Ringing Forums

And then on my list of things to do this week is get a timetable of Cast of 1000 practices sorted for next year. These are going to be all round the country but I think need to be focused on centres of surprise major ringing population. Trying to organise a surprise major practice when there is not a critical mass of ringers within less than an hour seems like a hiding to nothing?

I quite regularly post about local ringing on an external 'Everything Moseley' Facebook group - there doesn't seem to be a better way of getting to people in the local area especially if there is one dominant Facebook group used by the community. It won't get to kids but it will get to their parents - I know that parents of the Brumdingers are members of 'Everything Moseley' because they like the ringing-related posts.

Vicki - is "Bell Sunday" intended to be international? @Vicki Chapman

Just an amusing anecodate to add. We had a potential new recruit who is a very professional musician and composer. After he had been listening to the practice for about an hour and had an explanation of change ringing he asked "how many different rhythms are you trying to achieve?"

When I started the Brumdingers I did not tell the kids about Sunday ringing or say that was what they had to do. Their activity was part of church life, but it was not tied to an early Sunday morning commitment. It would have definitely put some of them off learning at all because they are involved in toher things and would not always be able to come. Two of the kids for instance couldn't ring last Sunday because of Scouts.

The vicar is quite happy that kids bellringing isn't something that is linked to Sunday ringing - he is happy that it is another thing that brings young people into church. There are other young people's activities that use the church, not on Sundays. The rest of the local band is happy that on Sundays there will always be some Brumdingers, and occasionally there will be a thre-line whip.

I think this is more a point about young ringers than older. I appreciate that if you are recruitment to add members of your local band you would want them to understand that Sunday is what we practice for, but I don't think that making it an obligation on young ringers will help recruit them. One needs to make it such that they wnt to come on a Sunday because it is another opportunity for them to do something they enjoy, which is what I have found.

OK - I can't see how to actually post the image yet!

One of the negatives expressed by someone involved in Cadet Forces is that the more involved you get, the more likely it is to involve things on Saturdays and Sundays in particular and so trainees are likely to be lost unless ringing displaces being in the cadet force as a primary activity.

Good news (I think) is that the book on learning surprise major methods has gone to print, or will within days. It is over 200 pages long and I think will be found to be a very useful manual for learning how to ring surprise major. That it will start with a different set of methods thatn the standard 8 is almost incidental - it is intending to pathway through to the point where ringers don't need one any more.

I am actually interested in the degree to which ringers are still wearing facemasks. Not meaning to be the guidance police or anything - I am just interested. We still wear facemaks at my home tower but then we have unvaccinated youngsters in the band. The other tower at which I ring regularly has no facemask (except my family!) From photos of bands in the Ringing World and elsewhere it seems that facemasks for ringing is in the minority now?

When I ran a restoration contractor and hence came across bats a lot, we had a lecture from a bat man for all our site staff and managers. One of the most interesting things I remember is why it is important not to disturb them when they are hibernating (I think this is also true about Hedgepigs). They go to sleep with only just enough fuel to survive and then wake them up again once, If they are disturbed and wake up, they then don't have enough energy to wake up again when the spring comes, and hence they die.

Changing the subject slightly, if you didn't know anything about the stay/slider mechanasim and were given the requirements of the roles of the stay, would anyone come up with anything different, or is the stay/slider a very elegant and relatively cost effective solution to the problem that couldn't be bettered?

I suppose you could do it with electronics and magnets, but that wouldn't be better necessarily and it definitely wouldn't be cheaper.

I agree the summary email was a bit of a surprise when it first arrived but it was very useful.

I have always called this by getting 987 in position first, then 654, and finally 321. Then I tend to just reverse it. My daughter Charlie called it last week and she moved just one bell in each group then did the same in the next group and the next, so b to c in each group of three, then a to c in each group, then a to b. Which just shows that if you think about things with a fresh mind it can be quite different.

Well done

We have got some specific guidance on the Covid guidance section of the CC website. You need to scroll down about half the page though https://cccbr.org.uk/coronavirus/

I think I'll reorganise that page now!

That's an interesting question as to when ropemakers start to make sallies shorter for small bells and longer for big bells. They definitely do, but you don't tend to see shorter sallies until you get onto bells under about 5cwt. Is @Philip Pratt able to comment?

Fresh air for concentration is very noticeable if you ring long peals of things that are complicated. There's a very clear correlation between the number of trips and getting enough air into the room.

This has definitely got a lot more traction than we orginally thought it might. I did an interview for BBC radio yesterday which they said they were going to give to local radio stations to use as part of their local coverage.
At moseley we are going to get our youngsters to do this particularly bit of ringing.

Do you think that is something that has changed over time in your experience, or has it been forever thus? It is definitely the case that if you have a ringing session, taking 10 minute out to discuss theory or demonstrate something on the whiteboard feels like a loss of previous ringing time.