Telegraph: “Bell ringer shortage as youngsters no longer find hobby ‘appealing’“
BBC News: “Church bell-ringers shortage prompts concern“
Ardent bell-ringers say their hobby keeps them fit and is exciting for the mind. There also is a social side — after each practice they end up in a pub.
But it had become increasingly difficult to recut new members. Bell-ringing tower captains say this is because there are so many other things for young people to be nowadays beside ring bells. This predicament was discussed at the annual conference of the Central Council of Church Bell Ringers held in Portsmouth.
The tower captain at St Mary’s church in Walkley in Sheffield, Pet McCoy, who met his wife bell-ringing said teenagers today have more distractions than when he was young. ‘There weren’t so many things for a young person to do as there are today’.
