Health & Safety

My role –  is to encourage ‘safe’ ringing and ‘healthy’ towers to ring in, and support you with this. This looks like good instruction during practices, good teaching of bell handling, and tidy and maintained towers.  To protect yourselves (legally) in case of accidents, considering any potential mishap and recording that you’ve thought about it and how to reduce the chance of it happening, can be very helpful. This is what is meant by a risk assessment.

I am available on email (see below) and you can ask me for advice, or for example risk assessments.  I can always find out for you if I do not know the answer.

Learning from neighbouring towers  – we all ring with coils when ringing up.  However, keeping a final coil in our hand when we set the bell can be hazardous.  The learnt experience is that hands are squeezed and/or pulled upwards unexpectedly.  To avoid a hand injury or a shoulder wrench, releasing the final coil before setting is good practice.

Check your bells after a visiting ringing band.  Lending your tower to a visiting band is generous, and hopefully you are rewarded with some great ringing.  However visitor bands do cause wear and tear of your bell mechanics. So it a good idea to check your stays for cracks before your next practice night or service ring.

Another tip from a Cornish tower is to check that all bells are down before others arrive for your practice night or service ring.  Here, one bell was left up after a rope adjustment by others.

If the above incidents happen at your tower, it is a good idea to record it in your church’s accident book.

If you have any learnings from recent experience, I would be delighted to hear from you and share your knowledge.

Richard Rider 

10/02/25

Organising an Outing for your Band

This is the time of year when we start to put ideas and plans into place. And for some of you,
it maybe organising a tour of towers in a different area. Organising an outing for the band is
fun because you get to decide on where would be interesting to visit and which towers to
experience with your friends. Of course ringing at a new tower will present a few challenges
for the band, as well as the logistics. Here are a few things to think about for a successful
day.

Number of towers and logistics with getting around them – the travel times between towers,
the available parking and the length of the day will have an impact on your ringers. Sharing
cars or hiring a minibus (ideally with a driver) will reduce stress levels when keeping to a
schedule and ultimately will keep the band fresh and alert. Especially after the pub lunch!
Asking your ringers to carry water will keep them hydrated. These measures will reduce the
likelihood of an accident.

Arriving at a new tower – access to the ring of bells, their weights and feel will be unique and
could present challenges to certain individuals in your band. Calling the tower’s rep
beforehand will give you a heads up on any aspects to be aware of, so you and your band can
avoid problems on the day. You could gently enquire when the bells were last maintained.

If you have time, doing a dry run of the route a week or so beforehand can be helpful. This
will alert you to potential problems such as road works, difficulty accessing the
church/ringing chamber, parking issues, trip hazards, coffee/toilet stops etc. Ask participants
to provide their own emergency contact numbers in case of ill health. Finally, you could
research an interesting historical fact or architectural feature of each church to share with the
band on the day.

Doing a risk assessment on your itinerary is a great way to formalise the above aspects and
discharge your responsibility. If you would like an example or have a query, please email
me. Richard Rider, Health and Safety officer 08/02/26.

TDGR reporting an incident in a bell tower

Each year we become aware of incidents in the bell tower. Often these are anecdotal and rarely are they investigated or information about them passed on across the exercise so that we can avoid future incidents and learn from those incidents that have happened.

The Guild would appreciate your help in providing me with the information set out below as this will help to inform any advice or training plans. The aim would be to help make the exercise safer for everyone and spread good practice to all ringers in this diocese.

This form is also available to  download.

TOWER name (I may contact the tower captain/secretary via the website) 

ABOUT the INCIDENT

Date Time

WHERE did the incident happen?

Was someone INJURED? Their age

What was the INJURY?

Please DESCRIBE what HAPPENED – what was the person doing? As much detail as possible please.

FOLLOWING the INCIDENT

If there was an injury, did the person need medical treatment?          Hospital?        GP?

Was the incident reported to the incumbent/a church warden?

Was this report verbal or written or both?

Do you know whether there is a recorded maintenance log book for the tower?

Please describe any action that has been taken to prevent a similar incident.

When were the bells and fittings last inspected?

Thank you for your help. Please copy or print it from the Health & Safety Officer’s page on the website and email it to:-  Richard Rider, Guild Health & Safety Officer. At above email address.

healthandsafety@tdgr.org.uk

May 24