Fred Jackson died last October at the age of 79; he was one of the great characters of bell ringing in the Doncaster area. Fred was a talented ringer in his time, but he kept no proper records of the peals he rang (at least 300) or the number he conducted. He was a Life Member of the Yorkshire Association and also rang with a number of other Guilds and Societies. He insisted on good striking and if he thought someone was ringing badly, he told them so straight. He did not suffer fools gladly; one of his pet phrases was "he could not ring a wet dish cloth" or on hearing the clock chime immediately before a ringing meeting "that will be the best striking you will hear all afternoon!" However, Fred was a man with no malice and he gave lots of time and encouragement to teaching learners.

Fred was born in 1929 in Bawtry, on the Yorkshire/Nottinghamshire border. His family owned a farm, a chemist shop and a fertilizer manufacturing plant, though they had all remained virtually unchanged for the last 100 years. This practical background gave him an interest in all things mechanical from an early age and in particular steam engines and windmills. In 1945 he took up bell-ringing, as his father and grandfather had before him. The ringers at Bawtry were limited in their range of methods and it was not long before he started attending practice nights and meetings at other towers, within a couple of years of learning he was ringing peals. Fred was very clever; when he was still learning to ring he was already composing peals, although some of them were false. His original mode of transport for going ringing was his bicycle and he would often cycle a 40 or 50 mile round trip to attend a meeting.

Fred spent his National Service in the RAF and trained as a radar and electronics engineer, a skill that served him well during his working life and with his hobbies. By 1950 he was working at the atomic power station at Windscale and it was here that he met his wife Olive. After getting married Fred and Olive moved back to Bawtry and had two sons – Alan (also a ringer) and Frank. In 1957, Fred had the opportunity to own his own steam traction engine – a 14 ton Burrell Road Loco (1911). Fred repaired and cleaned up the traction engine and used to drive her to steam rallies in Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire & Lincolnshire each year. Later he exchanged the Burrell for a 1900 Wallace & Stevens engine which Fred called "Victoria". Fred and his sons spent several years restoring her. Once at a steam traction show Fred met Fred Dibnah; they got along well and spent an evening reminiscing and drinking lots of beer.

Around 1960 Fred began a long association with the Rambling Ringers. For a fortnight each summer he and his family would get on cycles and visit 6 or 7 churches a day, ringing in a different county each year. This was thirsty work and involved much refreshment at pubs along the way. The counties of Devon and Somerset seemed to crop up very regularly — most of the Ramblers also shared Fred’s taste for cider!

At this time Fred worked at Hatfield’s steel works, Sheffield on a variety of engineering projects and was later employed as an instrument mechanic at Doncaster Power Station.

In 1965 Fred and Olive moved to Hawthorne Cottages, Fenwick a remote village north of Doncaster. The cottages were in need of much work but were cheap and had a large yard to store the traction engines. They lived here until Fred’s death.

For many years Fred rang at St George’s Minster, Doncaster. Although Fred did ring some 10 bell peals, he loved ringing on 8 bells. He was happy to ring simple methods as long as the striking was good. His favourite methods were Double Norwich, Bristol and Superlative. When conducting, he often split the tenors, which was not popular with learners.

Many stories are told about Fred’s ringing exploits; once when ringing a peal his trousers fell down. The conductor shouted for everyone to keep going, but to no avail. The other ringers were overcome with hysterical laughter and the peal was lost. During another attempt, Fred was ringing with a badly frayed rope. When the sally unravelled into two pieces he shouted to the conductor "which one do I ring!", whereupon the other ringers started laughing and the peal was lost. Fred often said he could write a book on peals he had lost.

Retirement allowed Fred to indulge in what he was best at; keeping worn out machinery running with whatever was to hand, trying to make something out of scrap. He developed his interest in blacksmithing and built a forge, acquiring enough tools and equipment to produce a proper blacksmith’s forge. Unfortunately his lively and fertile brain would usually come up with the next idea before finishing the last project and as a result, he left a large number of unfinished projects scattered around the workshops and yard.

In the early 1990s, there was no longer a ringing band at St George’s Minster and Fred rang at Barnby Dun. During this time, the Barnby Dun ringers decided to try to get the bells at Fishlake ringable after almost 50 years of being silent. Fred was a very active member of this group and contributed a great deal of his skill to the mechanical restoration work, which was closely overseen by English Heritage. He also helped to restore the bell fittings at Barnby Dun.

During the last few years Fred became frail. A serious fall in 2005 badly damaged his shoulder and consequently he could no longer raise his arm to ring, which he found immensely frustrating. An increasing number of falls and loss of balance meant that his mobility gradually reduced and during his last year he was confined to a chair.

Fred’s beloved traction engine "Victoria" towed his coffin on his last journey to the crematorium. He will be greatly missed.

Doncaster & District Society of Change Ringers