The Ringing World is a weekly magazine, a charity, and a keeper of ringing records.
For over a century, The Ringing World has been printed weekly about a tradition that is at once musical, mathematical, physical, and social.
We exist to support that tradition: to document it, to bring its community together, and to help it thrive into the future.
Stories, history, people, places, and ideas. For both ringers and non-ringers.
News, reports, features, and the official record of ringing. Published every week since 1911.
From thousands of church towers across the British Isles and beyond, sets of bells ring out: the loudest musical instrument. Each bell is rung by just one person pulling a rope in the room below.
Most ringers are volunteers, and many ring several times a week, for services, weddings, celebrations and the sheer enjoyment of it.
They create a unique kind of music, made from maths and the physical work of bells swinging.
Ringers work together to produce ever-changing sequences of notes, requiring concentration, coordination, and teamwork.
It is a practice rooted in history, but still actively learned, performed, and developed today.
For those discovering it, it is a fascinating, distinctive cultural heritage.
We maintain the authoritative record of ringing activity, from local events to the most significant performances, through our weekly magazine and BellBoard.
We provide a shared space for a dispersed, volunteer-led community, linking towers, associations, and individuals across the world.
We turn a complex, specialist activity into readable, engaging content, telling the stories behind the ringing.
We support the long-term future of ringing through education, events, and by encouraging participation at every level.
Subscriptions support our work and are available in print or digital format, quarterly or annually, or explore our shared tower subscription option.
We always welcome stories, articles and news reports along with photographs from ringers everywhere. Follow this link for how to tell your stories.
We publish educational resources, interesting books, greetings and Christmas cards and a variety of ringing-related merchandise at affordable prices
The Ringing World is a registered educational charity. We are grateful for all donations and other support.
The global home of ringing records, where performances are logged, shared, and saved for posterity. Keep your performance records and generate bespoke reports.
Submit your performance records. Add historic performances, and photos of bands, towers and peal boards.
It is the largest, and I would argue the most important, bell ringing event in the UK, if not the world.
First held in 2011 as part of The Ringing World‘s centenary celebrations, the RWNYC quickly became a permanent fixture in the ringing calendar. It has since grown into a landmark event, bringing together hundreds of young ringers, team leaders, families, volunteers and supporters from across the country.
Bellringing is a rich cultural heritage and a skill passed on from one passionate ringer to the next. The ‘Exercise’, as it is known, is a 400-year-old art and science.
It covers rural villages and great cathedrals, from novice beginners to accomplished peal bands. Sharing our unique hobby involves teamwork, commitment and lifelong friendships. The Ringing World is proud to play our part in that story.
As an organisation, The Ringing World is the hub of the exercise, a publishing house and more. As a charity, we aim to share the history and the theory of bells and change ringing around the world. As a magazine, we exist to keep our subscribers informed and connected.
This set of peal boards from St Mary-le-Tower, Ipswich, record the details of the first peals to be rung in eight different methods on twelve bells – all rung by the local Ipswich band at the beginning of the twentieth century.
Changes written out on the inside wall of a church tower, presumably to help the ringers. Dated 1692, the exact set of changes is one of the earliest ways ringers discovered the extent – all the possible bell orders – several decades earlier.
These particular changes are also in a fascinating place – the abandoned village of Imber on the Salisbury Plains in Wiltshire. Evicted in the Second World War to allow for military training, the villagers were never allowed to return.
Photograph: Matthew Higby
