Vicky's 50th Birthday plan

Vicky's plan to mark her 50th birthday, is to ring bells in 50 Sussex bell towers in 50 days in the run up to and including the Saturday after her birthday, 27th April 2023.

Fundraising for the Bell Restoration Fund

Along the way she will be collecting donations for the SCACR Bell Restoration Fund. The Bell Restoration Fund (BRF) is a registered charity (268588) which provides financial assistance for the restoration, maintenance and improvement of existing church bells, towers and belfries. The fund also supports preservation of bells from redundant churches. All the fund's activities are within the Diocese of Chichester in Sussex.

The Challenge

Vicky will kick off her challenge on Saturday 11th March when she will join the Graffham ringers at St Giles church for a morning practice session. This will be followed by her home towers of St John the Baptist, Kirdford and St Mary's Billingshurst. Thereafter she will tour the many towers of Sussex in a carefully planned journey over the subsequent weeks. The presence of Holy Week during her challenge has hindered her schedule somewhat. Because there is no ringing during this week she will double up on some towers to compensate.

Bellringers are famously welcoming to visitors and in each tower Vicky will slot into their regular practice night, Saturday practices or Sunday service ringing. She will undoubtedly be challenged by some of the methods she will be expected to ring. Bellringing ‘methods’ are named memorised ringing patterns. “Saint Nicholas” and other “Saint” methods are Vicky’s favourite and on these she prefers to ring the treble (the lightest bell) or the tenor (the heaviest bell). She is hoping that at some of the venues there will be enough fellow method ringers to give her the chance to ring these methods. The whole process should also allow her to perfect “Bob Doubles” and “Grandsire” that she has currently been studying.

Vicky is also relishing ringing in some of the bigger towers in Sussex and she is particularly looking forward to one of the ten bell towers that exist in Brighton.

Help Vicky raise funds for the BRF

If you would like to support Vicky in her arduous challenge and in doing so help preserve bells and bellringing in Sussex, do ensure you are there when she visits your tower. You can donate through here alternatively you can go to the SCACR website (https://www.scacr.org ) and follow the ‘Donate’ links to the Bell Restoration Fund.