Ringing Forums

I have often seen you make these points, Robert, and while we can argue how the CC could do things better, it or something very like it, is needed. A while back I put together this non-exhaustive list for the ODG as a response to the the question What the Central Council do for me? which is the point you make regarding local ringers. Personally, I think that is the wrong question. A central organisation does the things that are worth do centrally, not locally - so the question should be what does it do for ringing, not for anyone personally?

What Does the Central Council Do for Me?The Central Council is the representative body for ringers and ringing. If it didn’t already exist, ringers would need to create it to represent the interests of the exercise nationally and internationally.

Here are some of the things it provides for ringing (in no particular order):

Method Libraries – The CCCBR Methods Library and the Doubles Variations & Calls Library ensure that methods are consistently named and defined wherever they are rung. These are the authoritative sources used by all ringing software, simulators, websites and apps.

Dove’s Guide – Both the printed edition and the website offer the definitive directory of all full‑circle rings worldwide, along with extensive supporting information.

The Central Council Library (Loughborough) – The largest collection of ringing publications and historical material anywhere.

Preservation of historical ringing assets – Including the Carter Ringing Machine and other important artefacts.

The Framework for Method Ringing – Defines technical terminology, method classification, extension rules, performance reporting, and how new methods may be named.

Publications – Over a century of books and pamphlets for ringers, plus free online resources such as Belfry Projects, Belfry Upkeep, Call Changes, Calling It Round, Running a Tower, and A Code for Ringing.

Ringing websites – Including the main CCCBR site, the Framework site, Dove, Felstead (towerbell peals), Method Libraries, Doubles Variations & Calls, Young Ringers, History, Recruitment, and the Ringing Forums.

Training and courses – A new annual ringing course in the North West, and from 2025 a second annual course in the South West, both open to all.

Mobile Ring of Bells – A new, easily transported mobile ring available for events to promote ringing to ringers and non‑ringers alike.

Publicity and recruitment materials – Professionally produced posters, leaflets, banners, porch notices, logos, videos and other resources that towers and associations can customise.

Advice and guidance – On noise complaints, safeguarding, bell maintenance, restoration projects, sound control, pandemic guidance, methods, compositions and more.

Records and statistics – Including quarter peals, peals and record lengths.

Liaison with external bodies – Acting as the single point of contact with Government, the Royal Family, the media, the Church, Ecclesiastical Insurance, the Churches Conservation Trust and others.

Grants – Funding support for bell restoration and augmentation projects.

National ringing events – Such as Ringing Remembers, Ring for the King, Ringing for the Olympics, Cast of 1000, National Call Change Competitions, Ringing Talks and Roadshows.

All of this is delivered by volunteers and funded by a very small Council income — historically less than 20p per ringing member of affiliated societies.

Ringing 2030
Recognising the ageing demographic of ringers, the Council launched Ringing 2030, with three aims:

• More people wanting to learn to ring
• Teach them well and support their development
• Provide the right environment so they enjoy ringing and stay involved

To make meaningful progress by 2030, the Council needs to increase its activity and seed‑fund the projects required. In September 2024, representatives of affiliated societies voted to increase contributions to 40p per member in 2025, and £1 per member from 2026 onwards. This gives societies time to plan both their contribution to the Council and the funding they may need locally to support Ringing 2030.

For the initiative to succeed, substantial effort is also needed from towers and associations to recruit, teach, support and improve the ringing environment — with guidance and resources from the Council.

Air conditioning and ventilation are not the same thing. A tower near us had air conditioning installed just before Covid, but then they worried about air flow and high CO2 levels and started investigating ventilation systems, although no conclusion reached as yet.

I can't hear the recording well enough, but if it was near Monument it would have been this quarter of Stedman Cinques on the day of Paul Mounsey's funeral at St Magnus.

1271 Stedman Cinques

The Stedman is full slow six start, although it doesn't tell you that. I have added it to Complib, so you can look at the rows there using the link below.

1281 Spliced Cinques and Maximus by Richard Burton

If you just want to get the sequence of rows for any method or composition, you can get them by clicking on the rows icon on Complib's view page for the method or composition. You can then copy the rows and paste them into Excel. e.g. rows of Plain Bob Doubles

Not for that reason perhaps, although eBells and Handbell Stadium do provide significantly better simulation for practising change ringing on handbells :cool:

You will need the latest version of Abel (10.3.2) from https://www.abelsim.co.uk/ and Handbell Manager (2.2) from https://github.com/GACJ/handbellmanager/releases. Also make sure that the Abel settings in Handbell Manager match those below, especially the three at the bottom.

@Richard Norman - You just click on the Upload Files icon, upload the photo and click insert.

I little while ago I proposed 3000 as a target, — Simon Linford

3000 is a lot of peals!

Recent discussions on here suggest that many associations are in a dire state — John de Overa

If you mean that ringing in those associations is in a dire state, then the CC is focussing strategically on how that can be improved through its support for member Associations. If you mean that the Association itself is in a dire state and has become dysfunctional, then the CC could provide support in how to restructure or reinvent itself probably based upon the things that more successful associations have done. It could even recommend setting up a new association. However, at the end of the day, a local association needs local people and all CC representatives and workgroup members are likely already involved with their own local associations, so you can hardly expect them to move to a new area to reboot ringing in that area.

Is it not you that is out of touch with the Council, @Robert Brown? When I read last year's AGM report and attended the AGM, I was really impressed with the level of activity by all the workgroups, with volunteers committing substantial time and effort on things that do benefit the ringing exercise on a tiny budget (a few pence per ringer per year). There was also an encouraging sign that Associations are starting to appoint younger members as CC reps, and this was a key argument that caused a motion to reduce the number of representatives to be lost.

I frequently see the comment "What does it do to help Fred or Freda at our tower?" or "How does it improve the standard of ringing in our area?". These questions miss the point that the CC should and does focus on those things that can't easily or economically be done at a local level, or by a local Association. While the Council is right to have a focus on the importance of recruitment and retention, which is immensely challenging, it can only do this at a strategic level, providing leadership, guidance and resources to support local endeavours. It is also just one of many services it provides.

When we were putting together the Framework for Method Ringing, we were tasked with producing a simple and permissive framework with a goal of avoiding arbitrary rules and value judgements. We sought to find the logical boundaries that define the limits of method ringing, and ensure the framework supports everything within these boundaries.

While two-bell ringing may seem pointless to many of us, it did seem like the logical minimum to be able to define a method. There was also another reason for including it. We tried very hard to think about everything that might be possibly rung in the future to explore method ringing further, and one of these was ringing methods side by side, such as Minor on the front six and Minor on the back six of a twelve arranged to avoid any of the twelve-bell rows being false. This has already been done a few times. Extrapolate further and you might splice methods of different stages together to create your rows. If perhaps part of the composition was to ring Cambridge Royal on twelve while two bells dodge behind, then you need a two bell method to describe the dodging. That needs Cross Two. If you look at Cambridge Two, you can see that it has two bells both ringing Cambridge frontwork.

So we decided that including two and three bell methods in the CCCBR Methods Library does no harm, allows us to properly record the methods reported in past performances, and may well prove useful to ringers in the future.

↪Ian Sterritt That's the same link you posted a couple of weeks ago. Did you mean to post a different one? — John Harrison

I discovered Ian's post had been lurking in a moderation queue for about 3 weeks, so released it. Sorry for the delay and probable duplication.

The most compact description of the ringing would seem to be within the performance report -1234-1234-14.34.14-1234-12,34 (30 characters) — PeterScott

But which could you remember a month later?

Minimus ringers ran out of new methods to ring for which a single extent was possible. They then started exploring methods that comprised multiple extents. Great Massingham TP Minimus is an example. While it is false within each lead, the plain course contains exactly three extents, so is true - making it easy to ring true performances. Methods like Bristol Minimus (now Demi-Bristol Alliance Minimus), which has been rung at least since the 1970s are trickier, since the plain course is false - while containing one extent, it contains multiple rows from more than one other extent. Nevertheless, that can be rung in true performances by varying the hunt bell.

On higher numbers, methods inadvertently false in the plain course were created as link methods in spliced. The methods are generally rung a lead at a time, and in combination with other methods form true peals. The former Methods Committee of the Central Council came under much criticism for introducing a concept of non-method blocks to describe them, when it was much more straightforward to remove the rule that said that methods had to be true in the plain course. The Framework for Method Ringing, implemented in 2019, did just that.

I have approved the post :smile: These forums have the ability to like posts, but a decision was made to turn the feature off. I think is useful - better than having to post just to say I agree.

The first thing I heard her asking someone else was "what's a course?" — Simon Linford

Good question! Not necessarily easy to answer concisely and definitively.

Here are some useful resources. Please share any others you have found:

• Central Council Compositions
• A Handbook of Composition by John Leary
• Method Splicing Part I and Part II by Giles Thompson [If someone has a copy of these, could they scan them so they can be made more widely available - they were self-published and no ISBN, so will be lost otherwise]
• Change Ringing by Wilfred G Wilson chapters 15-20
• Introduction to Composition - A webinar by Mark Davies
• An Introduction to Composing Part 1 - A webinar by John Warboys
• An Introduction to Composing Part 2 - A webinar by John Warboys
• Bellringing and Maths - A webinar by Mark Davies

The challenge to new composers in today's world is that computer programs have been developed that can search for compositions far faster than a human. That does not mean that there is nothing for a new composer to do, but it means that anything truly original is likely to come from some who can come up with a creative idea and have the computer tools or programming knowledge to be able to develop and explore their idea. Many of the principles used by composers in the era before computers, such as the use of false course head groups, have become as useful as doing multiplication with a log book or slide rule when you have a calculator sitting in front of you.

There seems to be some confusion. The video link Tina posted is promoting bell ringing in Spain, not Italy.

W&P is running a £1.59m HTB (Holy Trinity Brompton) experiment in Basingstoke involving four churches, that started in September 2022, including the rings at St Michael (8) and All Saints(10). The leadership team appointed have virtually no experience and the locals are not impressed!

https://anglican.ink/2022/07/21/diocese-of-winchester-receives-1-59-million-in-funding-to-support-church-growth/