Woman's thank you letter to her local bellringers leads to the loveliest gesture
Ah, the dulcet tones of bellringing. Sometimes there's nothing better than cracking open your window and listening to the chimes of an evening.
A woman in Staffordshire loves listening to the distant peals of her local bellringers so much that she decided to write them a letter professing her appreciation.
Josie George has long been tweeting about her regard for the sound of bellringing practice which takes place every Wednesday night in Stafford, UK.
"It's one of my favourite regularities of this place. They never miss a week," writes George.
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Come rain or shine, the sound of the bellringers practising never fails to reach George.
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In late September, George decided to write a letter to the bellringers to let them know just how much she loves their practice.
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"Dear Wednesday night bellringers," wrote George.
"I live a mile away in the north end of town and, unbeknownst to you, every Wednesday evening for years, I have made a point of opening my window or the back door, making a cup of tea, and sitting and listening to the lovely sound of your bell practice on the breeze," George continues.
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"Some evenings, it's so faint I can hardly hear it, but on clear days with the wind in the right direction, I can hear every peal," she adds.
She wrote that her favourite evenings are the ones where the sound of bellringing mingles with the patter of raindrops.
"It is one of my absolute favourite things, a sound of home and gentle time passing, and so I thought that it was about time I wrote to you to say thank you, to all of you, for this moment of peace and calm and beauty that you bring to my life every week," she continued.
George's kind gesture did not go unnoticed.
The ringers at Stafford St Mary were "thrilled" with George's letter, and they tweeted her to let her know they'd "ring an extra one" especially for her.
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Not only that, the ringers also responded to George's letter, stating that they appreciate having "a dedicated fan" who listens out for them.
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"We shall know now that there is at least one person out there who is enjoying the sound of our bells," wrote Selwyn Jones, the Tower Captain.
Awwww.
Rachel Thompson is the Features Editor at Mashable. Rachel's second non-fiction book The Love Fix: Reclaiming Intimacy in a Disconnected World is out now, published by Penguin Random House in Jan. 2025. The Love Fix explores why dating feels so hard right now, why we experience difficult emotions in the realm of love, and how we can change our dating culture for the better.
A leading sex and dating writer in the UK, Rachel has written for GQ, The Guardian, The Sunday Times Style, The Telegraph, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Stylist, ELLE, The i Paper, Refinery29, and many more.
Rachel's first book Rough: How Violence Has Found Its Way Into the Bedroom And What We Can Do About It, a non-fiction investigation into sexual violence was published by Penguin Random House in 2021.
