'Preston has always felt like home': BBC broadcaster on life as Preston's town crier

Having spent over three decades on air, the BBC’s John Spencer-Barnes is well-used to broadcasting his voice to the public.

But he says his newest stint as Preston’s town crier might be a new ‘bell’ game altogether.

The Dudley-born journalist first stepped foot in Preston in 1994, when he became news editor of 97.4 Rock FM and Red Rose 999.

But after being named Preston’s town crier in May, he has since gone on to shout at Tram Bridge and Preston Markets.

He is one of approximately 350 town criers left worldwide. Hundreds of years ago, their job was to announce news and announcements to townsfolk by crying them out in the streets – a prehistoric comparison to John’s years spent delivering the news across Lancashire and beyond.

“Town criers became much more predominant during medieval times,” John told the Lancashire Evening Post. “We didn’t have newspapers, we didn’t have TV, we didn’t have radio, and we didn’t have the internet, so that was the way that news would be spread to the townsfolk.

“I’ve worked in the North West for the past three years, reading the news for Radio 5 Live and BBC local radio, but I tend to use my voice in a very different way.

“You tend to be quite small and quite intimate, and make your voice as, well, ‘radio’ as possible. Whereas in town crying,” he shouts, “it’s much, much different!”

Since his university days in the mid-80s, folk and history traditions had been “the most fascinating thing” for John, who spent years involved in historical reenactments and Morris dancing.

Though radio had always been the dream, any ideas of one day becoming a town crier came completely by surprise, after a chance invitation from St. Anne’s Council, Fylde.

“About ten years ago, I was working for BBC Radio Lancashire, and I was sort of headhunted,” he said. “The previous town crier had retired and moved to Spain, and I found I quite enjoyed it. I enjoyed meeting all the people, and I found I was quite good at it.

“My main hobby from when I was in university was doing historical re-enactments, so I had this huge interest in history and historical traditions. When I moved to Lancashire, I became a member of the Royal Preston Morris Dancers.

“Radio and journalism has always been the thing that’s driven me professionally, but history and tradition has always been the most fascinating thing for me privately. Radio presentation and town crying cross over, in some respects.

“I know it’s a bit of a cliché, but a society that doesn’t know where it and its traditions have come from has kind of lost itself in some respects. We need to know where we’ve come from in order to keep moving forward.”

As well as giving room for old customs to flourish in the modern day, John said it was equally important to bring more diversity into traditionally white, straight, and male-dominated activities – particularly as one of only two openly-gay town criers in the UK.

As it stands, statistics around people who take part in folk traditions in the UK are sparse.

Most in-depth is the 2021 Morris census, which found only 1.2% of Morris dancers in the UK were from a non-white background.

Meanwhile, a study from the University of Sheffield on those who participated in traditional folk singing found singers to be overwhelmingly straight, white, and above the age of 60.

“A lot of things like Morris teams are dying out because they’re all old or middle-aged,” he said. “Morris teams need to recruit younger people.

“I’m a big believer in diversity, and that folk traditions should be open to everybody. I’m really keen to see a lot more diversity in this kind of environment, so it’s not just middle-aged, white faces doing it.

“I want to see queer people doing it. I want to see more women doing it. I want to see more people from different ethnicities doing it, the whole thing should be inclusive.”

Now on his fourth month bell-ringing for Preston, John said he’s now looking forward to making his next appearances at Preston Pride and the Encounter Festival later this month.

Along the way, he will also be trekking down to Chester on September 22, where he will be cheering on his friends at the World Town Crier Tournament in Town Hall Square.

“I love meeting people and talking to people and getting involved in things, and I like being dressed quite outrageously, ringing the bell, and watching people get some kind of pleasure from that. It’s sort of representing the city, which is fantastic.

“I once made the mistake of looking [at the comments of a Facebook video], and one of the residents had said, ‘Who’s this old man who can’t even lift the bell?’. In truth, I think I have the biggest and heaviest bell of any town crier in the United Kingdom.

“It’s so big and heavy I’m having to work out my right arm to get the strength. It’s not a euphemism: it’s just a very big bell.

“Over the last couple of years, I’ve judged town crying competitions in North America, which was fantastic. I was the chair of judges at the Provincetown North American Town Crying Championships, and last year I was invited to New Glasgow in Nova Scotia, Canada, to chair the judges. I loved it.

“A few of my chums from around the world will be coming to Chester, so I should go down to cheer a few of them on.”

Though currently away on holiday, John said he was looking forward to coming home to pick up the bell for Preston once again.

Before then, however, he will be making a quick stop for afternoon tea and a pizza with his husband David, as the pair celebrate their 30th anniversary since the day they first met.

“When I first came up to Preston, I thought I’d be here a year, and then I’d go somewhere else, which is what happened everywhere else I’d worked at that point,” he said.

“But then I kind of fell in love with Lancashire, and I met my husband, David, in Burnley. September 11 is our 30th anniversary since meeting for the first time.

“It’s been 30 years since I looked at him and said, ‘He’s the one’. I’m very happy here in Lancashire – Preston has always felt a bit like home.”

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