About The Belfry Shop

I was seven years old when my father took me up the tower at St Peter ad Vincula in Coggeshall and put a rope in my hands. I am still ringing.

In 1986, aged fourteen, I rang my first peal: 5040 changes of Plain Bob Major. A little over three hours, from memory, no stopping. Forty years on I can still remember how long that last course felt.

Ringing has taken me a long way since. I spent seven years as a district officer with the Essex Association of Change Ringers. I am ART Module 1 and Module 2 trained and accredited, and I teach whenever I am asked to. My home tower these days is St Michael's, Braintree, and I ring regularly across the surrounding counties and at the twelve-bell towers in London.

Why this shop exists

I had a great many ideas in my head and nowhere to put them.

If you have ever gone looking online for a decent bellringing gift, you will know the problem. Generic bells. Sleigh bells. The occasional Hunchback joke. Very little made by anyone who has actually stood behind a rope on a Tuesday evening, and almost nothing using the methods themselves.

That seemed a waste, because there is a great deal of fun to be had here. Ringing has a language of its own — bobs, singles, dodges, "that's all, stand" — and a visual language too, in the blue line, which is genuinely beautiful once you can read it. Both deserve better than a clipart bell.

So in December 2025 I started The Belfry Shop.

How the designs are made

I draw every one myself. The method lines and grids are drawn from the methods, not pulled off a stock library, and every design here is original — which is why you will find methods on these pages that nobody else bothers with.

It is just me. Inspiration is not in short supply: I ring with several bands, and ringers are a reliably funny group of people. Most of the lines on the shirts began as something somebody actually said up a tower.

Everything is printed to order in the UK.

If you ring, tell me what is missing

If there is a method you would like to see, or something said at your practice night that deserves to be on a mug, I would like to hear about it. That is how a good deal of this range came about in the first place.

Have a look at the full catalogue, or start with the method designs if you are buying for a ringer and know what they ring.