Ringing Forums

It is a really good idea and hits a really common need. To have kept it going to 18 years is exceptional. Did all the burden of organisation fall on Geoff or did it start to be more sustainable? We tried it in the St Martin's Guild but it dried up.

One of the challenges is hooking up people wanting to learn to ring with people able to teach them and then get them into a band (we all know that).

I was teaching someone this morning (my daughter was teaching his wife under the supervision of an experienced teacher) at the Birmingham School of Ringing. I asked him what had attracted him to ringing and he said he had heard an item on the radio after Christmas about there being a shortage of bellringers, they had thought it sounded like an interesting new thing to do, got home and searched for where to learn to ring, found the St Martin's Guild, emailed, and now are being taught on a Saturday morning with (at the moment) three other learners at various stages. How can we get to the point where their experience is the norm rather than, as I suspect, the exception?

What those two people reacted to must have been more towards the first of the three descriptions in the title of this thread. I don't remember exactly what the radio piece said but it was basically about there being a shortage of bellringers - that's the sort of thing that makes a story. Imagine how many more people might want to learn if they got the third of those three messages, combined with knowing what is involved and been able to make an assessment that it might suit them well. But then there needs to be a really good way of channeling those people into a system that will meet their expectations.

(I will forgive one of this couple for saying "I guessed you must be either Charlie's dad or grandad"!)

Interesting to see that Hobart got on ABC News with a story that ringing is so popular that they have started a waiting list for learning
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-01-22/hobart-bellringers-st-davids-cathedral-how-to-ring-the-bells/101877920?utm_campaign=abc_news_web&utm_content=link&utm_medium=content_shared&utm_source=abc_news_web

and what that leads to is very inefficient 'sending of the elevator back down'. In a perfect world you would only send the elevator down say 10 floors, but what actually happens is you get extremely experienced ringers teaching bell handling rather than helping at the surprise major practice. No one grumbles about it, but it would be better if everyone just did a bit of helping of the tier below them.

At each College Youths monthly meeting, "Notice of peal attempts" is an agenda item, which I understand was so that members could go and listen to other performances. It doesn't have that function now, but shows that in days gone by there was appetite to sit in a freezing rural churchyard on a rainy Saturday and listen to someone else's ringing.

"It is incumbent on all those who have reached a certain ceiling to send the elevator back down and give others a helpful lift"

It's an interesting model, but how did the club secure the £30 to be collected from the learner who then gave up? Just on trust?

thanks that's the first time I have laughed today! Lovely description of the perils of the lower!

A few years back my building company rushed to the scene of the fire at Radford Semele and helped save the building by being quick off the mark. The church, which is a little out of the village centre, was subsequently restored.
The vicar wasn't actually that happy. He said to me later that he had secretly hoped it would have been demolished, because then he would have got a new building in the village centre, easier to heat, maintain, get to, etc.

I called a quarter of Bob Minor this evening with both those lads ringing inside. Must be quite unusual to have two nine year olds inside to a quarter of Minor.

Presumably all that content comes from things that bellringers have written in different places? It is interesting how it has found it all and presented it coherently. It would also be interesting if you asked it the same question of another activity like brass banding and see if it come up with very similar strategies.

That's very good. Interesting to hear it from the perspective of someone so interested in the sound. Good that lots of different members of the band chipped in. I hope plenty of people listen to it.

That was the beginning of the end for St Luke's Blakenhall. Congregation decamped to the neighbouring school hall, church closed and sold to a property developer. Not come across any other examples of it yet though.

Thanks
I have submitted listed building consent application now, and having had some correspondence with the conservation officer he thinks it's quite interesting.

Yes inclusivity is going to be a pillar

Interestingly to this thread, we have a ringer who learned at the Birmingham School of Bell Ringing and is now a member of the core team who is an atheist who does not feel comfortable calling people to worship, so they do not ring on a Sunday. That was a challenge for us at first, but then someone making a positive decision like that is in some way better than someone who just doesn't bother to turn up, and their contribution to ringing is valuable in other ways.

Moseley is a similar weight, and if they were an eight I would be arguing for putting in two trebles for a light six. Practices are probably 40% front six, 40% back eight, and 20% ten. It adds variety. Sometimes there's the temptation not to ring the back ones up if we're looking to be a bit short, but I think that's a slippery slope, which you have indentified. There are plenty of bigger tens which are getting harder and harder because back bells are hardly ever rung up except for peal attempts.

(However I wish we had a 10cwt eight not an 18cwt ten!)

This is something I am particularly interested in in Birmingham. As was reported in the 2021 Census that has just been published, Birmingham is now majority 'ethnic minority'. We therefore miss out on half the population if we don't address ringing's lack of diversity.

When the new Mobile Belfry is ready I am planning to take it into a Muslim school. I spoke to the Imam about taking it to the Central Mosque but he advised schools would be better. It will be interesting to see what happens.

It is also one of the drivers for the proposed secular 'Birmingham University of Bell Ringing' which will take ringing out of a church environment, which I think will help.

If it helps I get my info:

CCCBR: Simon's blog, other news on the website sent in the email, just joined here — Steve Pilfold

Steve you just made my day!

I was wondering how long we were going to have to wait before someone said that!

That is something the HRGB said worked. When they have worked with schools, they use bellplates first of all to get children used to making a noise, then they introduce real handbells. Although they stopped there, they thought that change ringing could then be introduced easily.

I agree with @Graham John that Bob Minor on handbells is achievable pretty quickly by most of those who would subsequently take to change ringing on tower bells. Philip Earis has a test that is to see if learners can ring two handbells to rounds quickly - a very good test of rhythm and hearing.

@Stuart Palin's point about whether someone who learns handbells quickly might not bother with tower bell ringing is interesting. The tower bell ringing definitely needs to be seen as more than just the pursuit of methods etc. I had a quite autistic student in lockdown who got to the point of being able to ring Stedman Cinques on two bells on Abel, but cannot ring Grandsire Doubles on a tower bell, which is frustrating to a degree, but for her the physical ringing is the most important thing.