Ringing Forums

According to Google analytics, the biggest draw to our tower website is a page entitled FAMOUS BELLS. More than one-third of visitors to the site have searched for that phrase. The second biggest draw is a page about Big Ben. We only added these pages to the website on a whim, thinking it might be interesting to add a few notes about Big Ben, the Lutine Bell and a few other well known bells but they have proved to be the strongest magnets of all! Check them out at: https://sotherans.wixsite.com/stmarks-bellringers. If you think the idea may help your tower website, feel free to adopt/adapt/improve - and perhaps drop me a note so that I can visit the result.

Two of my new ringers attended the recent NW course. Both were working at the same level but they were split into different groups with different tutors. One has returned with renewed confidence and a sense of achievement. The other is disappointed and somewhat unsettled. Both tutors required an acceptable standard of bell handling and striking. One was willing to compromise somewhat in order that the pupils could make progress with PH and PB. The other appears to have insisted in perfection before moving to the next stage.

Whilst it is absolutely right that handling and striking must meet a standard, it is surely expecting too much to ask for the level of perfection that comes with experience from a group of new ringers who are taking their first steps into change-ringing.

Up in the wilds of the Yorkshire Dales, local towers have pooled their knowledge and experience and congregate at one of the towers on the first Friday of each month. This provides an opportunity to ring with others, ring less familar bells and to hear other tutors' explanations. Often, in the latter case, simply hearing an explanation in a different form of words from a different person can bring enlightenment.

It may be worh tracking down recordings of tower and handbells made by a firm called SAYDISC in Gloucestershire (I think). They aren't as old as many of those listed earlier in this thread, but they are generally good quality recordings. Does anyone know if Saydisc are still operating?

It's is several decades since I last applied any Zebrite to the slider rails and the lack of it doesn't appear to have made any difference to the 'go' of the bells or the wear of the sliders and their rails (which incidentally have just had their 50th 'birthday').

I recall from many years ago being advised to apply blacklead such as 'Zebrite' - (looks like black toothpaste!) - to the slider rails to reduce friction and ease the movement. I wonder if this is still considered good practice?

Robin may well be correct! But so long as the ratio of stays / gudgeons is heavily weighted on the side of broken stays, then they may be considered to be doing their job!

Dora and Alice White gave a whole new meaning to 'stays' in a ringing context!

" . . . it would be nice to have the confidence to use an alternative wood" - Mike Shelley.

But please don't waste your time and effort using mahogany! A tower in our region acquired a stack of 'offcuts' from a local furntiture factory and (predictably) they snapped like match sticks!

Many thanks to Graham for the explanations. It's fine for those who know all about it but not very intuitive for those who don't!

What's this '@Peter Sotheran'. Is that Pinterest or Twitter or similar? I've never posted any photos there. Does this Forum not have a simple facility to browse my one photo files and upload from my desktop, or even to copy & paste one into a comment?

I wanted to add a photo to a comment but I can't work out how to quote a link from the comment to the photo files on my computer. I tried to copy & paste but that doesn't work. Am I missing something obvious??

When faced with this issue, we use a dummy tail end while the ringer is first trying assisted handstrokes. As they let go of the sally, they are instructed to bring the right hand to immediately join the left on the dummy tail end and let them rest in front of their lap while they wait for the sally to come down from backstroke. It's also a useful aid to build the confence in those ringers who curl their little fingers round the tail end whilst holding the sally for fear of dropping the tail end.

How can you be sure that a fee, be it £10 or £100 will weed out only those who will never quite grasp the art of handling a rope or mastering the magic of change-ringing? It strikes me that there is better than a sporting chance that the fee will also weed out some of those 'magical' learners who take to it like the proverbial ducks to water.

Another option, either instead of or in addition to the installation of a defib unit is to arrange for ALL regular members of the team to attend a CPR course. You will need this expertise to aid the resuscitation of the casualty after applying the defib shocks. Without the defib unit, well maintained CPR may stabilise or conserve the casualty while someone scampers down to collect the defib unit from the nave and professional help arrives.

You should find that your local Fire & Rescue Service can provide CPR training free of charge to a group. And you will still need the CPR knowledge to follow-up the defib shocks and keep the patient alive.

We did exactly as Alsion implies - one of our ringes was in a position to 'requisition' a diseased ash tree whern it was felled and arranged for the trunk to be sawn into 1 metre lengths and then split into board of approx 3inches (75mm). After storage for several months the boards were split in into blank stays and then planed to the correct dimensions. The result - we have up to half a dozen spare stays for the bells most likely to suffer damage and a couple each for the tenors and trebles. They should outlast my lifetime!

I have been involved in the installation of two automatic defib units, one in our small village and one at a local retirement home. Both are mounrted externally and consequently need a mains electricity supply to maintain a 10w heater element that minimises the risk of condensation inside the cabinet. A dry tower with no damp problem may not need this. The units cost £1200- £1500 each.

The units need to be serviced after each usage - check batteries, adhesive pads etc. You need to establish a maintenance routine checking the batteries every few months.

Training was absolutely not a problem. our County Fire Service provided free hour-long training sessions with every installation. Don't be deterred - go for it! It may be worth inviting representatives of your Dean & Chapter to try legging it from the ringing room down those 200 steps and back again - and please ensure that they bring the defib up with them - they'll need it!

I'd go with the rope-mark theory. I have seen this effect in several towers. In fact at one of our neighbouring towers, the arched doorway was relatively low by modern standards and the ropes fell within a couple of inches of the wall. The ringer of the 5th stood within the archway with the door open; consequently some of the grooves were enhanced with bloodstains from bruised & grazed knuckles!

It's been done many times in the past. Newport Church in Middlesbrough (no bells) was intended to be the cathedral for the new victorian industrial town and seated almost 2000. Fifty years ago the congregation had dwindled to about 3 dozen and they abandoned the church and all worship and parish activities transferred to the adjacent church hall.

If you feel it is apprpriate to charge for assembling a band for filming, then perhaps the starting point for a fee would be the same as your charge for a wedding - at least