Helena Thorpe has been appointed as the new Ringing Master for Peterborough Cathedral.
Helena, who lives near Oundle and runs her own gardening business, has taken over from Robin Rogers who stepped down from the role at the beginning of the year. She comes from a family of bellringers, including her husband, parents, aunt and uncle, and has been a ringer herself for eight years. She learned to ring at St Martin's in Stamford and later became part of the Peterborough Cathedral Company.
Helena says: “I am very much looking forward to taking on this new and challenging role. The Ringing Master's role as I see it is to continue to improve the ringing, to provide support to the Cathedral's mission through service and special event ringing, and to be open and welcoming to all those interested in the work of the Company. On a day-to-day basis this means running practice nights on Monday evenings and organising ringing for Sunday mornings and Evensong, plus co-ordinating with the Cathedral when the bells are available for visiting bands who may wish to use them for special ringing events, such as peals and ringing tours.”
“Robin has been steadily building a band of ringers at the Cathedral who aspire to good quality, higher number change-ringing in the service of the Cathedral, but also to always have a happy and welcoming atmosphere in the ringing chamber. I am hoping to build on his work, with the continuing excellent support of the Company. I am very lucky to have the support of an extremely capable group of people around me.”