Mobile Ringing Heritage Centre

The Heritage Lottery Fund has announced that the Barrow & District Society of Church Bell Ringers based at Barrow-upon-Humber has been awarded a first round pass for their proposals to create the Mobile Ringing Heritage Centre. The centre will be a full-sized ring of church bells mounted in a large vehicle which will be a self-contained mobile education and training centre, currently costed at £450,000.


The Barrow & District Society of Church Bell Ringers was inaugurated in 2004 as a development of the on-going teaching work at Holy Trinity church, Barrow-upon-Humber, Lincolnshire, in the historic heritage art of English Change Ringing. The Society operates the Barrow-upon-Humber Ringing Centre in Lincolnshire which is a nationally recognised centre of excellence in teaching ringing. This Centre serves the whole region of northern Lincolnshire and East Yorkshire. The Barrow & District Society has recently completed a five year £40,000 restoration and augmentation project at the Ringing Centre and now has a track-record of managing ringing development in the local area with considerable success. The objects of this new project are

·       To operate a community social cohesion project that brings people from across the community into contact with a heritage art form. English Change Ringing is often perceived to be exclusively a white middle class activity. That is incorrect and the assumption needs to be challenged so that other social groups are encouraged to participate.

·       To provide a unique experience to introduce the ringing of church bells and our historic heritage art to people in marginalised and disadvantaged areas where there is normally little contact with such facilities. It is particularly suited to reaching children and young people in inner city areas as it can be driven into virtually any area of hard standing, and made operational within minutes for schools and youth groups.

·       To provide access to the art for physically disabled people who would normally not have to access to conventional bells hung in church towers due to the limitations of architecture, and the risks associated with heavy bells. The proposal that the unit is staffed by an experienced tutor and available at almost any time would mean that a disabled group could book the unit on a once a week basis for regular practices.

·       To provide a facility which encourages participation in a healthy active lifestyle activity which ordinarily many people would not think of as an option for regular exercise.

·    To provide a mobile training facility for ringers which can be taken anywhere in the country, together with experienced training staff where necessary.

·       To provide a public relations unit which can be used at fairs, shows, fetes and galas and all types of public gatherings to publicise ringing, and encourage people to consider taking it up locally.

·       To make the unit available for weddings at churches without bells and at civil wedding locations in return for appropriate donations to the costs, so that people who are able to contribute funds to the project will subsidise those who cannot do so.

·       To provide a heritage display unit for the 2012 Olympic Games in London.


Samantha Goody , Communications Account Manager of the Heritage Lottery Fund said

"A first-round pass means the project meets our criteria for funding and we believe it has potential to deliver high-quality benefits and value for Lottery money. The application was in competition with other supportable projects, so a first-round pass is an endorsement of outline proposals. However, a first-round pass does not guarantee the applicant will receive a grant  although the chances of receiving a grant are high.  The second-round application will still be in competition for funding, and no money is set aside at this stage.  Having been awarded a first-round pass, the project now has up to two years to submit fully developed proposals."