I needn’t have worried about having enough turn up to the Okehampton handbell afternoon: 31 people were there ringing handbells!

In the last few days the worry was ‘will we have enough experienced ringers?’ as more and more novices signed up, or turned up on the day, but we managed, just. My detailed programme was revised several times, and in the end we had three groups ringing at the same time for eight half- hour sessions. 24 sessions! And this was just to give all the Plain Hunt and Plain Bob ringers one go each, and some of the experts didn’t get a break at all. Still, it was brilliant to introduce so many people to the art of handbells.

The 10-bell simulator was used a lot, and some children taught to handle in just minutes. When most people had gone home, some of us double-handed on the simulator, (and I  almost managed to eat a KitKat at the same time!)