bell-ringer

A bell-ringer is a person who rings a bell, usually a church bell, by means of a rope or other mechanism. Despite some automation of bells for random swinging, there are still many active bell-ringers in the world, particularly those with an advanced ringing tradition such as full-circle or Russian ringing, which are artistic and skilled performances difficult to automate. The term campanologist is popularly misused to refer to a bell-ringer, but this properly refers to someone engaged in the study of bells—which is known as campanology. Although in some places carillons are used to sound bells, they are "played" by carillonneurs, not by bell-ringers, and are associated with the ringing of tunes in the Western musical tradition.