Prior to a QP on Tuesday evening when someone mentioned that their copy of Diagrams showed Bristol Maximus with 10ths place Bobs in, I wondered when the first year was when peals of Bristol Maximus with 4ths place bobs became the majority?
I remember my early peals of it at Birmingham Cathedral when Liz Bowden was a regular visitor and just before we started she would always ask "are we ringing 10 courses" much to our amusement. But it was a serious question left over from when it was clearly the norm.
Of the 35 peal of Bristol Maximus I rang between 1969 and 1983, there were 12 which were rung with 10ths place calls. Although there were a few which were the full 5280, most of them were 5086, starting at the snap after the wrong. The 90 or so I’ve rung since 1983 have all been with 4ths place calls.