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Up and Coming Youngsters - Rebecca Cullen


Things are happening in the ringing room of Southover church in Lewes.  There is a good band there and what is particularly pleasing is that there is a highly successful group of cheerful, energetic and able young ringers.  One of the most accomplished and promising of these young ringers is Rebecca Cullen who is increasingly prominent on the Sussex bell-ringing scene and is making impressive progress.

Rebecca is fifteen (maybe sixteen by now!) years old and attends Priory School, Lewes.  When she first started ringing she was only ten and her teachers, she affectionately points out, were Tania Osband and her mum, though now, she adds, lots of other people have an input as well.   She is currently ringing most of the standard eight surprise major methods and has been seen ringing Cambridge and Yorkshire Royal, but she regards her most important break-through as ringing a touch of Grandsire Doubles at her Year 6 Leavers’ Service; it took her some time to master this skill but she has never looked back since that moment.

Rebecca is now building a pleasing record of ringing achievements.  Her quarter peal list is growing and she recalls with great pride her part in the quarter peal at Southover when all of the ringers were aged fourteen or under.  She is also proud of ringing in first quarters for her friends and her brother.  There is a wonderful sense of friendship and family at Southover and she plays her full part in engendering that feeling.  Since talking to the SOUNDBOW correspondent she has rung her first peal which was Yorkshire Major, conducted by Jonathan Franklin.  It is true that Jonathan has been a major influence and encourager in her ringing and she expresses warm gratitude to both him and all the ringers at Southover for their support.

Rebecca is already forming a fund of rich memories in the world of ringing; looking down from the cage that hangs high in the roof of Pershore Abbey has left a vivid impression, as has the glass tower at Basildon.

Rebecca promises much.  She is keen to improve and extend her ringing abilities and experiences and she listens carefully to advice.  However, she is not inward-looking; she has thought carefully and intelligently about ringing and ringers.  She has some excellent ideas on recruitment and it is her ambition to become a good teacher of ringing as well as a good ringer and to take responsibility in a tower at some stage in the near future.  She clearly values the notions of tower ethos, team-work and friendship and is prepared to work for the development of them.  It is a pleasure to see how much she offers and we can only continue to encourage her as a highly promising ringer.


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