Ringing Forums

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.

How many ringers taught in the south west from down get as far as ringing call changes without ever having set a bell? Does that happen?

As was said on this thread of another, if one of your early hires is a professional fundraiser it might be self fulfilling. British Cycling managed to raise about £1m in order to increase participation and they haven't looked back.

I remember a couple of people when they were elected to the St Martin's Guild and asked for their £10, assuming it was a monthly subscription and then being very surprised to find it wasn't!

One aspect of surveyng ringers and the state of ringing that I have been thinking about is the age bands that you might wish to specify. It is easy to just fall into blocks of 10 or 20 years but I think there are much more relevant blocks. Some things are not quite about age anyway – more about circumstances.

The first group is those who learned when still in full time education. You might subdivide that into those who learned before the age of about 12, but after that it really doesn’t matter. Learning while still studying gives a big advantage.

After that, I don’t think it much matters what age you learn at or are between post education and retirement, although you might cut a line at about 40, being a generation above the school age people.

Then post retirement isn’t so much about actual age as about the fact you’re retired. Someone who had retired while still in the fifties is different to someone who is still working in their 60s, e.g. they have more time to spare.

So I wonder whether, depending on what exactly you want to know, age brackets could be rather more nuanced.