Ringing Forums

" . . . it would be nice to have the confidence to use an alternative wood" - Mike Shelley.

But please don't waste your time and effort using mahogany! A tower in our region acquired a stack of 'offcuts' from a local furntiture factory and (predictably) they snapped like match sticks!

Many thanks to Graham for the explanations. It's fine for those who know all about it but not very intuitive for those who don't!

What's this '@Peter Sotheran'. Is that Pinterest or Twitter or similar? I've never posted any photos there. Does this Forum not have a simple facility to browse my one photo files and upload from my desktop, or even to copy & paste one into a comment?

I wanted to add a photo to a comment but I can't work out how to quote a link from the comment to the photo files on my computer. I tried to copy & paste but that doesn't work. Am I missing something obvious??

When faced with this issue, we use a dummy tail end while the ringer is first trying assisted handstrokes. As they let go of the sally, they are instructed to bring the right hand to immediately join the left on the dummy tail end and let them rest in front of their lap while they wait for the sally to come down from backstroke. It's also a useful aid to build the confence in those ringers who curl their little fingers round the tail end whilst holding the sally for fear of dropping the tail end.

How can you be sure that a fee, be it £10 or £100 will weed out only those who will never quite grasp the art of handling a rope or mastering the magic of change-ringing? It strikes me that there is better than a sporting chance that the fee will also weed out some of those 'magical' learners who take to it like the proverbial ducks to water.

Another option, either instead of or in addition to the installation of a defib unit is to arrange for ALL regular members of the team to attend a CPR course. You will need this expertise to aid the resuscitation of the casualty after applying the defib shocks. Without the defib unit, well maintained CPR may stabilise or conserve the casualty while someone scampers down to collect the defib unit from the nave and professional help arrives.

You should find that your local Fire & Rescue Service can provide CPR training free of charge to a group. And you will still need the CPR knowledge to follow-up the defib shocks and keep the patient alive.

We did exactly as Alsion implies - one of our ringes was in a position to 'requisition' a diseased ash tree whern it was felled and arranged for the trunk to be sawn into 1 metre lengths and then split into board of approx 3inches (75mm). After storage for several months the boards were split in into blank stays and then planed to the correct dimensions. The result - we have up to half a dozen spare stays for the bells most likely to suffer damage and a couple each for the tenors and trebles. They should outlast my lifetime!

I have been involved in the installation of two automatic defib units, one in our small village and one at a local retirement home. Both are mounrted externally and consequently need a mains electricity supply to maintain a 10w heater element that minimises the risk of condensation inside the cabinet. A dry tower with no damp problem may not need this. The units cost £1200- £1500 each.

The units need to be serviced after each usage - check batteries, adhesive pads etc. You need to establish a maintenance routine checking the batteries every few months.

Training was absolutely not a problem. our County Fire Service provided free hour-long training sessions with every installation. Don't be deterred - go for it! It may be worth inviting representatives of your Dean & Chapter to try legging it from the ringing room down those 200 steps and back again - and please ensure that they bring the defib up with them - they'll need it!

I'd go with the rope-mark theory. I have seen this effect in several towers. In fact at one of our neighbouring towers, the arched doorway was relatively low by modern standards and the ropes fell within a couple of inches of the wall. The ringer of the 5th stood within the archway with the door open; consequently some of the grooves were enhanced with bloodstains from bruised & grazed knuckles!

It's been done many times in the past. Newport Church in Middlesbrough (no bells) was intended to be the cathedral for the new victorian industrial town and seated almost 2000. Fifty years ago the congregation had dwindled to about 3 dozen and they abandoned the church and all worship and parish activities transferred to the adjacent church hall.

If you feel it is apprpriate to charge for assembling a band for filming, then perhaps the starting point for a fee would be the same as your charge for a wedding - at least

I suspect that such 'drying pods' as these are overkill, probably applying too much heat too quickly. Dry and soften the ropes too much and they risk becoming very stretchy.

Over the years RW and the chat-list have published several variations on the theme of a 6 foot legth of 6 inch diameter waste pipe, mounted on a stable base with a 40watt bulb at the bottom and connectred via a timer switch. Overall cost usually of the order of £20.

Don't blind them with the science of change-ringing, emphasise that success hinges on good team work.

You don't really need to spend money to recruit ringers. As I mentioned earlier, I found 4 recruits by talking about ringing for last year's Royal Jubilee on the local FB page. On a previous occasion I arranged to put a small display in the window of a regional building society - they like to have something unusual to attract attention to their otherwise rather bland savings adverts.

Our tower is quite accessible. Most summers we have a tower open day in August on a Sunday afternoon. There is no attempt to recruit although we usually have plenty of promo material on show and often run a very brief Ppt display on an endless loop. Visitors can visit the bells, see the clock mechanism and, in small groups, go on the roof to take photos across the roofs of the town. Then a few weeks later in early/mid September we will have a recruitment evening with ringing demo's and an opportunity for visitors to try their hands at a few pulls. We quite deliberately say nothing (unless asked) about change-ringing as we don't want to blind them with science.

We have has up to 180 visitors on the Sunday afternoon Tower Open Day; up to a dozen or more at the September recruiting night and most years we win two or three new recruits who stay the course and join the Sunday Service band. Probably not many towers are as accesible as ours, but most should be able to work out a local variation of the plan to suite their circumstances.

"Success breeds success", as someone wiser than me once remarked. The death or demise of ringing is not the right peg on which to hang a recruiting story. Very few people want to join a failing organisation. Look for the positive spin every time. Rather than 'ringing is on its last legs at Saint XX's church' try 'St XX's bellringerrs now have vacancies for new members'.
Our last recruiting drive was based on 'Do you want to say that you rang for the Queen's Jubilee? Join us - we'll teach you'. This brought in 4 adult recruits, 2 of whome have stayed the course and joined our regular Sunday Service band. 'Ring for the King' should be just as effective if it is promoted with positivity and imagination.

Aha! Happy memories of St Hilda's Church - 'over the border' in the depths of darkest dockland. After the church was declared redundant and stripped bare, a 'last ring' on the bells was arranged before the church was demolished. Part way through the session, on a Saturday afternoon, the police arrived and advised the ringers to terminate the meeting. Apparently the ringing was disturbing the sleep of the local ladies who worked a 'horizontal night shift' and a large crowd of their burly 'best friends' was milling around outside the church and threatening to sort out the ringers! The ringers were escorted to safety by the police.

St Hilda's Bells are now an 'architectural feature in Middlesbrough's modern town centre, standing opposite All Saints Church and with a pre-programmed touch of Erin Triples to drive their electro-magnetic 'bell sloggers'.

[img]http://St Hilda's bells opposite All Saints Church Middlesbrough.jpg[/img]

This happened 30 years ago in MIddlesbrough. The congregation diminished as the old urban terraced housing was replaced with new developments of car showrooms and light industrial units. The congregation of around 30 decamped to the adjacent church hall and the church was deconsecrated and sold. The single bell was retrieved and transferred to a neighbouring church.

I suggest that you contact SARABEC of Middlesbrough. They specialise in hearing loops and supply simple self-install kits for around £100. I have had an LA240 Loop system in my living room for over a decade.

Sarabec used to have an infra-red based system that requires the hearing aid user to wear an infra-red receiver. This eliminates any cross-interference with your existing church induction loop. The receiver is worn on a lanyard and must be in line of sight with the transmitter. Perhaps their latest Blue-Tooth system serves the same purpose.

Sarabec have always been most helpful and, as you have an existing system, it may be worth talking to them. https://www.sarabec.com/

"Has anyone tried taking a display along to a local community event"

A few years ago, we made up a set of three A2- sized (24" x 18" approx) display boards and arranged for them to be displayed in the 'shop window' of a local buidling society. They were happy to put them on display as it was 'something different' and attracted passers-by to pause and look in the window.

The 'selling points' were a little of the heritage and the fellowship of ringing along with the idea of maintaining a local service - nothing technical at all. I recall we gained 3 or 4 recruits over the weeks, a couple of whom stayed with us.