Ringing Forums

The problem with a survey is that it is a snapshot at a particular point in time. By comparing it with a previous survey you can see that changes have taken place, or it provides a baseline for future surveys. — Roger Booth

Whilst I agree it is a snapshot, I think that is what we need at the moment. We know we are in decline. What we need to work out is what ringing sessions do we need to offer to tempt people out to develop their experience. The survey wont do that on its own, we probably then need to go back and speak with some respondents to understand what they will come out for.

Surprising therefore that most first peals tend to be major, it would be interesting to find out why. Perhaps some of that market research stuff... :wink: — John de Overa

There's probably a very simple answer. When I learnt to ring, other slightly older young ringers were quite happy to arrange and conduct peal and quarter peal attempts. Branch and District meetings were also advertised in the Ringing World and by going along you met these people and got invited. At that time the gap between the top and bottom of the ability range was also much narrower.

As Michael Foulds of the Whiting Society puts it, as they have got older, those regular peal ringers have become 'risk averse'. I suppose it's not surprising really. If you've spent decades bringing people on you now just want to ring with your mates and ring something more challenging. You're not going to want to ring several peals of Plain Bob Minor. You're going to be more choosy who you invite to ring and what you ring. A quick look at this year's first pealers summary on Pealbase shows that out of 130 so far just 15 rang Plain Bob Minor; there were 10 Plain Bob Triples; 10 Grandsire Triples, 9 Plain Bob Major and 23 of Surprise Major. There were even 2 ringing Surprise Royal for their first peal.

Nowadays, if you ring with a band that regularly rings Plain Bob Doubles, that's as far as you are likely to get. Similarly, if the same person rings with a Surprise Major band most will sooner or later be able to ring it. (I've seen people who I thought would never get there, but 20+ years later they have). The more people around who can ring a method, the more people they can teach to do it. Back in the 70's and 80's Bristol Maximus was only rung in a few select places, nowadays there are far more people around who can ring it. Much of this more advanced ringing goes on outside the traditional Guild/Association/Branch /District structures.

Whether it's ringing at tower level, at Branch/District level, quarters or peals, it's about changing the whole culture, before it's too late. First peal 2015 showed that this was possible if only for a year. What is needed is a more long-term project throughout the next decade. A combination of surveys, and conferences and ongoing research projects could help with this.

A quick look at this year's first pealers summary on Pealbase shows that out of 130 so far just 15 rang Plain Bob Minor; there were 10 Plain Bob Triples; 10 Grandsire Triples, 9 Plain Bob Major and 23 of Surprise Major. There were even 2 ringing Surprise Royal for their first peal. — Roger Booth

Hmm, I crunched the numbers by stage irrespective of method - I discounted the one handbell peal and the numbers for up to Minor and above Minor are 64 / 65, so pretty evenly spread. Minor versus Major was 38 / 35 and Double versus Triples was 25 / 21.

I think your points about "the skills gap" and "risk aversion" are on the money, along with bands getting stuck at the PB5 level. Plus your points about people getting there eventually, and advanced ringing being outside traditional structures - basically I think everything that you said is right. :grin:

However I'm a bit cautious about using peals or even QPs as a measure of ringing's general health, although they are one of the few data sources available. It seems like a badly lagging indicator - as you've said many peals are currently rung by ringers who are at the tail end of their careers, and there's a long lead time for towers like mine, which is building from a CC start, to ringing QPs as a tower band - if indeed we ever do. But we are nonetheless making more progress than the band has in 40+ years, even though it's impossible to determine that from outside. I think that's one area where a survey will help - not just details of what level bands are at now, but also in which direction they are heading.