With winter very much here again and snow forecast for tomorrow, calling this a winter edition would be most appropriate. Anyway, in part five, I described some of the things we get up to, including socials, outings etc and in part four, I gave a more technical view into change ringing and a bit about its origins. This time, I shall return to the subject from part four and continue to delve deeper into change ringing, what it is all about and how it is put into practice in the tower.
Last time, I mentioned early authors and development of
the ideas of how to ring sequences of changes and the use of the “blue
line” to describe a bell’s path through the other bells. I gave
an example of a line for what is known as “plain hunt” where
each bell follows the others through the sequence until arriving at its
“home” position. Here is that same line reproduced on the left
for reference:
2 1 4 3 6 5
2 4 1 6 3 5
4 2 6 1 5 3
4 6 2 5 1 3
6 4 5 2 3 1
6 5 4 3 2 1
5 6 3 4 1 2
5 3 6 1 4 2
3 5 1 6 2 4
3 1 5 2 6 4
1 3 2 5 4 6
1 2 3 4 5 6
I also explained that a piece of ringing must begin and
end with “rounds” that is with the sequence or “row”
123456 etc. In the example on the left, this is the case and the whole
piece lasts a brief
12 rows which would take about 20 seconds to ring.
This is of course a bit repetitive and all too brief. I would also introduce
the term “lead” that is the changes that occur while the treble
bell passes all the way through the other bells and returns to the “lead”
position. So, to extend the ringing, an alteration is introduced to ensure
that the last row of each “lead” differs from the first. In
this case, the “3” stays in 2nds place for an extra row, blocking
the path of the other bells and making them “dodge” that is
to reverse their direction for one row. The whole lead is then repeated
with each bell following the path of the others in turn until, after 5
leads, rounds finally appears.
2 1 4 3 6 5
2 4 1 6 3 5
4 2 6 1 5 3
4 6 2 5 1 3
6 4 5 2 3 1
6 5 4 3 2 1
5 6 3 4 1 2
5 3 6 1 4 2
3 5 1 6 2 4
3 1 5 2 6 4
1 3 2 5 4 6
1 3 5 2 6 4
Because of a particular rule such as this one being applied with the paths consequently altered, this has now become a “method” and this one is the simplest of all, known as “Plain Bob”. As can be seen from the last row, the 3 is in 2nds place, the 5 in 3rds place and so on. This now extends the ringing from 12 to 60 rows. Further changes can then be applied to allow the piece to last up to the full “extent”, which for 6 bells is 720 changes (6 x 5 x 4 x 3 x 2 x 1). More on that next time, when I shall explain how this is achieved, how the ringers know what to do without losing their way, and how it is controlled or “conducted”.
But
now I’d like to let you know what we have been up to since the last
edition. In November, as stated in the last issue, we rang a peal of Stedman
Triples on Remembrance Saturday. Half muffled of course and this was a particularly
nice piece of ringing. Over the Christmas period, it was “business
as usual” with ringing for all the usual services including midnight
mass and the nursery school and crib services. We had our usual Christmas
outing which saw us ringing at Abingdon and surrounding towers as well as
visiting White’s Bellhangers factory at Appleton, where there is a
miniature belfry for us to try out. The bells of this “mini-ring”
are handled in the same way as tower bells except that the ringer has to
adapt the technique to a bell weighing only a few pounds instead of several
cwt. Anyway, a good day out and a good ring was had by all. With New Year
out of the way, our attention is now focussed on our forthcoming “Quarter
Peal Week” in February which is being held across the Newbury Branch
and aims to ring quarter peals at all.
Mark Robbins