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The Stoney Hills Ring
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The school currently operates with three bands who maintain ringing at a cluster of nine church towers in Alresford and the surrounding area. There are other church towers in the surrounding area with bells. Ringers from these towers, or people wishing to learn to ring, are welcome to join our activities. We also have a special training mini-ring housed in one of our ringers homes The Stoney Hills Ring, which is proving useful in helping people to learn the skills needed to ring larger church bells quickly.

St John, New Alresford (8 bells)

Practice: Fridays 7.00pm

St Mary, Old Alresford (6 bells)

Practice: Mondays 7.30pm

Cheriton

St Michael, Cheriton

Practice Thursdays 7.30pm

St Andrew, Tichborne (6 bells)

St Peter, Brown Candover (5 bells)

St Mary, Preston Candover (6 bells)

St John, Northington (6 bells)

Ropley

St Peter, Ropley (6 Bells)

Bells due to return in August 2024

Bishops Sutton

St Nicholas, Bishops Sutton (5 bells)

Practice: 2nd Thursday 7.30pm*

Joining a local band

Each local band maintains its own identity. We are simply a group of tower captains and teachers who work together and help each other recruit and train new ringers.  Training a bell-ringer takes many hours of tuition and you are part of a team. On average it will take 2 – 3 years by spending an hour or two each week to progress from scratch to reach Level 5. Some people take longer, and not everyone will reach level 5. However they remain valued members of the team. Therefore we ask that all people taking part in the school join one of the local teams, and commit to supporting its activities. In time we also expect those who reach levels 4 and 5 to help those at the lower levels climb the pyramid.

What does it cost?

We do not charge for tuition, although donations towards use of the tower hosting each session are welcome. However in return for the tuition we do ask that you join a local team and support it. There are also some longer training courses organised by the Winchester & Portsmouth Guild where a small charge is made. At the end of the year the school will also make a donation to ART.

The school is one of around 40 ART teaching hubs across the country.

ART’s Expectations for Registration as a Teaching Hub

  1. Keep and maintain equipment and facilities to teach bell handling and change ringing
  2. Hold regular practices focused on the Learning the Ropes curriculum
  3. Support practices with theory or hold theory workshops
  4. Work within ART Policies and Guidelines
  5. Teaching carried out under the supervision of ART Members using ART Training Scheme Techniques
  6. New ringers are registered on SmART Ringer
  7. Promote group teaching with an intensive teaching approach
  8. Support learning for other towers