Bell Ringing!
aka What I get up to on Wednesday nights…
This is also what I get up to on a Wednesday night and Sunday morning.
Quarter Peal
Okay, where do I start, I guess the date of my quarter peal would be useful. It was Sunday 30th December 2012, I had already rung for the morning service that day. The quarter peal was for our Vicar as it was his second to last service in Banwell before he moved to Dunster. You, Dunster parish are very lucky to have John as your Vicar.
Anyhow back to the quarter peal, we were to start at 14:30hrs and ring for 45 minutes. A quarter peal is when there is approximately over 1200 changes.
I have previously done 3 quarter peals on 6 bells but this turned out to be my first successful quarter peal on 8.
The method we rung was Grandsire Triples, I rang the treble (first bell) and I had to ensure I rang to 7th place and back for the full 45 minutes. This may sound easy but counting to 7 and back gets a bit repetitive, so I started thinking what a bell should do when a ‘bob’ or a ‘single’ is called.
My big disadvantage was I could see the clock behind the 3rd bell which meant I kept knowing how long we rang. It was torture my head would say ‘that’s 5 minutes’ … ‘that’s 1/3 rung’ … ‘15 minutes left to go’. Really not that useful to know when you are getting hot or a blister on your finger or scared you are going to mess up at the last.moment.
I am pleased I have rung a quarter peal on 8 but I am in no rush to do another one. Do not get me started on Peal’s, all I will say is crazy crazy people.
Ringing outing and goals to achieve
Kington Magna 5bell tower 12cwt. Not able to ring as stuck at Gillingham’s children’s carnival. Carnival was pretty cool to be honest but still a 5 bell tower would of been fun to. We emailed to apologise in the hope he reads it either in time or just after. Sorry mister this was not planned.
Made it when we’re supposed to be leave. Mid floor ring. Heavy set treble (need to eat my weetabix) help to get out. Lovely sound and lovely ring, rehung 2 years ago. open into the church. Light pretty church. All saints
St. Peter and St. Paul 8bells, charlton Hawthorne 8 bells. 11cwt. Rang on a box. Treble to bob doubles. Lovely sound and an awesome set of bells to ring.
Bell ringing gives me an adrenaline rush each an every time I ring being it on my own tower or in a new tower.
Goals to be achieved by Oct 2013:
1) ring up/down in peal,
2) ring a touch inside of Grandsire Doubles
3) ring a touch of Steadman with me being an effected bell.
Banwell ringers do a bell ringing outing each year. This used to be a coach trip but for the last few years it has had to be a car trip.
So yesterday, Saturday 6th October 2012 on a sunny day leaving home at 08:00hrs to not return till 20:00hrs.
I tried to blog about the first tower yesterday but it seems Tumblr was having a maintenance day.
The first tower was in Wincanton. St. Peter and St. Paul Church with 8 bells that weighed 15cwt. This tower was a lovely start of the day.
The bells were really nice to ring and also sounded really nice. My only negative about these bells was one of the bells was a bit lumpy bumpy whilst ringing.
The second tower was at Stoke Trister. Which is the blog that did load up yesterday.
I will be back in the morning to write up about the other 4 towers.
Happy reading and thank you.
This picture is of St Andrews Church in Stoke Trister. This is another ground floor ring of 6 bells of 7cwt.
Wincanton Church bells weighs 15cwt.
After we left Wincanton to come to Stoke Trister, managed to get us lost and ended up in Gillingham. The country side made up for the little detour of missing a very small road sign. Oops.
The bells here are really nice to ring and also sound lovely too.
The church is a lovely little church but there is not much to look at, except the ringing chamber at the back of the church.
Happy reading and thank you.
As you can tell, I have just returned from Venice. Which was totally amazing and I loved the time that I spent there. Whilst being in Venice I learnt there is more the 200 churches and I took loads of pictures of random churches and their bell towers.
Where I was staying we could hear St Mark’s Campanile tower chiming away, sometimes it would be helpful and inform you what the time was. Whilst other times it seemed to just let you know a service was about to start.
I have uploaded some pictures of the bells that I saw in Venice. The most special ones from me was the bells from St Marks Campanile as you was very up close to them, also they got an amazing view of Venice.
Interesting fact - ‘You cannot see a single canal from the Bell Tower in St Mark’s Square’.
Happy Reading and Thank You.
First coach tour - 6th October 2007
This was my first coach outing with the bell ringers ans as you are aware I only started ringing in the August 2007, so I was still fairly new at ringing. I do not remember much about these bells except that the ropes were very long, I was nervous and in one of the towers was a sign that said ‘do not adjust the ropes’. Also at this stage I think I was ringing rounds and call changes.
I remember all the churches being in the Devon-shire area and it being a long day with ringers and non-ringers. We rang at 6 towers that day and I am going to show you pictures of these churches with there credentials about each church.
1st tower was a 6 bell tower called Saint Mary Church and this was in Molland, the weight of the tenor is 14-1-24 in G.
2nd tower was another 6 bell tower called All Saints Church in North Molton, the weight of the tenor is 19-0-0 in E flat.
3rd tower in Swimbridge was another 6 bell tower called Saint James Church where the ringing was on the ground floor and the weight of tenor being 11-3-3 in G#.
4th bell tower of the day was in Pilton and this was a 8 bell tower called Saint Mary the Virgin Church, the tenor weight is 23-2-25 in D.
5th bell tower was another 8 bell church called Saint Peter in Tawstock, the tenor weight is 16-3-20 in E.
The 6th and final tower of the day was in Chittlehampton called Saint Hieretha Church with 8 bells and the tenor’s weight of 13-0-15 in F#.
Happy reading and thank you.
Special Occasions to ring
St Mary Magdalen, Berrow Church has 6 bells and 121/2cwt. On a very sunny day on the 5th July 2008 I had the great pleasure of competing in my first striking compertition. Unfortunately we did not do very well but I did not mind as I did not know what to expect.
I rang at this cosy tower in 21st June 2008. This is St Andrews Church in Compton Bishop that has 6 bells, which weighs 11-2-7. I have only rang here once and that was for the Tower Captains son. We rang at the beginning and the end of the wedding.
One thing went wrong at this wedding but it was nothing to do with the ringing. The thing that went wrong was the Pianist had the time wrong so the bride had to walk into the church with Morris music. Which in my opinion made it even more special for the bride and groom.
Quarter Peals
I have rang for two successful quarter peals since starting ringing, I am not an individual who would want to ring a full peal as that would mean standing still for 3 1/2 hours, whereas a quarter peal takes approx. 45mins more of my concentration span. Both of my quarter peals have been in Banwell Tower on the front six bells.
My first quarter peal was on 29th March 2009, where I trebled of Grandsire and Bob Doubles. I was so nervous when I rang this quarter peal I could feel myself shaking and throughout the whole process I was counting to fifth place and back.
Whereas my second quarter peal I rang the second bell of the front six to Plain Bob Doubles.This was much more comfortable as I was ringing a bell that had to do dodges and ensure I was in the correct place throughout. The only negative of this was that throughout the ringing I could see the clock and kept thinking come on how has only 5 minutes passed. :)
Happy reading and thank you.
Ringing in the New Year
I first rang in the New Year at the end of 2007. This was the magical experience I have ever had. My parents surprised me by turning up to Banwell Tower at 23:50 hrs to watch me ring the 4th Bell.
As I sit here I can still remember how I felt hearing the tenor dong twelve times before we all started ringing rounds. One of the fellow ringers called call changes and I could see that my mum had tears running down her face at how proud she was of me ringing.
I have been able to ring in every New Year since 2007 and last year I was in charge of the ringers. This is such a unique and wonderful experince to be in charge of a bunch of very established ringers. I kept it simple as we were ringing the 10 bells so I did call changes.
Happy reading and thank you.
