Ring for the King: Quest to find enough volunteer bell ringers for Charles’ coronation, he’s unlikely to hit the target | UK News

The quest to find enough bell ringers to “ring for the king” on coronation day is unlikely to achieve its goal despite the arrival of hundreds of new recruits.

The call to find enough people to ring each of the country’s 38,000 bells on May 6 began in October.

But of the additional 8,000 needed, only 1,500 have volunteered so far.

Lexie Roberts, 10, is one of them. She started ringing the bells three weeks ago at St Nicholas’ Church in Sevenoaks, Kent, and is looking forward to playing her part on this historic occasion.

“My mum told me maybe I could ring the bell at the king’s coronation if I practiced a lot,” she said.

“There will be tons of other people across the country who will.

“It will be amazing because I can brag about it to my siblings!”

Elisa Wickham, who is 11, used to ring the school bell to call everyone for the start of the day, but this is something different.

“It’s very exciting, but I’m afraid of doing it wrong,” she said.

“You would think you would have to pull the rope really hard, but you have to be a bit relaxed while you do it.”

As Tour Captain, Caroline Stockmann is in charge of ringing the church bells and is delighted that the challenge of finding new recruits for the Coronation is bringing the skill to a new audience.

“It’s an incentive for them to do something really, really special that might be their only opportunity in their life, who knows,” she said.

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“We hope it will bring different generations, different people from different backgrounds.”

The church was also one of those muted bells for the Queen’s funeral.

“For the coronation of King Charles, we can ring festively across the country and it will be glorious to hear that sound,” Ms Stockmann added.

Vicki Chapman of the Central Council of Church Bell Ringers fears there won’t be enough time to train a full novice in the next seven weeks.

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“It would be a lot for them if they didn’t have a lot of free time,” she said.

She suggested that experienced ringers will eventually travel from church to church to ensure that each community can hear the chime of the bells.