On Sunday 17th December we will welcome members of the Yorkshire Tykes youth ringing group to the Cathedral, who will be ringing out bells for a practice session ahead of our Nine Lessons and Carols service.
The Yorkshire Tykes is the youth ringing group from the Yorkshire Association of Change Ringers. They take boys and girls up to the age of 18 and encourage them to develop their bell ringing skills, meet other young ringers their own age, and visit bell towers across Yorkshire.
The young ringers are from all over Yorkshire and the travel considerable distances to get to our meetings to pursue their hobby.
Every year they enter the Ringing World National Youth Contest and this year helped host the event in York in July.
They were able to enter two teams this time: one ringing a method, and the other group ringing call changes.
Both teams did extremely well, and they also had 12 reserves so took the largest youth group ever to the competition with 28 young ringers attending in total.
The Yorkshire Tykes have also entered the White Rose 12 Bell Competition this year, held at Ripon Cathedral on the 21st October. This was the first time their young team have entered this contest, competing against adult teams from mostly established Cathedral teams across Yorkshire. The practice here at Bradford Cathedral will help them prepare for this event in 2024.
You can find out more about the Yorkshire Tykes on their website, or by contacting Jane Lynch on j.lynch6@btinternet.com