AGM - ringing, service, meeting and ringers’ tea: 9th May 2026, Horsham

Details

Published: Sunday, 26 April 2026 21:00

All welcome at the Association AGM! There will be open ringing (rounds onwards) at St Mary’s; an opportunity to ring on 10 bells - with plenty of people to stand behind. If you’re a novice ringer, why not come with your teacher or a more experienced ringer from your tower?

If you plan to come to the ringing and / or tea, please fill in this form by Wednesday 6th May, so we can make sure there’s enough sandwiches and cake! A small cash donation of £5 pp is kindly requested on the day for catering provisions and the use of the tower and meeting room.

Becoming a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO)

As well as welcoming new members, receiving the reports from 2025, and electing new officers, the committee also has an important announcement to make about our intention that the Association becomes a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (read more). Please come along to the meeting to hear more about this, and ask any questions that you may have. 

Excess Library stock available for a suitable donation

There will be a bookstall with a variety of ringing- and bells-related books, historic copies of Soundbow magazine, and some mounted photographs of Sussex churches and ringers. You are welcome to provide a new home for any items of interest, for a suitable donation to the Association’s Bell Restoration Fund (full list of available titles). If you would like to reserve any items, please contact Janice via This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. 

Programme for the day

• 2:00 - 3:30 pm - open ringing - rounds onwards
• 3:30 - 4:00 pm - optional church service 
• 4:00 - 5:00 pm - Annual General Meeting, including new members’ welcome 
• 5:00pm - ~5:30pm - ringers’ afternoon tea (names for tea via this form or to Tom via This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. by Wed 6th May, please)

Parking

Please note that parking around the church is restricted; you will need to park in the Park & Ride at Hop Oast or one of the town centre car parks. However, there is also a Morris dancing festival taking place in the town on the same day, so town centre car parks may be very busy. We strongly recommend using the Park & Ride. 

Meeting papers

The meeting papers are available online here. Please note that printed copies won’t be provided at the meeting. The papers are as follows:

• Agenda
• 2025 AGM minutes (draft)
• 2025 reports and accounts
• Nomination for David Kirkcaldy for the role of Trustee
• Background to plans to become a Charitable Incorporated Organisation
• Obituaries of past members (2025)

Any items for AOB should be sent to the General Secretary, Steph Pendlebury (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.), by Thursday 30th April, please. 

Have you got a Chichester Diocese DBS certificate?

Details

Published: Friday, 12 December 2025 21:15

At District and County events we aim to have two DBS checked adults present when there are under 18s ringing. Both our Young Ringers Coordinators have certificates, but it is helpful for District Secretaries to have a list of members with certificates.

The Disclosure and Barring Service certificate looks like the image above.

If you do have a certificate, please let your District Secretary know the number, the date of issue and, if a member of Updates, the last time your Parish checked your records.

I know many people have DBS certificates from a variety of organisations, but they are not transferable as each setting is required to do its own checks.

Thank you for your help with this.

Val Clay (Safeguarding Officer)

Safeguarding - outings and peals/quarter peals

Details

Published: Wednesday, 30 July 2025 22:00

One area that is attracting a bit of attention is the Safeguarding of visiting bands (either an outing or quarter peal / peal attempt). The CCCBR advice is that “visiting bands are responsible for their own safeguarding, but the local church may ask for assurance”. It is the “assurance” that is causing issues, so we have worked with Chichester Diocese to come up with clear guidance on this.

The guidance can be found on the Chichester Diocese website (it's not obvious!).

It is, regrettably, quite a bit longer than I had hoped but it boils down to:

1. If you have no under 18s with you, no assurances are needed but you should make sure everyone signs the visitors book and keep your own list of attendees*.

2. If you have under 18s with you  you will state that you are:

1. Tower outing: complying with your own Parish Safeguarding Policy (no need to provide a copy - it is on your parish website)
2. SCACR District/Association outing: complying with the SCACR Safeguarding Policy (no need to provide a copy - it is on the SCACR website)
3. If you are a group of friends, then you will need to sign the Diocescan Safeguarding form within the document (note - this does not require you to have 2 DBS checked adults, or for people to have completed Safeguarding Training: that is good practice but not a legal requirement).

In return, the Parish you are visiting should provide you with a Health and Safety Risk assessment (this is not a safeguarding requirement) and should not place unaccompanied under 18s in contact with your group.

If you are visiting towers outside Sussex they may have different requirements.  However, any safeguarding issues that arise within your group during the visit should be reported back through SCACR or your Parish Safeguarding Officer. If the adult involved is from another diocese, Chichester will handle the issue on your behalf.

*  We are all keeping attendance records now. There are no rules about how long these should be kept, but it is best to consider them as part of the history of your tower and just keep them. At Heene, we started attendance and “methods rung” records after finding attendance records from the 1890s and thought we would leave our mark for the future.

Val Clay, SCACR Safeguarding Officer
May 2025

Central Council Update June 2025

Details

Published: Wednesday, 30 July 2025 21:57

On 15th August, the UK marks VJ Day (Victory over Japan Day),  commemorating the end of World War II in 1945. As part of the nationwide remembrance, bellringers are encouraged to ring at their local tower, beginning at 6:30pm, to honour those who served and sacrificed in the Far East. This symbolic act of bell ringing echoes the celebrations that swept the nation 80
years ago and offers a moment of reflection and gratitude for peace restored. Further information on VJ day and other celebrations planned can be found on the website https://ve-vjday80.gov.uk

Some ringers have questioned why the 80 th anniversary is being marked; the main reasons are that the 75 th anniversary was very subdued as it occurred during covid times and there are now only a small number of veterans still remaining alive.

The annual liaison meeting with Ecclesiastical has recently taken place; they provide insurance cover for the majority of churches in England. There are two new claims being dealt with, one from injury when a ringer was being taught and the other for damage to a bell wheel. One thing they cannot do is get involved in disputes between ringers, the church and other organisations. Ecclesiastical Insurance continues to operate its Risk Advice Line, available to church members, to field queries about risk management. Providing the church policy number can be quoted, a call back by a surveyor will be arranged to offer advice and support.

At their last meeting the Executive discussed a number of challenges and expectations around the hoped for increase in new ringers as is outlined in Ringing 2030. There needs to be a clear understanding about what is deliverable and infrastructure support rather than concentrating on exact numbers. It was highlighted the importance of grassroots level efforts and noted that while ambitious targets are possible with increased recruitment and retention, there are resource and funding challenges; including the need for paid support staff for the Central Council.

In addition discussion took place on the development of a forward plan for 2026, building on the Ringing 2030 business plan. It was agreed to focus on detailed planning for the next two years, with a summary of longer-term goals beyond 2026.There was a proposal to update the existing business plan and working with workgroup leads to outline specific goals for 2026. The Executive also discussed the need for visual representations of progress towards 2030 goals and considered including the forward plan in their annual report.

Don’t forget that the Central Council publications’ team produce a wide range of titles to support ringers as they progress with their new hobby. These can be found using the following link. https://shop.cccbr.org.uk/

David Kirkcaldy

2025 AGM: New Officers & Honorary Life Members Elected, and Rules Updated

Details

Published: Saturday, 17 May 2025 20:26

The Eastern District Committee and Eastbourne ringers organised a fantastic day of ringing at all 4 towers in Eastbourne, ringers’ tea (including “Bob’s Buns”!), a service for those who wished to attend, and of course the meeting itself. And they even organised fantastic weather!

New Honorary Life Members elected

Congratulations to Marion Hollands (Eastern District Secretary for 25 years) and Stella Bianco (Library Custodian and then Librarian for 25 years) on being elected Honorary Life Members - very well deserved! 

Officers elected

Congratulations to Richard Neal on being elected Association Master! Thanks to Gareth Higgs for his service as previous Master. Nick Cullen has been elected as Bell Restoration Fund Secretary - thank you! And big thanks to outgoing BRF Secretary Rob Lane for all his work for the Association over the years, in several roles. Our 2 new Trustees are David Hollands and Gareth Higgs (Colin Spencer continues). Thanks to outgoing Trustees Jonathan Franklin and Mark Dawkins.Thank you to Vicky Chase and Janice Crawford for becoming Central Council Reps (myself, Sue Gadd and David Kirkcaldy continue). 

Continuing in post are Sue Gadd (Treasurer), Val Clay (Safeguarding Officer), and Steph Pendlebury (General Secretary).

Rules updated

Some of the Association rules needed updating to reflect changes in Central Council rules, and to clarify some wording. All the proposed changes were carried; the new version of the Rules is now available on the website (under “Resources”), and will be included in the Handbook.

Finally, thank you to everyone who came (over 50 people were in the meeting). And big thanks to Marion Hollands, Steve Pilfold and the Eastbourne ringers and helpers for their fantastic organisation and being brilliant hosts 

Photos of the day are on the Sussex Bellringers Facebook page.

Steph Pendlebury (General Secretary)

AGM at Eastbourne - 10 May 2025

Details

Published: Tuesday, 22 April 2025 18:00

140th Annual General Meeting - ringing, tea, service and meeting: Saturday 10th May 2025, Eastbourne

All welcome at the Association AGM! There will be open ringing (rounds onwards) at four different churches in Eastbourne - with plenty of people to stand behind. If you’re a novice ringer, why not come with your teacher or a more experienced ringer from your tower?

If you plan to come to any part of the day (ringing and/or tea), please fill in this form by Wednesday 7th May.

Apologies for absence and items for AOB to the General Secretary, Steph Pendlebury (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.), by Saturday 3rd May, please. 

Programme for the day

10.30 am - ringing at Christ Church (8, 9 cwt, spiral staircase)

11.15 am - ringing at All Saints (8, 16 cwt, spiral staircase)

1.15 pm - ringing at St Saviour & St Peter (10, 24 cwt, spiral staircase)

2.30-3.30 pm - ringing at St Mary the Virgin, Church St/Lawns Ave (8, 15 cwt, spiral staircase)

3.30 pm - service at St Mary's church

4pm ringers’ afternoon tea - Old Parsonage next door to St Mary’s church (names for tea via this form or to Ann via This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. by Wed 7th May, please).

4.45/5 pm - Annual General Meeting (Old Parsonage): come along to have your say about what you think the Association should be doing for its members, and elect the officers. 

We’re particularly keen to hear members’ ideas for how to celebrate this 140th anniversary year of the Association, and also what you think the Association should be aiming to achieve by our 150th year.

Meeting papers

The meeting papers are available online here. Please note that printed copies won’t be provided at the meeting. The papers are as follows:

• Agenda
• 2024 AGM minutes
• 2024 reports
• 2024 accounts
• Proposal for changes to rules
• Proposal for changes to subscription rates

Steph Pendlebury, General Secretary

Insurance

Details

Published: Sunday, 12 January 2025 20:57

There seems to be some confusion about what SCACR’s insurance covers. Broadly speaking, it does not provide cover for individual members.

If you are ringing at your own tower, or on an outing organised by your tower, then you should be covered by your PCC insurance (you would need to check). If you visit another tower to ring with that tower's band then you are covered by that Tower's insurance. By allowing you to ring with them that tower captain is in effect accepting you onto their policy.

If a random group of ringers decides to organise its own outing, then (even if all are SCACR members) the Association insurance does not cover them. In order to be covered by SCACR insurance, the event would have to be accepted as an Association event. This means it would have to be open to any member to attend, publicised as an Association event, and an Association risk assessment carried out and approved in advance.

The Association insurance covers the Association, not individual members. SCACR is insured by Ecclesiastical, and the insurance covers Association-organised events only (as has been the case in the past). This provides public liability cover, and death or catastrophic injury cover, for the Association. It covers the Association (not individual members) against claims arising from Association-organised events only. The death and injury benefits compensate the Association for the loss of the services of that member. It is then up to the Trustees whether they would pass that money on to the injured person(s)/deceased's family; that is entirely at the Trustees’ discretion. That is not to say the benefit would not be paid to the member, but they do not have a right to it.

The main benefits of being a member are being part of a ringing community.

If you have further questions relating to SCACR insurance, please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

AGM at Ringmer - 11 May 2024

Details

Published: Friday, 12 April 2024 20:33

I would like to invite all members to the 2024 Annual Meeting of our Association, which is to be held on Saturday, 11 th May, arranged by the Southern District. Details of what is happening are listed below.

Pre-meeting general ringing is available as follows;

1.00-2.00pm : Southover (Lewes) (10 bells)

1.45-2.30pm : Barcombe St Mary's (6 bells)

2.30-3.30pm : Ringmer St Mary the Virgin (8 bells) 

3.30-4.00pm Service at Ringmer

4.00 onwards Tea and Meeting in Ringmer Village hall