Earlier this year, when Olympic excitement was fading, Elizabeth remembered that The Churches Conservation Trust, YMCAfit and a PR agency, Midas, had contacted  several London towers with a plan to promote the fitness benefits of bell ringing. Always looking for new ways to recruit, and wanting to capitalise on the still-fresh Olympic encouragements to get more active, Elizabeth got back in touch with Midas PR. The result has been a mad press campaign elevating the likes of Andrew Clark, Andrew Larsen and Rob Parker to near celebrity status.

Docklands ringers hosted 5 newspapers, 3 of them national, and added lots of press cuttings to our scrapbook. Some links below will take you direct to the newspaper’s website, but where this is not available, we’re told by Midas PR that we can’t post scanned copies of newspaper clippings on the internet due to rights issues, so if you’re interested we can email you a pdf copy.

Southark News, 22 November 2012 (request a pdf copy)

Southwark News Cartoon, 22 November 2012 (request a pdf copy)

South London Press, 23 November 2012 (request a pdf copy)

The Evening Standard, 29 November 2012 http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/free-bellringing-classes-rope-in-pupils-aiming-to-boost-fitness-8367731.html

The Times, 3 December 2012 (request a pdf copy)

The Mirror, 6 December 2012 http://www.mirror.co.uk/lifestyle/health/could-bell-ringing-fitness-classes-help-1474421

I held this post back because The Sun was due to publish last week, but didn’t. We’re still hoping.

In the meantime, as part of the national Midas PR campaign, ringers from around the country have discussed the pleasures of ringing on many BBC radio and television shows, including the Jeremy Vine Show (Monday 3 December), BBC Sheffield and BBC Breakfast TV. Roger Booth reports this has a measurable impact to interest: a surge of hits to The Ringing Foundation’s Discover Bellringing website.

So, a big thank you goes out to all of our band members who assisted with press requests or tolerated the disruptions to our practices. We hope to have contributed to a rise in the numbers recruited to ring in 2013.

Jennifer Woodward, a member of the Stepney Band, is also a member of the London Gallery Quire and invites us to their annual Christmas Concert of West Gallery Music at St George’s German Lutheran Church, 55 Alie Street E1 8EB on Wednesday 5 December at 7pm (doors open at 6.30pm). Tickets are £6 on the door. As the poster tells us this is an opportunity to see inside the oldest surviving German church in England – one of those Open House sites I’ve always meant to visit but so far haven’t incorporated into my jam-packed routes and I am intersted to learn more about the music (featuring in Thomas Hardy’s early novel Under the Greenwood Tree), so I’ll be there. See also the Historic Chapels Trust website for more information about the venue. http://www.hct.org.uk/chapels/london/st-georges-german-lutheran-church/17 Click on the poster below and then click on it again to see it at a more legible size. Hope to see many of you at the concert!

Thanks to David Cloake for spotting this and posting on Facebook

One must agree it makes a nice change from ringers drawn skywards on the ends of ropes.

Thanks to Andrew Larsen, who opened up Rotherhithe tower early one Monday and posed for the cartoonist of the South London Press, and for all the ringers who came along to help out at the Press Launch of the Churches Conservation Trust Bell Ringing for Fitness initiative the following day.

There are rumours of more press coming to Tuesday’s Bermondsey practice. Come and display your honed and sculpted biceps, triceps and pecs!

Just a reminder of this event coming up next week.This will be a press launch and is organised by Midas PR on behalf of the Churches Conservation Trust who have joined up to promote the fitness benefits of bell ringing. We’re hoping for a good showing of Docklands ringers. If you are coming to the Bermondsey practice and can manage the earlier gig at Rotherhithe, please let us know by visiting this link:

http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/event/4797081199

Thank you! Hope you can come

Many of the 100+ visitors to Rotherhithe on Sunday 23 September 2012 expressed an interest to know more or to give it a try, either with us or in other parts of London. They have now all been contacted and sent details of towers local to them and association training officers who can advise or invitations to one of our practices. Within 24 hours we’ve already had some feedback! So to reward all the Docklands members who helped out at Rotherhithe on that rainy Sunday, here are our ‘user reviews’:

“Thanks very much for following this up and for arranging/participating in the splendid bell ringing display last Sunday – it was truly inspirational”

“It was a real privilege to see the ringing at St Marys on Sunday. We both enjoyed it. I will see if I could be involved. Thanks for the contact details.”

“I much enjoyed my visit to the Rotherithe tower at the London Open House 2012. Your hospitality was much appreciated and your ethusiasm infectious!”

Well done, team! You are inspirational!