During the few days after the dinner I made contact with his office and arranged for a visit to be made to the centre that coincided with a training event planned for two Alvaston ringers. Dorothy and Tom Randall, two relatively recent ringers, will celebrate their golden wedding in 2011 and would like to ring a quarter peal to mark the occasion. To assist them in this ambition they have started to make visits to the centre to enhance the training they receive from their home tower. One such visit was planned for Wednesday 7th July and this coincided with an available slot in Councillor Baldry’s diary and so a combined visit was organised.

Councillor Baldry spent 2 hours at the centre and as well as watching a short training session, viewed the bells and dumb bells close up and was fascinated by the concept of using computer technology combined with ancient bells as training aids to teach a very traditional English skill. As well as watching a demonstration of ringing, something he had not seen before, Robin was also persuaded to have a go himself and indeed very quickly grasped the concept. As with many adult beginners he was amazed by the little effort required to turn a bell full circle but very quickly was pulling backstrokes with just the right level of effort. If he were not such a busy man I feel certain he could make very quick progress to becoming a good bell ringer.

Robin was fascinated by the concept of change ringing and the manner in which ringers hold the “music” in their heads. There was little time to go into too much detail and the visit all too soon came to an end but by then I’m sure that our County Council Chairman had a far better understanding of our exercise and a good perception of the way in which training is carried out at Eckington.

Left to right: Don Jones, Dorothy Randall, Keith Nelson, Councillor Robin Baldry, Tom Randall, Hazel Jones, Barrie Goodwin, Dennis Smedley