Gerath learned to ring in Essex in the 1970s before moving first to London and then Cambridge. Currently he is tower captain at Swaffham Prior, a six in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust. He is also a keen handbell ringer. On and off he has been researching the history of ringing ever since finishing his first degree in History. Gareth just about to complete a PhD on the history of bellringing in Cambridge in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.