Here at St Mary’s Harrow on the Hill, we’ve had some good experiences of D of E ringing over the past decade. Being adjacent to Harrow School helps (and as I work at the school), so we have a relatively easy “recruitment channel”, drawing around four new recruits each year. Attached is a photo of this year’s group. We rang for the school’s Speech Day – eight ringers under-18, plus a few helpers. Love the waistcoats!

The track record throughout D of E and post-D of E is pretty good. Here’s a flavour:

  • Chris (now 24) – first quarter peal in 2009 (aged 16), now rung over 250 quarter peals (tower and hand, and as conductor), and 4 peals. Now serving as a local branch ringing master.
  • Nic (now 22) – first quarter peal 2010 (aged 14), now rung over 250 quarter peals, and 25 peals, including his first as conductor. Now serving as steeple keeper in his local tower.
  • Kieran (now 18) – first quarter peal 2015 (aged 16), now rung two quarter peals.
  • Eve (now 17) – first quarter peal2015 (aged 15), now rung four quarter peals.

We generally ring for 90 minutes on Sunday afternoons in term time, plus the odd outing (two per year) to local towers. For the outings, we often join in with other local young ringing groups. Ringing quality can be a little variable – but we have a lot of fun!

Obviously some of the “ingredients” need to be right:

  • A handy local school “feeder”
  • A pro-active D of E school coordinator
  • Availability of good ringing teachers and helpers
  • Nice easy bells to learn on

But when all that comes together, it can work really well!

Christopher O'Mahony

Harrow D of E Speech Day 2017