Heritage Open Days
This message comes from Kate Flavell of the Central Council.
Please encourage your towers to register for Heritage Open Days over the weekend of 8-11 September. Registering will help us to reach our target of 500 churches open for ringing-related events, and also ensure that towers opening will receive the support package from Heritage Open Days. Registration closes at the end of July and the sooner you register the better.
You can register here, make sure you tick the box to indicate there are ringing-related activities included, otherwise you won't be counted towards the 500! You don't have to open all weekend - at my tower we are doing just three tours on the Friday.
Registration allows your tower to feature on the Heritage Open Days website of open attractions to help you get more visitors and means you will receive support material from HODs. Many areas also publish booklets of open attractions in their areas so you will feature in those as well. So please do register! It costs nothing and takes just a few moments. Registration (together with indication that bells are involved) also allows us to count how many towers are open towards our target of 500, so will help get publicity on the day.
This is a fantastic opportunity for us to get plenty of publicity for ringing, open up our towers to a huge public to show off ringing, and possibly to gain some recruits, although this is not necessarily the prime purpose of this particular exercise. (But it could be the first step.)
I have been advised that some towers have had difficulty in finding the box to tick to indicate that bells are involved. The bell ringing tickbox is on the registration form, section 5, the bit headed 'Icons and tags - highlight points and help visitors search for your event'.
Heritage Open Days are planning a big local media push on 17 July. Make sure you are ready for that and that your towers have their own press releases out with their local media. There is more information on the Council's website.
If towers are planning to open and are happy for media to visit, please can they contact me as we are hoping for considerable media coverage. HODs are making a major announcement on 26 April, which will include details of the plans for as many towers as possible to be ringing between 6 and 7 pm on Thursday 8 September to launch the HODs weekend.
BBC Coverage
The BBC have expressed an interest and we have been asked for more information. I have been asked, regarding towers signed up with the HOD website...
- Are there any inspirational characters like "Britain's oldest bell ringer"?
- Can we be there for the moment a church rings its bells for the first time in decades or even centuries?
- Are there any amazing bits of history attached to any of the churches that would engage our viewers or any quirky local traditions that are tied to the church bells?
Please do let me know if anyone has anything like this.
Themes
There are two other (much less interesting) themes for HODs this year as well as ringing, the flier is available here, as well as our own logo so you can be sure to use it:
HODs have also circulated a mock-up press release, that you may find helpful – there are some useful hints and tips about press releases (page 1, page 2, and page 3) that can be used more generally as well as on this occasion. There is also a lot of useful information on their website
Do let me know if you have any questions or queries about any of this.
Please do see what you can do to help your towers join in, perhaps by joining together to create a ringing event. Thanks so much for your help with this and let's hope for maximum registrations and maximum publicity over the September weekend.
