Ringing Forums

Bell ringing is an important part of the life of many historic places of worship and Historic England is keen to encourage the continuation of this tradition.

Well it's good to know that HE specifically supports bell ringing, not just preserving in aspic.

Naming no names/parishes, but that has happened in the past. Bit annoying after a 5 mile drive to find a bit of paper on the church door.

Harking back to the top of this thread, in 2030 (let alone 2040) will there be the churches to ring in? "Others & none" may be happy to ring, but they won't keep churches open and the residents of "All Saint's House" might not want a group of odd bods arriving at 09:30 on a Sunday to wake them up, or for that matter at 19:30 just as they are trying to get the baby down.

Good advice.
A nice example of what not to say occurred when I was learning (IIRC) PB. The helpful lad informed me "You're over my mother". Quite apart from the schoolboy humour, I had to (1) remember who his mother was, (2) look round the circle to find her, then of course (3) try to work out what I should be doing since it was already the next stroke! It would have been much easier to say "Over number 7".

You mentioned going to the pub afterwards after talking about transport. For Londoners (and probably other cities too) talking public transport may be a fag, but at least you can have a drink and get home. Outside London such public transport as there is often ceases early and of course if you've driven to a practice then having a pint or two afterwards is obviously out of the question.

Perhaps rename Julie McDonnell Doubles to be Carcinoma doubles. Appropriate and likely to put off anyone else!

This makes my blood boil. Terminal cancer is not a joke nor a way of soliciting false sympathy. Sufferers are faced with massively reduced lifespan, the prospect of a painful death and in the meantime slowly or quickly failing abilities and often uncomfortable medical interventions. If this woman thinks it clever to play on people's sympathies for fraudulent gain, then she has shown herself to be down amongst the lowest of the low.

I'd like to solidly second Ted's comments and add a couple of others that might not be apparent to non-ringers. First, watch the timing. A bell sounds around 2 seconds after it has been pulled off, pretty well as the ringer's hands are going up past his face. The other thing is to pick up on the phrase "Devon style". In most of the country bells are rung with an "open handstroke lead", but not in Devon. Just using four bells to keep the example short:

Devon:
1234123412341234

Elsewhere:
12341234-12341234-

Where "-" is a one beat silence.

I'd recommend approaching the Guild of Devonshire Ringers. I've no link to them, but my experience of ringers generally is that they will welcome such enquiries and be happy to supply authoritative detail.

Does anyone know if Smallfield was a ringer? The reason I ask is that he may have just sketched the architecture of the tower when the ropes were out of the way (did they use spiders at that date?). He could then have sat in on a practice night locally and pulled the rope details from there. Frankly I've no way of knowing, but London or Cornwall it is fascinating to see a quite detailed picture of ringing at that time.

The reason I'm cautious is that it was common for artists to carry sketchbooks with them when travelling, photography was still very cumbersome at that time. A "visit" might be 5 minutes with a local that told him the tale, it might be all day. Then back home in the comfort of the studio an artist could work up the final image. If Smallfield's sketchbooks were available it would be interesting to see them.

The Ringers of Launcells Tower — Ted Steele

see Wikicommons. I'd confirm just red and white. The ringer on the extreme left has a knotted loop around his left thumb. The ringer on the extreme right appears to have a knotted or tucked loop below his left hand, it doesn't look to be spliced. The Royal Cornwall Museum says that Smallfield reconstructed the painting some 77 years after the event depicted, however :"Smallfield had visited the church tower before he started painting and had studied the bell ringers at his local church in Willesden, London, to get the figures' movements correct." so treat the details with some circumspection.

I do wonder why you are considering Yorkshire tails in a Devon church. There's a bit of a hint in the name (though those unfortunate folk west of the Pennines have also been known to ape their betters).

There's an article here that will probably give you more than enough information about Yorkshire tails: The Rise and Fall of Yorkshire Tails

Residential courses? I wish I'd have known that when I was younger and fitter.

Hi Oliver,
Just a small point: this forum is national (possibly international), so asking about "some towers or people (within reasonable distance)" without saying where you are won't get any help.
Regards,
Martin

FYI: "An error occurred during a connection to m.facebook.com".

They appear to be, see their home page but it looks as though a number of labels are coalescing under the banner of Wyastone as the CD/DVD market shrinks.

(OT) Sedgley! - I used to live just down the hill in Hurst Hill from age 3-8. Dad was the minister at Hurst Hill Methodist. We used to go kite flying from Sedgley Beacon.

A serious suggestion: only ever use bell numbers in giving directions. Being told "you're over my mother" when I was learning a method was no help whatsoever!

A quick thought: 10 minutes is far too long if someone's heart has actually stopped; 4-6 minutes is the quoted survival time before irretrievable brain damage occurs. CPR is "an effort to manually preserve intact brain function until further measures are taken to restore spontaneous blood circulation and breathing in a person who is in cardiac arrest" and might bridge the gap between heart failure and the arrival of the defibrillator. Can you try to persuade the authorities to fund a basic first aid course? If a requirement for a qualified first-aider is part of your risk assessment then the authorities would be in a very difficult position if they do not comply.

When I was learning to ring the tower captain had a party trick: he placed a £5 note between his right hand and left thumb and rang 20 strokes (10 hand, 10 back) with the note just trapped between them and not held. The challenge for learners was to do the same, if you succeeded you got to keep the note. No learner ever did, and he never challenged competent ringers!

Magnify the second image and you can see traces of the grooves above the voussoirs, which supports the rope theory. In passing I've seen cast iron protections on canal bridges nearly worn through by ropes,, but then they would be dirty ropes with abrasive grit and the weight on a narrowboat on the rope.

Locally three towers are ringing before the service. One is attempting a quarter starting at 10:00 with the hope that they will be back in time for the service. The fourth tower has a deficit of ringers, and we are "open ringing" from 15:00 with ringers from other towers coming along. I intend to take along some snacks and make it a bit of a party.