What an interesting couple of days we had on Monday and Tuesday this week 😊🔔😊!
I was approached late last week by the research team for BBC’s The One Show, on BBC 1. They had found the (very wonderful) social media posts for the “Westerham Clangers”. They post on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok about the bellringers at Westerham, the church and how they fit in to the community in Westerham. The BBC’s contact at Westerham said they should also think about the upcoming young generation of bellringers and how important they are to the future of bellringing. He very kindly(!!) told them that we had a number of young ringers at Seal Chart … and the ball started rolling!
Initial contacts were made with me, the vicar and the school, which is right next door to the church. Parental Consent forms were sent to the parents of 16 young ringers, ranging in age from 10 – 15 years. Location release forms also had to be submitted and consent forms for any adult ringers who might be filmed. They also contacted the CCCBR and arrangements were made to interview Gemma Groom from Wye, the newly-appointed Marketing and Admin Officer for the CCCBR.
Roll on Monday and filming started in the afternoon down at Alfriston in Sussex where the Bassist, Guy Pratt (of Pink Floyd fame) started learning to ring quite recently.
The film crew then drove up to Sevenoaks and came to film our 7 secondary school-aged young ringers at Seal Chart. They practise together on alternate Wed evenings when we ring Rounds, Call Changes, “Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star” and Plain Hunt, using playing cards to determine which bell they each ring and “roll the dice”, among other exercises. The three most experienced of them join with adult ringers in the intervening week and are learning Plain Bob Doubles, Plain Bob Minor, Treble Bob Minor etc, along with Bistow/ Bastow etc as appropriate. This week we were able to practise touches of P B Doubles with one of them calling the bobs for the first time. These three have all rung quarter peals, including one on the day of the Installation of the Most Rev and Rt Hon Dame Sarah Mullalley as the new Archbishop of Canterbury. They also join with our Kent Young Ringers and two of them ring with the Kent team entering regional and national youth ringing contests.
The interviews were conducted by Minah Shannon, whom you may have seen on The Traitors. She was very interested in the bellringing, put all the young ringers at ease and had a go herself!
Tuesday dawned and filming continued at Seal Chart. It was a lovely sunny day: the perfect setting for an interview with Gemma Groom, before checking out the actual bells in our very compact bell chamber and working out where to locate the go-pro cameras safely. We had been very clear on safety issues and the crew were very respectful of our requests.
Next came a session with our 4 newest learners from Year 5 who are almost ringing independently. They were all interviewed down in the church to give a change of scene and were followed by our 5 learners from Year 6. They demonstrated that they can all ring safely in rounds and reverse rounds and pull off in queens. They can all ring down, but ringing up takes a bit more strength and we’re working on this. I think nerves showed up a bit and they didn’t ring quite as well as they are actually able. But we all had a good time!!! I also had to be interviewed🤔😊
In the afternoon our 3 more-experienced young ringers zoomed over to join with the filming of the Westerham ringers. Our 3 (12, 14 and 15 years old) enjoyed ringing Rounds and Call Changes, with our 14 year-old capably ringing the 23cwt tenor. Here they demonstrated that ringing is truly “intergenerational” and that you can ring at towers all over the country, making friends wherever you go.
Shirley and I joined the film crew for dinner on the Monday evening and I relaxed in the pub with the Westerham ringers in the evening…. filming, as well as ringing is thirsty work!!
It will be very intriguing to see how approximately 8 hours of filming, with 16 young ringers and 12 or so adults, will be condensed into a story lasting 4 minutes or so….. I will be watching with interest!🔔😊🔔 (This evening: Friday 15th May 2026)
Jen Thomas 15 May 2026
The recording can be found on iPlayer here (starts at 20mins 52s): https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002wb2d