AN ENTHUSIASTIC bellringer has shared her memories of campanology in Dorset.

Anne Horton, nee Barnes, is seen here as a 14-year-old in this photo from 1948 featuring the Puddletown bellringers.

She was part of a group who would perform songs on handbells around the county.

The handbells were discovered in St Mary's Church, Puddletown, more than 100 years ago and are still being played today.

And in 1948, Anne said, the bells were played by a youth group in the village, who met regularly at a youth club organised by Mrs Legg, a coal merchant's wife.

Anne, now of Weymouth, said: "We used to go round to people's houses in the village and play Christmas carols. We used to have jacket potatoes in our pockets to keep our hands warm."

The group was in such demand that they performed at Athelhampton House, near Dorchester, and recorded a programme for BBC radio Children's Hour.

Anne recalls: "We went to a farm in Bincombe to record it.

"We had to wait for the rooks to stop calling before we could record as they were interrupting the recording!"

The bellringers also performed at a Esperanto meeting in Bournemouth.

"We were the entertainment," Anne said.

"We had to take a taxi there and I remember sitting on the window sill of the Town Hall looking out and seeing someone take our taxi!"

The Puddletown bellringers was a very friendly group, Anne says, but unfortunately she has lost contact with most of the members.

They are named as the following: back row from the left: the late Ken Arthur (who went on to become chief constable of Dorset Police), Toby Antell, Anne Barnes, Valerie Parsons (a policeman's daughter) and Michael Holloway, an Irish boy who was in London and then evacuated to Puddletown.

In the front row (seated) from the left are: Bob Spenceley of the Blue Vinny pub in Puddletown and Bernard Larcombe, Anne's cousin.

Bernard now lives in Southampton, but unfortunately Anne has lost contact with the other bellringers.

*If you are one of the bellringers or know any of them, please get in touch with Looking Back by calling 01305 830973 or email joanna.davis@dorsetecho.co.uk