Ringing Forums

There is one now

Joined yesterday by Mark Regan for a very productive discussion with the Bishop of Ramsbury (I had to look that up!) who is Lead Bishop for church and cathedral buildings, so has the 'brief' of coming up with strategies for keeping buildings open. He is absolutely committed to finding ways to keep buildings open, explore new uses, shared uses, etc. He referred back to some of the bad decisions made in the 1970s when so many churches were closed and didn't think that would be repeated. Very encouraging.

Again in discussions with Peter Aiers at CCT he says how the Government recognises the fundng requirement of the CCT if more churches are going to go their way.

Did you see the analysis of the GS2222 consultation that has been published in advance of the next General Synod? It included this table which shows how the rate of closures has actually slowed down in recent decades! Maybe we didn't really notice before or are just fearing much worse?

I think quite a lot of towers are doing something next Sunday - quarter peal for Evensong for instance. Clergy don't seem to know so much about it.

Could you post an example?

Do you think that if every single guild took responsibility for scanning/digitising their own back catalogue of annual reports, maybe sharing the work out amongst a number of their members, they would do it? The CC Library uses a lot of storage space to keep every single annual report of every affiliated society but that is not as useful to the ringing community as it would be if they were just all digital and online.

On my visit to Kingsteignton recently they had a large rectangular panel light in the ceiling which looked like a daylight simulation LED lightbox.

Latest blog is here https://cccbr.org.uk/2022/01/18/presidents-blog-51/

Yes I think it does. However I have attempted here to upload the old CC pamphet that I just downloaded.

When I was first organising outings I was always worried about what to say. The letters always seemed quite short. Ultimately though, the recipients of such emails (as they invariably are now) know that it is a bit awkward and understand. I saw a request the other day which just said where the band was coming from and asked if the bells were available from 12-1 on a certain day. It doesn't need much more!

I also remember though when I used to go on quarter peal outings that we got into trouble at one tower, and upset the locals, because we rang a quarter peal and had not said in the letter asking for the bells that we were going to ring a quarter. We hadn't thought it important to be explicit as to how we used the hour. The problem was though that it was a new ring and the locals had not yet rung their own quarter on the bells, and had wanted to. We just didn't know. So it may be worth saying what the plan is.

We have definitely passed "Peak Peal" in my opinion. When you look at the demograhic profile of prolific peal ringers they are largely people who have retired in good health on pensions that enable them to travel around peal ringing. And it's a group that learned at a time when far more ringers learned to ring so there is a strong base. That's not going to happen in the future unless perhaps some form or Universal Basic Income fundamentally changes the balance between work and free time. Add onto that less of a peal ringing culture amongst younger ringers.

Does it matter though? The majority of peals don't achieve anything other than entertaining the ringers in them (not that there is anything wrong with that). Maybe 10-20% of peals are for the purpose of advancing someone's ringing? Monitoring quarter peals is perhaps a better barometer of health.

That's a good question. I would think that more are Grade I than Grade II but it will differ in different parts of the country. I would be surprised if there are many rings of bells in unlisted churches.

Thanks Ros. It will be interesting to see how long a piece of ringing she can remember, but I agree that the other tools we use will hopefully develop in time.

I think that is what will happen in many places where there is just one building and a community, provided the building is not in bad condition already. Churches cost a lot to heat, maintain and insure. There could be a lot of pressure on groups of churches where they just aren't all needed.

The level of listing is actually quite an important consideration in this. Any church that is Grade I listed will end up in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust, so bells in such churches are likely to be safe. CCT does care about bells, although they do not necessarily have funds to prioritise their upkeep or improvement. A church that is Grade II* is quite difficult for the Church Commissioners and Dioceses to sell because they present planning challenges so they are likely to hang around longer. The riskiest ones are those that are just Grade II because they are more developable and hence more saleable.

I was talking to Peter Aiers at the CCT a few months back and looking at his map of where their churches are. They have hardly any in the South West, and he said that is because there is a far lower average level of listing in the South West and relatively few Grade Is. Having spent a week in Devon last week it did sem that churches and towers are less ornate - perhaps it is something about building to survive coastal weather conditions, something about the available stone, or some other quirk of history.

It's an interesting question. How many territorial associations have actually disappeared? The highest profile must be the London County Associaiton which was formally wound up after its relevance diminished. Others have been 'disintermediated' a little bit by new associations being formed, usually on the periphery of large territorial associations.

I have asked Robert Perry from Cornwall if anything of interest was discussed. Robert is a new member of synod

Has the emphasis on striking changed over time? Have we become a bit more lax, a bit more reluctant to stress its importance because we don't want to put people off? I must confess that in my own tower leadership I don't talk about striking as much as I might, sometimes because I don't want to annoy someone by keep going on about it. You have to couch these things in careful terms.

It is going to be published today with not major changes.
The Church of England has published it's own revised guidance and is not making any particular change because of omicron - not cancellaton of Christmas! No mandating of face coverings etc.
https://www.churchofengland.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/COVID%2019%20Guidance%20from%20the%2030th%20November%202021%20v1.pdf

An associated question is whether too much emphasis on performance would put people off wanting to become bellringers in the first place. How early in the recruitment process do we want to stress that our aim is to do something as well as posisble and that the pursuit of high quality performance is impoprtant, as opposed to attracting recruits to something that is a relatively unpressured pastime.

This is quite an important question when considering the positioning of ringing going forward.

He is lewisdotbenfielddot2004atgmaildotcom

Lewis Benfield in Leicestershire is a very keen handbell refurbisher. I have asked him for his email address for you.