Swaledale Festival's Artistic Director Malcolm Creese has been learning the very English art of church bell ringing over the past couple of years and is doing very well at it (I speak as one who never quite mastered the complexities of change ringing). At the end of 2016 he completed a course of practical bell ringing that qualified him as a Level 5 Change Ringer. As a reward for this achievement, Malcolm has been invited to attend an all-expenses-paid weekend course in Birmingham in September.
Well done, Malcolm.
There will be some ringing during the 2017 Festival: Friday 9 June at 18:30 in Grinton, when the ringers will ring a quarter peal (1250 changes) to celebrate the installation of two new bells which bring the number there up to eight. It should take about 45 minutes.