Students ringing the changes with a modern appeal

YOUNGSTERS JOIN SOCIETY FOR AGE-OLD ART

- BY LAYCIE BECK

The bell ringers at St Mary-le-Wigford Church in Lincoln

IN this university city filled with sports societies and nightclub leaflets, there is one group of enthusiastic students helping keep a ding-dong tradition alive.

A little way up above the streets in Lincoln city centre, students make the trek up a narrow church staircase to take part in the 400-year-old practice of bellringing.

St Mary le Wigford Church - which dates back 1,000 years - is where the University of Lincoln Society of Bell Ringers meet to ring out the bells that were around at the time of William Shakespeare.

The society's president, Owen Peters, who began this unusual hobby at the age of five, believes that tradition interests students as it offers something completely different to modern university life.

The 20-year-old said: “It’s that one society you've never heard of, and you're not really quite sure what it’s about so students come along and have a go, and it defies all their expectations, and actually, they quite enjoy it”

Bellringing consists of a team of ringers pulling downwards on a rope in different sequences to create an array of varied chimes, typically done in cathedrals and churches.

“I think it is really important to get more young people involved to keep the traditional alive”