The hundred ringers is the name we gave to the event held to celebrate one hundred years of the Ringing World.  A hundred ringers gathered at Bakewell Parish Church last July to ring, relay style, for a hundred minutes.  A team of eight people rang for approximately four minutes and then three of them would hand on to others without stopping the ringing.  After another four minutes a different three would swap in and so on until a hundred people had rung.  Simon Humphrey stayed on the tenor the whole time and called the changes. He had designed an hundred changes to fit into a hundred minutes exactly.  John Thorpe organized the changeovers, meticulously designing who should swap with whom so that the bands did not become too weak and everyone had a good turn.

It was a wonderful sunny day.  While people waited to ring there were displays to look at from both the Ringing World and Taylor’s bell foundry and two bookstalls to browse.  Teas were available in the vestry with additional tables outside to sit at.  Gill Hughes gathered friends to give a hand bell demonstration and encouraged novices to have a go.  The hundred ringers  were mostly from towers in the Peak district but also from further afield in Derbyshire and some were even from Staffordshire and Cheshire.  There was a concentrated silence in the ringing room but a buzz  of friendly chat and laughter elsewhere. 

The event proved to be more than just a celebration of the Ringing World.  We believe the Peak District now holds a world record for the most people used in a single piece of ringing, but our district gained much more than that.  Ringers met ringers whom they didn’t know and some whom they hadn’t seen for a while.  They forged new associations to help each other in their ringing needs.  Many ringers were not experts but nevertheless played an essential part and were aware of that.  Ringers who have kept towers going for years and years, maintaining the bells and ringing for services, were in some way being recognized for this work.  New ringers could meet and ring with some experts.  I hope all the ringers there were encouraged to keep improving.  If all the books that were sold were studied, then I’m sure they would.  Most of all, we were all, young and old, expert and beginner, working together to enjoy a happy, successful afternoon’s ring.