Five bell towers, one day, celebrating 100 years of bellringing … The Devon Association of Ringers, joined by singers from Okehampton music charity Wren Music, are marking their centenary in style this October.

The ‘ringing and singing’ day is happening on Saturday, October 11, and people are invited to come along and listen – and even have a go at bellringing themselves.

The ringing is at five churches in west Devon and east Cornwall. The day ends with a cream tea and prizegiving ceremony, when Wren Music’s Paul Wilson and Marilyn Tucker will be singing traditional bellringing songs, mostly collected by the famous Lewtrenchard-based song and tune collector, the Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould.

At the first three churches on the route, experienced ringers from the association will be on hand to show people the ropes if you’d like to give it a try. At the final two, the men’s and women’s bellringing teams will be taking part in a competition:

9.30-10.30am: St Swithun’s Church, Pyworthy

11am-12 noon: St Paternus Church, North Petherwin

1.15-2.15pm: St Nicholas Church, Broadwoodwidger

2.30-3.30pm: St Mary’s Church, Bratton Clovelly (men’s competition)

2.30-3.30pm: St Peter ad Vincula, Ashwater (women’s competition)

3.30-5pm: Ashwater Village Hall, cream tea and prizegiving

The day follows a similar event in October 2024, part of the Baring-Gould Centenary celebrations to mark the 100th anniversary of his death in 1924.

Baring-Gould came across various versions of the traditional song ‘The Bellringing’ – last year’s event used the version he collected on New Year’s Eve in 1890, when he heard it being sung by a Dartmoor farmer at the old Saracen’s Head inn at Two Bridges.

The song tells the story of the bellringing men of Northlew and Broadwoodwidger who compete at Ashwater, with the winners, Northlew, taking home a prize of a belt and a hat laced with gold.

In the song, Broadwoodwidger challenge Northlew to a rematch, which takes place across the Tamar in Callington. The men of Northlew prevailed again, and, according to the song, they 'won the ale and the five pound note, too'.

At Ashwater Village Hall, Paul Wilson will be holding a workshop where people can learn a version of The Bellringing called The Ashwater Ringing Song, which Baring-Gould collected from a blacksmith, James Down, in Lewtrenchard in the early 1900s.

Five towers – including Northlew and ‘Broadwood so bold’ – are named as competing in Ashwater. Although this version has a different tune, the prize is the same – a belt and a hat laced with gold. In a nod to the lyrics, the winning men’s and women’s teams on the bellringing day will be presented with a trophy reflecting the song’s story.

This final centenary event of the year for the Devon Association of Ringers will see 40-45 ringers taking part, including three men’s and women’s teams of six ringers drawn from churches to represent north Devon, south Devon and east Cornwall. Sadly, Northlew isn’t on the bellringing route this year, as one of the bells developed a crack and has been taken out of the tower for welding.

The association promotes a style of call change ringing that’s unique to Devon and the east of Cornwall, vice-chair, Jon Bint, said: “It’s more rhythmic than method ringing, which is what you’ll find elsewhere. You could say that method ringing is more at the classical end and ours is very much at the folk end. Another difference is that call change ringing has always been based around competitions, and one of the things that sets it apart is that it has thrown up this body of folk songs.”

Many of the songs and tunes were collected by Baring-Gould, and his manuscripts were in turn collected and ‘saved’ by Wren Music.

There are now around 400 bell towers in Devon, and 150-160 are in the Devon Association of Ringers. Roughly the same are method ringers in the Guild of Devonshire Ringers and the rest are unaffiliated. But, says Jon: “We don’t have teams in all those towers. We band together and look after three or four. For example, I ring at Chagford but we also look after Drewsteignton, Gidleigh and Throwleigh.”

There’s been a lot of changes in the 100 years since the association was formed. Today, around half of ringers are women, whereas in the photographs from the 1920s, there were none to be seen.

And the loss of rural churches together with the changing demographics – fewer agricultural workers, traditionally the backbone of bellringing teams in the countryside – have had an impact: “The closure of churches is the biggest threat to bellringing,” said Victoria Tucker, who rings at South Brent and is helping with the centenary events. “We’ve got a huge number of churches that are sharing congregations and those not being used are falling into disrepair or being sold. For example, Petrockstowe Church has been closed and is being sold. It has a team of ringers with no church to ring.”

The association has launched a recruitment campaign, see www.devonbells.co.uk. To join in on October 11 , contact the association by email at [email protected] or message 07833 800140 so they can accommodate numbers.