and College Youth Towers. Both societies ring at a lot of towers, particularly in the city of London, central London, on a weekly basis.
[00:07:50] CATHY: Okay. So what did being a master of the Cumberlands entail?
[00:07:55] LINDA: A lot of hard work, for, in the case of the Cumberlands, you can be master for up to three years, which I was.
And actually that's the difference between the Cumberlands and the College Youths, in that the College Youths, you tend to progress from being junior steward, senior steward, having one year as master, whereas that isn't quite such a structured pace with the Cumberlands, but to go back to your question, obviously running the practices once a week at whichever tower it happened to be, and then also being the face of the society.
So I was invited to speak at several dinners over my three years and also organising the other events that I spoke about. Generally peals on a regular basis we have what are call country meetings, so a couple of times a year having a meeting in some other parts of the country.
Obviously being there at that, chairing the meetings of the society, and really just trying to keep in touch with the members, making sure that the members are engaged, have opportunities. And so on. When I did, that at the beginning of, so it was 1990, the early 1990s, obviously this is before email and mobile phone, so a lot of it was a lot of telephoning.
I remember spending a lot of time on the phone because that was the way that you could really get in touch with people to organise things. So I won't say it's easier now with email and so on because actually the fact that you've got email means communication both ways is much easier.
And I'm sure the current Master would back me up by saying, his email box can be completely inundated at times.
[00:09:33] CATHY: Were there any special events or stories that you can tell us about from your time as being Master?
[00:09:40] LINDA: I guess one of the, one of the most significant things, and one of the things I'm proudest of was, during my time as Master, the Cumberlands won the 12 bell, at Towcester, which I think might have been 1991/92.
But obviously that was a really proud thing during my three years as Master. We came third, then second, and then we won. So I was really proud of that. and I think that's probably the thing that sticks out for me. Another thing that I'm probably quite proud of during that time, not necessarily anything to do with my role as Master, but we did ring quite a few ladies peals over that period from the late 1980s through to the mid 1990s. Particularly at some of the most difficult rings of bells and heavy rings of bells in the country.
So Bow was the first one, I think St. Mary Le Bow in London. We rang one at York Minster, which I think is my most memorable and favourite peal that I've ever rung. Exeter Cathedral and various other things as well of quite difficult spliced surprise Maximus. So that was a bit of a golden period, I think in my ringing career and they were all run for the Cumberlands. So you know, for the Cumberlands as well, I think.
[00:10:57] CATHY: Moving on to Bedfordshire. Can you tell me a little bit about ringing the towers in Bedfordshire and about ringing in Bedfordshire generally at the moment and maybe, how it has been, in the recent past
[00:11:08] LINDA: Okay. Bedfordshire is, it's a small county, so we've got roundabout 80, ringable towers. So we are really the size of, in some associations the same size as a district. But having said that, we've got a pretty proud history I think, and in fact, one person in particular that I'd love to have met is a lady called Evelyn Steele, who was in the very first ladies peal at Cubitt Town in 1912, and she was also president of the Bedfordshire Association. And by all accounts, quite a fierce lady.
I suppose I'm following in her footsteps. There's been a lot of famous characters and ringers who've rung in Bedfordshire over the years. Steven Iving being one, but as a county, as I say we're quite small. And in some ways that has advantages because it means, for example, when we were running Bedfordshire Young Ringers, it's not far to travel from one side of the county to the other.
So you could have quite a cohesive group who could attend every practice. One of the other things about Bedfordshire ringing that I'm particularly proud of, and this again is going back a few years. We did have, and unfortunately it's not the case anymore, it's something that we want to build up again. But we did have a really, really successful youth team, which won the National Youth Contest, several times, which again, I wasn't president at the time, but I was their coach and ran the sessions. So I was, I think again, them winning for the first time was probably one of my proudest moments in my ringing career.
It really was. and I burst into tears. And the, subsequent times I was still really proud, but I didn't burst into tears on those occasions. I was just very happy and unbearable for quite a long time afterwards. On the downside, being a small county, we've got limited resources, in terms of the numbers of ringers, the number of experienced ringers. So there's pros and cons. And I think like all Associations, I think Covid, brought with it challenges but also an opportunity to actually assess where we were and to look at whether the Association, the Guild, or whatever it was, certainly in the case of Bedfordshire, the Association, whether it was really fit for purpose going forward, how we were going to come back from Covid, whether we needed to change things to make ourselves a modern society. We were founded 140 just over years ago.
And a lot of things I wouldn't, things hadn't changed. A lot of things had changed. There were things that I think I felt when I took over as president, needed to be done to bring the Association, to move it forward, to take stock of where we were and to look of how we could make sure that we had another, vibrant association that was serving the needs of its members going forward.
[00:14:09] CATHY: And what sort of things has that entailed?
[00:14:13] LINDA: Quite a lot. So during Covid itself, while we weren't allowed to meet. We did have some sort of Zoom workshops to talk about this very subject. What are we going to do when we can get back together again? Let's have a look at where we are, what we're perhaps going to need to do, because we were very aware that we would lose ringers.
As every Association has done. not only losing through people passing away, but also people getting older, people finding other things to do. Cause they'd had two years of not ringing. So it was really a case of how we made sure that we brought people back that we could bring back and cater, I wouldn't necessarily say a recruitment campaign, but how we could make sure that we had enough ringers going forward. So we had these sort of workshops that came up with a lot of ideas, about what we needed to do and probably would've needed to do even without Covid. Lots of ideas and I'll come on how into how our first in February emanated from that.
But, so we had the workshops. We then had a survey of all the members And I'm very lucky in that I used to work for the Bishop of Bedford, and so I've still got a very good relationship with him. And really, he's one of our patrons. He's very supportive and so I sent out a survey online made paper copies available.
With the expectation really, that people just wouldn't respond because people don't respond. It gets, like me, it gets put to the bottom of your inbox and then you forget about it. But the Bishop very kindly contacted all the clergy in Bedfordshire as well, and engaged their help. So we had something like a 75% response to the survey, of towers that is, which I was really pleased with.
In fact, I think it might even have been higher than that. So a really good response. So we felt that we had a good base on which to, base what we were going to do going forward. So we then came up with a an action plan for ringing in Bedfordshire over the next 10 years. And some of those things were very short term, like getting back to ringing, making sure there's the technical help available for people who need to check their installations post Covid, an event for getting ringers together post covid as, as well as simple things like, where they could find the advice about going back to ringing. And then there was more medium term ones. And one of those was, how we're actually going to engage and motivate the ringers that we have.
And one of those ideas was having a first's day, And rather than just a quarter peal day, because a quarter peal day, you by definition are going to exclude some people. Whereas we thought a first's day you can include everybody. And it was something that we'd done with Bedfordshire Young Ringers, a few years before which had been very successful. So they could ring anything from a couple, rang their first peal, a couple rang first quarter peals. Some people just called call changes for the first time. And then we all got together. They all got a certificate no matter what they'd done. And then we ate lots of pizza in the evening.
So that was really successful.
[00:17:27] CATHY: Was there anything else?
[00:17:29] LINDA: Yeah, I mean there was a whole list of things that we set up, post covid. One of them was instead of having, an Association striking competition in which just the winners of each district compete in. Which over the years have become less successful in the winning band in the district often couldn't field a band for the final. So therefore you had all sorts of random bands representing whoever could get a band together on the day. So it lost its meaning really. So what we now have for the first time after Covid was had an open striking competition so absolutely anybody could enter as a band.
And if they entered as a Sunday service band, the winning band would still win the trophy that we had for the old competition if you like. But just individuals could come along on the day they'd be put into a band and. could enter and win chocolates or something like that. And that was tied in with social events.
So the first year, that ran, we had a big picnic out in the Churchyard. So it was a big social occasion as well. And it was really well supported. Sadly last year, which would've been the second year, would've been the week that her Majesty, passed away. So we had to cancel, that year.
So this year will be only the second time we've tried that out, but hopefully that will be successful. We've started organising surprise major practices. We've had a real emphasis on training. We're very lucky we've got a ringing centre at Biggleswade, and for some years now we've had, training sessions on the second Saturday of each month, and they've been really successful.
Obviously people ring at their own towers, but they come along to that session. They started off really as bell handling clinics and then gradually people progressed and it's evolved into something different. And what was really good, one of the things we decided we needed to do as part of this action plan was to teach more teachers of ringing because that was something that was going to hold us back.
In that across Bedfordshire, there weren't many people who were confident and competent at teaching ringing. some of those who started as learners maybe five years ago and others. We've had an A R T. Module one course at Biggleswade so that we've got more teachers of ringing. We've also instigated last year, a summer school, which is students sign up for a day and there's probably four students per day, maximum plus sufficient tutors. And last year we focused on plain hunt and Plain Bob doubles. This year we're, we are doing that plus, beyond plain bob doubles sessions so people get a really intensive day of whatever level they've signed up for.
All of that you are really dependent on the goodwill of people coming forward to help. But I think success breeds success. And I think one of the things I see my role as president as being, is leadership and trying to promote some enthusiasm for the things that I'm enthusiastic about.
And, hoping that then feeds down. The other thing that we're doing, is we realize that we've done a lot of the things in the action plan that we're the short term, quick fixes, if you like. Other things require actually a fundamental reassessment of the Association and its aims, objectives, and its structure.
So at the AGM a couple of years ago, it was agreed that we would have a review of the Association. Last year we agreed a change in the objects to bring them really up to date to include things like training and, recruitment and PR, which weren't part of the old objectives, if you like. In order to deliver those new objects.
The next thing is we need to actually look at the structure of the Association because I'm president, we have a vice president, we have a secretary and a treasurer, but we don't have a ringing master. We don't have a public relations person. We don't have the roles that we actually did need to deliver the objectives that we need to deliver. In the 21st century. So that's the next stage, So yeah, quite a lot to do.
[00:21:41] CATHY: Yes. It sounds like there's a lot going on that's been generated from these workshops originally, then the survey then, and then the action plan and a lot of things have happened out of that.
Which sound exciting.
[00:21:58] LINDA: It's exciting. Sometimes I don't think it's exciting sometimes. I think it's exhausting.
[00:22:03] CATHY: Yeah.
[00:22:05] LINDA: And I think, the Central Council went through a very similar process. Back in Edinburgh, whenever that was, a few years ago. And I know other Associations are going or have gone through a very similar process. And I did talk, when we were starting this off, did talk to some of them to ask them what they'd been doing, how they did it. So sharing of ideas is just really crucial because, not inventing the wheel, so to speak.
[00:22:30] CATHY: One of the reasons why I invited you on, was that I'd scanned through, Tower Talk and spotted this First in February initiative, and that, initiative sounded really exciting.
Could you tell me a little bit about what that is?
[00:22:46] LINDA: Yes. I mentioned earlier that with Bedfordshire Young Ringers, we had a first day when they were encouraged to ring something or enabled to ring something for the first time. Could be anything. And when we were having these workshops, somebody suggested that would be a good idea.
Traditionally, some of the districts in the Association have had quarter peal days, which is a similar sort of thing, but obviously by having the expectation of ringing a quarter peal not everybody is going to be able to attain that. So we decided we would have a firsts day, but realised that in order to have a day and include as many people as possible, because you're going to need to use your experienced ringers to form the backbone of what people are trying to achieve. It extended to a week and then gradually actually it extended to a month, So at the moment, the way things work, each district, we have three districts have a district meeting, on one Saturday per month. So it gave the opportunity to say to the district ringing masters, that would be an opportunity for people to ring firsts. So the way that it works, the organization of it is really evolving. in that I send out a monthly update. But the plan is that a couple of months in advance, the update comes out and says, don't forget first in February is in a couple of months time, be thinking about what you want to ring personally as your target.
Talk to your tower captain, talk to your mentors. See whether there is an opportunity to do what you want with your local band. Whether you need to bring in a few people locally to, to enable you to do whatever it is. Or do you want it to be organized centrally, in other words, through me or some of the people that help or the district ringing masters.
And so people ideally come up with something that they want to ring, ring it with either their local band or with help from outsiders or centrally organized. And then the important thing is that they then put it on bellboard so that in the next update we can all say well done to X, Y, Z.
Who've rung whatever it is they've rung and I just think it's great for people to have a target to think about what they could achieve that they don't always necessarily have the opportunity to achieve and other people can be called upon to enable them to achieve whatever it is. So the first year that we did it, which was two years ago, and we decided on February as the month, because first of all, it's a time of year when there's not a lot going on. We're all needing new challenges. It's a bit of a downtime, I always think.
So to have something going on to motivate people, I think is good. It's got a half term week in it, which is also quite helpful for those people that are school, college, or teachers, whatever, to be able to take part rather than just putting all the pressure on weekends. So the first one was in February, 2021. And although we'd been planning it for some months, As it happened, we then had another lockdown during sort of December stroke beginning of January.
So in fact, quite a few towers hadn't yet come back to ringing in February of that year. But nevertheless, those that had come back, we had really quite a successful, firsts month. With about 15 individuals doing something for the first time ranged from first quarters, first quarters in certain methods, ringing hand bells for the first time or first rounds on hand bells that sort of thing. Calling call changes for the first time. As I say, all those could be anything, but the important thing was it was recorded and then we could celebrate those achievements. And so then moving forward, we've repeated that this year we decided we would actually have a focus on quarter peals during the month.
We set aside half term week to actually centrally organize some quarter peals. But again, people could ring a first of anything they liked during the month. but the quarter peal's quite a few who were learners, maybe when it first started, had got to the stage where actually they were ready to ring a quarter peal, wouldn't necessarily have that opportunity with their local band, but if we pooled our resources, we could organize, quarter peals, which we did.
That's really where we were. And I guess moving on from that, what I've been doing in this monthly update is obviously we celebrated the achievements that people rang in February in the following update. I've now got a little bit at the bottom that sort of says A first is not just for February. and I check Bellboard and see what else has been rung in the county, by members, over the previous month, and also with the sort of the note that obviously if there's something you want to ring and you can't ring it, let your A. Tower Captain know, B. District Master know, C. Me or your mentor. And we'll see if we can arrange it for you if possible. But what I would say is something like this, it doesn't take a huge amount of organisation because what you are really doing is encouraging people to organise their own or get their mentors or Tower Captains or whatever to organize something for them.
But what it does take is a lot of, banging on about it for want of a better word, another reason why February is a good time is because the district AGMs are in January, so there's an opportunity then to promote it and, send round a list saying "What, are you ringing? Are you ringing something?" And just get people thinking about it.
[00:28:37] CATHY: You mentioned mentors in the middle of that. We hadn't talked about those.
[00:28:41] LINDA: No. I'm using the word mentor in a very loose sense in that, there are a lot of, more experienced ringers within the county who may not necessarily be tower captains, but they've taken people under their wing.
And encouraged them to go to the Biggleswade training sessions or encouraged them to go to district meetings. So yes, I'm using that sort of alongside a Tower Captain or whoever the person is that encourages you in your ringing, which may or may not be your own Tower Captain. In a lot of cases it is, but yeah, so that's a very loose term.
We don't have a sort of formal structure of students and mentors, something we've talked about, but amongst many other things.
[00:29:31] CATHY: What do you think has been accomplished by the First in February initiative?
[00:29:35] LINDA: I think there's, there's certainly, people have achieved things, ringers have achieved things that they wouldn't probably have achieved if they hadn't, or a target hadn't been set for them.
That in turn has increased their motivation and enthusiasm and confidence as much as anything else. Actually, that's a really important thing. Because for example, at a district meeting during February, District Ringing Masters might do this anyway, they might have particularly different people conducting touches and things like that, that it's just making everybody think about what can I do to help this person to make just a little bit of progress, do something they've not done before.
Think of something new to do to keep them motivated and as I say, when they achieve it, that's a great confidence boost.
[00:30:25] CATHY: What's your advice for the next generation of women ringers? How would you want to inspire young women in ringing?
[00:30:33] LINDA: I think basically, what inspired me was looking at other women ringers for whom there was no glass ceiling for whom they felt that they could achieve as much as any ringer. And I, I have to mention Alison Surry. Alison Regan, as she became, she was my real inspiration.
She was a great friend of mine at university and probably the best woman ringer of her generation I would say, or amongst the best certainly. And I used to watch her ringing particularly big bells and watch how she did it, watch her technique, and the fact that she would then encourage me to "Go on, ring the tenor" and I'd think "I can't ring the tenor, I've never rung the tenor before." But I did. And so I think those of us who are that bit more experienced and older do have a duty to encourage and inspire the younger generation, but also for them to have the confidence that they can, any woman can ring bigger bells. It's not just about ringing bigger bells. It's about ringing, conducting, pushing yourself beyond where you think you can go. And just, making the sky the limit really, rather than thinking, oh, I can only do this. So there's been a lot of women and men over the years, but women, particularly Alison I mentioned, Stephanie Pattendon is another one. A real inspiration to me. So encouraging to me, giving me opportunities to do things that I probably wouldn't have thought that I could do.
Not just in terms of ringing bigger bells, but also in terms of conducting, being a leader, standing for office in the Cumberlands, for example. So I think it behoves all of us to make sure that we encourage all our young ringers, whatever their gender, whatever their background to aspire really to aspire to whatever they want to achieve.
[00:32:41] CATHY: Yeah.
[00:32:42] LINDA: And again, that's something that, First in February can do, or as some sort of similar thing is all about encouraging and giving ringers aspirations to achieve to go out and about and visit other towers, go to their district meetings or whatever, there is, their training meetings, whatever opportunities are offered really?
[00:33:04] CATHY: Apart from the towers that you regularly ring at, what's your favourite ring of bells and why?
[00:33:12] LINDA: That is really difficult. and I think I'd probably have to have two favourites. It's a bit like desert island discs, isn't it? One of them is York Minster just because they are such an, a fantastic ring of bells. Beautiful ring of bells. And I've got lots of happy memories of ringing there really since I was a student with friends of mine who were ringers at York at the time. And also that memory of that ladies peal that we rang there. So I've got a real fondness, such happy memories of that tower and also just the majesty of the bells they are just wonderful. And I think my second one actually, probably for a similar reason, Great St. Mary's in Cambridge. Again I rang there late 1980s, early 1990s, and again just very happy memories. When I rang there, it was the old bells. And the new bells are a lovely ring of bells. But I've just got very happy memories of the tower and being part of that band, which was a lot of people, similar age, really friendly band, great ringing.
Yeah, so I think those two in equal measure.
[00:34:28] CATHY: My last question is, has anything remarkable happened to you that wouldn't have happened if you hadn't taken up bell ringing?
[00:34:36] LINDA: I'm going to have to say, as I'm sure lots of people do, I met my husband John Loveless and wouldn't have happened, I think, it certainly wouldn't happened if I hadn't been a bell ringer. But broadening it out, I've met so many fabulous friends over the years whilst being a bell ringer.
And yes, I might have, met, I'm sure I would've met wonderful friends and maybe a husband with other interests and hobbies, but that's obviously the one that a bell ringing sticks out for me.
[00:35:08] CATHY: Thank you to my guest Linda Garton, another inspirational leader in the world of bell ringing. If you've enjoyed this episode, then please share it. This podcast was put together by a team. Special thanks go to Anne Tansley-Thomas, Emily Roderick, John Gwynne, Emily Watts and the Society of the Cambridge Youths for the recording of their
ringing.
[Bells ringing rounds]