Index

A-Z Ringing Terminology

The aim of this series of article is to explain some of the mysterious terms used by ringers. Words in Italics indicate terms that will be explained in future issues.

'B'

Bearing

All bells rotate on two bearings. These days the majority of bells are hung on roller or ball bearings which require virtually no preventative maintenance. A few bells remain on old fittings with plain (brass) bearings. These require oiling regularly to ensure the bells remain easy to ring and to prevent excessive bearing wear.

Bell

Most of you should understand this one! Bell metal is normally about 80% copper, 20% tin although there are a handful of Steel bells (these sound awful!).

Before

Is a calling position. In most methods it is where the tenors (7 and 8 for Major) are on the front but left in the same relative position after the call. In Grandsire a before is when the observation bell is about to make thirds.

Before bell

The bell coursing before you in the coursing order.

Bob

A call made by the conductor during method ringing which changes the relative order of the bells. Usually the effect of a bob is to rotate three bells in the coursing order.

Bob Doubles

One of the simplest and oldest methods, usually the first learnt after plain hunt. Bob Doublesis rung on five bells and involves 4 different items of work separated by plain hunt. These items of work are - 2nds, 34 down dodge, 4 blows behind, 34 up dodge. The plain course is 40 changes long. The extentis 120 changes and requires 3 bobs.

Box

This is not something worn by male ringers to protect themselves from long tail ends! A box is used to stand on when the rope is too short to reach. All good ringing chambers should have a selection of boxes of different heights.

Bristol

One of the Standard Eight Surprise methods. Bristol can be rung on any even number of bells on, or above eight and is considered as one of the more difficult standard methods. I was once told to remember Bristol Major as Frontwork-Stedman-Stedman-Teapot-Dodge-Lightning! (not to be recommended)

Broken stay

Something to avoid! If you bump the stay to hard you will break it. The bell can then continue to rotate in the same direction winding up the rope. This is about the only time you must let go of the tail end (else you will get hauled up towards the ceiling).

Method of the 'Month'/ Brailsford Practices.

The two methods chosen for this issue are Durham S. Minor and Stedman Doubles. These are the special methods for the March Brailsford Practice. Brailsford Practices are held reguarly on the 3^rd Monday at 7.30.

Durham Surprise Minor

Durham is a simple variation of London S Minor. The thirds in 5ths place bell is replaced with another full lead. To compensate 3rds and 6ths place bell make an additional blow in thirds and only lead for a point blow.

4^th place bobs are used. 4ths is made from the back which can catch you out if you are not prepared. If you run out you become 3rds place bell - i.e. immediately make 3rds before doing a fish tail behind. If you have just made 3rds at the end of 6ths place bell you run in and become seconds place bell.
 

Stedman Doubles

Stedman is actually a principle. i.e. all the bells do the same thing (there is no hunt bell). It is important to learn the line well since it has some suprises in it the first time you ring it. It is essential to learn which leads are made right and which are made wrong, (a lead right is where the first blow in lead is at handstroke, a lead wrong is where the first blow in lead is at backstroke). Various terms are used to describe the different bits of the line and these are marked on the blue line above.

Only singles are used in Stedman Doubles. They cause the two bells dodging at the back to make a place. If you are about to strike your first blow in 5ths at the call you make 'cats ears'. If you have already done the first half of the backwork then you do 'viaducts'.

After a single you go back in to the front the same way as you came out. i.e. if you did the quick work last time you do the quick work again; if you did the slow work last time you do the slow work again.

Derby District Peal Day.

Three peals were attempted this year for the DDA Derby District peal day. In the morning a peal of Plain Bob Minor was rung at Brailsford with two first peals included, a good effort by those involved. At the same time eight ringers were competing against a brass band at Tutbury. In the end the peal band won through completing a peal of Yorkshire S Major. The afternoon was less successful when the attempt at Belper only lasted a short while before mistakes caused an early end to the peal. Not to worry, since the band then retired for a drink in a local pub (after finding all the tea shops closed) and a chance to complete their Christmas shopping.

MUSIC IN RINGING - Part 2

What ringing music is not.

Obviously ringing is meant to sound pleasant in some way, but is it really music? After all, what is music? It's usually something to do with melody - but ringing certainly doesn't generate the sort of melodies you go home whistling; for a start, you can't have variations in rhythm (not on purpose anyway!) or repeated notes. Music normally has harmony - but harmony involves playing more than one note at once and we ringers don't do that, do we? Music is generally expressive of some sort of emotion - but how can something as mechanical and systematic as ringing possibly be expressive?

Ringing music is something quite different from 'normal' music. It is constrained by certain rules, such as the fact that each note must sound once but not more than once in each 'phrase' of melody, and it is generated by systems that are sort of mathematical. All the same, you can find melody, harmony and even expression in ringing.

Melody

Tunes! Ringing doesn't have tunes as such, but is constantly developing its own special kind of melody. You are probably familiar with rounds, Queens, Tittums and Whittington's. They are considered to be notably attractive changes and you can soon learn to recognise them when they arise in call changes. With a bit of practice you can spot them in methods too. Every 120 of Plain Bob Doubles (with a cover) has Queens, Tittums and Whittington's in it (as well as all the other changes). Try listening for them when you are sitting out or covering if you haven't a spare brain cell for it when you're ringing inside. Listen to all the changes. You will hear bits of upward scales and downward scales, rows with the odd numbered bells doing Queens and the even numbered bells doing something different, rows that remind you of Tittums but aren't, rows that are sort of familiar but upside-down...... - all sorts of delights.

If you are ringing call changes you have time to get used to each row and savour it - so enjoy it. In method ringing the order of the bells changes at every pull so the row is gone as soon as you've heard it. It develops - changes shape - into something else, which develops again and so on. Every musical phrase generated in this way is unique and fleeting, but the overall effect is pleasantly consistent. Different methods develop from one row to the next in a different way and this can produce a different overall melodic effect. For example, in a method with a lot of dodging you might be able to hear a certain combination of some of the bells repeating every other change for a while.

Overseale Christmas meal.
 

The Overseale Christmas meal was to take place at the Navigation Inn at Overseale on Monday 20th December, but first we had to do our ringing practice to work up an appetite and a thirst, of course.

We finished our practice half an hour early and all headed for the Navigation. There was around ten of us which included some of the Derby Cathedral lot, complete with party hats!

The meal was lovely and some of us even had a pudding! yum yum! Lots of
photographs were taken including several of Santa's little helper - a person
in a red santa hat - I wonder who that was?.......

........Oh yes it was the one and only tower captain of Overseale - Eleanor Evans - she had had several baileys by the time this picture was taken.

Ha Ha!

Everyone really enjoyed themselves and it was nice that we all got together for a Christmas meal and a laugh, something we look forward to every year.

T Wykes

Probability Puzzle.

After a lost peal of Stedman Triples the other day one member of the band commented that when she was attempting to call Stedman Triples it took quite a few attempts to safely negotiate it to the end of a peal. She went on to say that the average length of all the attempts was about 1½ hours. Assuming critical mistakes (e.g. fire ups, miss calls etc.) occur at random and the length of a full peal to be 3 hours how many attempts would you expect it to take before scoring a peal? (Also, assume that the band doesn't get any better with each attempt).

Some members of the band have also attempted peals of Stedman silent and non conducted. These have been even shorter with the average length of an attempt being only 20 minutes. Making the same assumptions as before how many attempts would you expect it to take before scoring a peal.

Christianity.

Congratulations to those ringers who have already rung celebratory peals and quarter peals in their churches - especially those who managed to do so on New Year's Day. Brailsford deserves a special mention as their New Year's Day quarter was not only by a band of under 21s, but also it was the first ever all Brailsford band quarter peal.

Several people have kindly agreed to arrange quarters and/or peals during the year - please can I urge them to try and do this in the first half of the year, so that we have a better chance of meeting the target of at least one quarter and one peal in every tower. If you are arranging a peal or quarter, try to include as many local ringers as possible and also try to publicise the reason for the ringing locally, so that parishioners know what the bells are ringing for. Remember to put the footnote: "Rung to celebrate 2000 years of Christianity."

When you have rung one of these special quarters, please inform Caroline Peverett, who will arrange for a "certificate" to be prepared and who will also send the quarter (plus donation, if enclosed) to "The Ringing World". If a ringer has rung his or her first quarter, then Caroline will arrange for a "First Quarter" certificate, and, if the person's address is also sent to her, she will arrange for a complimentary copy of "The Ringing World" to be sent to the successful first quarter ringer. In the same way, Anthony Cotton will deal with information about peals. Caroline's and Anthony's addresses can be found on page 5 of the 1998 Annual Report. Please state if you would like Caroline/Anthony to send details to the Ringing World - to avoid the risk of any duplication.

Pat Halls.

Raising and Lowering Course.
 

On Saturday 16th October, 6 brave souls from Sutton on the Hill and neighbouring Longford split into 3 pairs and went off to towers in Belper, Ockbrook and Newhall to practice (and hopefully improve at) 'Raising and Lowering in Peal'.

Two of us set off to Newhall. We had to check the map to find out where Newhall was and then with the aid of map and many different sets of helpful directions we started out.

We were both feeling like children going for their first day at a new school - we had a serious case of butterflies. However despite all of this, we arrived early and waited in trepidation for the 2 o'clock start time. There were a few people about carrying things into church, presumably for the course, and we did not take too much notice until we saw a strange white metal contraption being carried in - was this some instrument of torture to make you keep your place whilst ringing up and down? (It actually turned out to be a book case!).

When we finally made it into church and located the bells, we found that we need not have worried, everyone was very friendly and helpful. At Newhall there are 6 bells, and there were 4 of us there to learn and 7 willing helpers, many of whom had already suffered a morning session. Therefore at each attempt, there were a maximum of 2 inexperienced ringers in the team on the middle bells. Most people managed to have a rest at some point.

On my first attempt, I managed to get my bell up alright ( although it could not be said that I kept in rounds all the way up!). I was just congratulating myself on managing this and getting ready for a rest when the leader called out 'downwards' and without further ado we were ringing the bells straight back down again!

On my second attempt, someone bravely stood beside me to offer advice on keeping in place. However, partly due to poor technique and also to the very small space around my rope, I was having a lot of trouble with my rope flapping wildly. My helper did his best to put me right, but I managed to pin him in the corner and very nearly lasso him! In addition, when my rope flapped the other way, it got muddled with that of my neighbour, we did fortunately end up pulling our own sallies.

After almost 2 hours, refreshments were mentioned and much negotiation took place as to who'se turn it was to ring next and more importantly who was resting next and therefore who was able to have first go at the coffee.

During the course we were interested to see that there was something for everyone to learn, as some of the experienced ringers were giving advice and practice on leading the raising and lowering. We kept smiling bravely through our 6 tries at raising and lowering together, despite getting tired and our hands starting to get sore. On my last attempt I was pleased with how I had got on, but I found not only had I a few blisters, I was bleeding! Our leader was shocked and declared that he had never drawn blood before. I must admit to leaving bloodstains on the rope at Newhall as evidence of how hard we had tried to master this new skill.

Despite the hard work, we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and the improvement was seen and heard by both helpers and trainees (we could not have got any worse!). We all went back more confident to have a go at our own towers and hope the residents of Sutton on the Hill will soon be hearing an improvement in our technique, with 6 Sutton ringers on these courses we really have no excuse now!

Carolyn Geer - Sutton on the Hill

Peals

With the peal on January 1st 2000 at Derby Cathedral, Gordon Halls joined the select group of ringers who have rung 2000 peals. Because of his illness during the latter part of 1998 and subsequent major operation, this milestone gave him even greater pleasure as at one time he thought he would never ring again, never mind ring peals.

The band for the peal more or less chose itself - Gordon had announced after a quarter peal one Sunday evening during the autumn that he was hoping to ring his 2000th peal on January 1st and he asked if anyone present would like to ring - and much to his surprise, everyone said "Yes!" He chose to ring Derbyshire S. Royal - the wisdom of that choice being doubted by some as no-one in the band would have got to bed before 2.00 a.m. that day and many a lot later and most would have had rather more than usual to drink. However, in the event a creditable peal was rung to the delight of all concerned. Celebrations afterwards included drinking a bottle of Bucks Fizz left over from the previous evening's over indulgences.

During his peal ringing career Gordon has endeavoured to ring peals in as many ten bell towers as possible - this is rather like trying to fill a bucket with a hole in the bottom - ten bell towers he has pealed are augmented to twelve and all the time new tens are being announced. So far he has rung peals on 222 different peals of ten - but the number left to ring on seems to be increasing almost weekly.

The 2000 peals have been rung in 592 different towers with 1330 different ringers. He has rung 1078 peals with his wife Pat, 383 with David Sansum and 379 with Jack Chadwick. Gordon has conducted 775 peals. At one time he had pealed all the ringable towers in Derbyshire with six or more bells, but since the augmentation of Elton and the re-casting of Bamford, he needs to ring peals at both of those towers.

In case anyone should imagine that ringing so many peals leaves no time for anything else, it should be noted that he has also been Diocesan Bell Adviser for the last 33 years, during which time he has inspected most of the ringing peals and many of the single bells in the Diocese, in addition to being Ringing Master of St. Peter's Derby for 25 years.

Pat Halls

DDA Web Site - http://homepage.virgin.net/derby.da

Information is wanted for the Association web site. Please write a small piece about your tower and include your email address so visitors can contact you. If you have a tower/church web site tell me what it is and I'll include it!

Forthcoming Events

11^th March - Striking competition heats at Newhall 2pm. Afternoon ringing at Overseal (8) 2.30-4.45 followed by tea/results at Overseal 5pm. Evening ringing Winshill (6) 6.30-8.30pm.

8^th April - Evening ringing at Morley (3) 6.30-7.15 and Breadsall (8) 7.30-9.00pm. The ringing at Breadsall will concentrate on standard surprise major methods. If you wish to try ringing something new come along having learnt it.

15^th April - AGM - afternoon ringing at Ticknall (10) 3.00-4.00 pm, Hartshorne (6) 3.45-4.45 pm and Repton (8) 4.30-5.00 pm. Then service, tea, meeting and further ringing at Repton.

13^th May - Evening ringing at Belper (8) 7.00-9.00 pm. The focus of this event will be easier triples methods (Plain Bob, Grandsire etc.). Come and have a go if you want to gain experience on eight.