The Young Ringers’ Hub is one of many initiatives which have benefitted from a generous legacy of £12,216.25 from the estate of Wendy Piercy, for which the Central Council of Church Bell Ringers is deeply grateful.
Wendy’s gift reflects a lifetime of dedication to bell ringing and to supporting others in developing their skills. She was known not only for her own ringing, but also for the time she spent teaching and encouraging others, helping to build and sustain the community around her. Wendy served as Tower Captain at Eaton Socon for more than 40 years and held leadership roles within the Bedfordshire Association of Church Bell Ringers and the Central Council. She was passionate about teaching, helping generations of new ringers build their skills and confidence, making the Young Ringers’ Hub a particularly fitting beneficiary.
In leaving her legacy to the Council, Wendy did not specify a particular use for the funds, which has allowed the Council to honour her wider commitment to the future of ringing—supporting both people and the long‑term sustainability of the exercise. The Council’s Trustees chose to use the bequest to fund a two-year programme of Summer Honorariums, supporting Ringing 2030. These are time-limited internships that are dedicated to a specific piece of work.
These projects have included:
- Multiple stages of the Young Ringers Hub, a new digital platform designed to support and connect young ringers.
- Branded presentations for school lesson plans, giving a professional finish to the developed lesson content.
- Specialist engineering research into the performance and maintenance of bell towers, helping to safeguard ringing environments for the future.
Not only has the programme accelerated specific projects, it has given the recipients real world experience and transferable skills. The programme has energised the volunteer base working with the recipients. Wendy’s legacy is helping to support both the next generation of ringers and the spaces in which ringing takes place. Perhaps most fittingly, it is doing so in a way that reflects Wendy’s own life in ringing: not only participating, but encouraging, teaching, and enabling others to take part.
Wendy’s daughter noted that Wendy would have been pleased for her gift to support a broad range of ringing activity, reflecting both her personal passion and her role as a teacher of ringing over many years.