A Beginner's guide to church bell ringing

Contents

Introduction

Church bell ringing is a fascinating and absorbing activity, which is good for both mild exercise and mental stimulation. It also provides the ringer with the satisfaction of knowing that they are maintaining tradition not just by supporting the Church but also by ringing for secular events and major national occasions.

Although the activity might appear to the casual observer as fairly straightforward, developing the necessary skills to ring in a satisfying way should keep you occupied for some time to come. Many ringers start young and ring for decades whilst others take up the activity later in life or return after long periods of absence.

This guide is intended to give the complete novice an idea of what to expect when learning to ring. It will take time and patience, but as you pass the various stages of development your confidence will grow.

Safety Considerations

Fortunately accidents within the bell ringing community are rare. However there is a great deal of energy in a ringing bell, so good safety practices should always be maintained. The following simple rules should contribute to the safety of all:

Sally Tail: Down Knot & Up Knot

Terminology

Some terms you will frequently come across whilst you are ringing:

Bell handling

Most of us are familiar with small bells hung with their mouths pointing downwards with loose clappers. This type of bell hanging arrangement whilst common does not provide for great accuracy of the strike note. For this reason our forebears identified that if the bell was rung through a full circle the time at which the clapper contacted the bell could be closely controlled. In this way it is possible to have multiple bells rung sequentially without their individual notes overlapping.

To achieve this full circular motion the bell is fitted with a large diameter wheel to which a rope is attached. Reference to the diagrams will show that the bell can be parked (stood) pointing almost directly upwards using the stay and slider mechanism to prevent it continuing to rotate. When starting the bell's motion the ringer is initially pulling the rope to lift the bell over the point of balance where it is pointing directly upwards, once past this point the bell will drop under the influence of gravity until it points directly downwards and is travelling at approximately 20 mph before starting to slow down as it continues past the directly downwards position and returns to pointing upwards. Apart from starting the bell's motion, very little effort is required from the ringer as the bell's motion is a full circle pendulum with the ringer only inputting sufficient energy to overcome frictional losses.

When the ringer pulls on the rope it will move downwards until the point where it passes through the large wheel is closest to the small pulley in the bottom of the bell pit. After this the rope will start to move upwards as the bell continues its rotation and the rope starts to wrap round the large wheel in the opposite direction. A rope can only be pulled (pushing it simply results in a loop of loose rope which can be very dangerous if it catches on anything). Initially the ringer is inputting energy to the bell until the direction of the rope on the wheel reverses

The 'Stay' will prevent the bell from going very far beyond the upright position, but the ringer should not allow the bell to hit the stay, as this could damage or break it. This is controlled by the amount the ringer pulls on the rope. Too little initial pull will mean the bell will not be swinging through the full circle whilst too much will require the ringer to apply a braking pull to prevent damage to the stay. All of ringing is based on these pulls being effectively coordinated which requires careful tuition and experience.

Once the bell has reached the top of the stroke, it may be pulled back in the opposite direction to return to its original position.

The diagrams show that the bell has two strokes the one on the left showing a bell set at handstroke with the rope wound around the bottom left hand quarter of the wheel. When the ringer pulls the sally the bell rotates anti-clockwise and continues to rotate until it reaches the position shown in the right hand diagram at which stage the rope is wound over the top of the wheel. The diagram shows how the sally is now much further up and the ringer only has the tail end with which to start the backstroke pull rotating the bell in a clockwise direction.

An animated demonstration of Rounds on Five

Initial training will start with a number of simple exercises to familiarise the trainee with the arm motions required. These are important as it is imperative that the rope is pulled steadily, consistently and above all straight down. Jerky pulls or those which are not straight result in the rope dancing around. This not only makes it hard for the ringer to catch the sally (the tail end is never normally released) but can also result in ropes being tangled with neighbouring ringers or ropes catching on things.

Different tutors have their own approaches, however, all will start with the the trainee having the backstroke (see diagram on the right) whilst they manage the more complex catching, pulling and release of the sally. Full mastery of the backstoke may take several lessons whilst the tutor assesses the trainees competence at delivering a steady pull and a steady brake such that they can consistently and routinely set the bell at backstroke when asked to do so. This feel of the bell as it passes the balance point and is controlled to the stand position, is crucial to all ringing as it is this which provides the opportunity to slightly pause the bell whilst allowing others to move in front in the sequence. Meanwhile the bell trying to move forwards in the sequence will need to ring more quickly. After reaching a satisfactory standard controlling the backstoke, your instructor will change over with you, so that you are now pulling the 'Sally' and the instructor is pulling the 'Tail'. You will be shown how to pull the 'Handstroke' a shorter distance than the 'Backstroke' and to let go just before the 'Sally' starts to rise.

Once you are confident with the two strokes, your instructor will let you ring the bell on both strokes, but still under supervision. It will take you some time to judge how much, or preferably, how little you need to pull the bell rope and to maintain a smooth rhythm. As you progress, your instructor will show you how to speed up or slow down the rate of ringing, to allow you to ring in time with the rest of the team.

Listening is also an essential part of bell ringing as you need to hear that you are striking the bell at the right time. Watching the rope of the ringer you are following may be a comfort, but is not very reliable if the bell is odd-struck or the other ringer is not very accurate. Perfection is only achieved once all ringers are striking accurately.

Bell Handling Demonstration

The video to the right is a demonstration of bell handling. Note the following:

Whilst there appears to be a lot to think about, most people are able to do some or all of the above during a few sessions of instruction. Your instructor will tell you all of this anyway and try to introduce new ideas one at a time. If at any point you don't feel entirely comfortable that you understand what is required then ask. There is a lot to take in and it is much better to seek clarification rather than take any risks.

Don't feel discouraged if it takes several lessons to master the various techniques involved. Whilst you will always find people who claim they mastered everything in a short time, careful observation of their ringing will often identify weaknesses and they may never master good striking with its requirement for very precise bell control. Time spent developing precise bell control will save enormous frustration at later stages when trying to ring with others (especially method ringing).

Lessons will normally finish with practice at following a single other bell learning to speed up and slow down the pace of the bells. Techniques for doing this will be explained and demonstrated. Ideally at this stage if not already covered you will be taught to raise and lower a bell between the mouth down and mouth up positions.

Ringing Rounds

Once you have gained confidence in bell handling, you will join the team of ringers in rounds, where the bells are rung in sequence from the highest pitched bell to the lowest, then repeating the cycle on the opposite stroke. Your instructor will be standing beside you to advise you to either:

Whilst this may sound relatively easy, it is likely that your brain will be racing, so do not be upset if the bell handling you perfected in the earlier exercise, does not go to plan. Your instructor will be ready to help you out, possibly by asking you for the 'tail'.

Ringing rounds for long periods is often seen as boring for both ringers and listeners but does require considerable skill for the gaps between the bell notes to be evenly spaced. It should be noted that with rounds it is conventional for the first bell (which is said to be leading) to ring with a smaller gap at backstroke than at handstroke in order to break the ringing up into discrete sections. This is itself a complex process to learn as unlike the other bells the leading bell will be at the opposite stoke to the one it is following. Practice with the rest of the band and somebody standing by you to provide coaching tips will be the way to master this aspect of ringing. Again mastery is important as you will see in the sections on method ringing where all bells will take turns at leading.

Call changes

This is similar to rounds, except the bell ringing order will change under instruction from the 'conductor'. To change the order, one bell is slowed down and the bell previously following it is speeded up so they change places within the sequence. Controlling the amount to speed up or slow down is the basis for all bell ringing and conventionally the change of sequence is always notified by the conductor at the handstroke before the change takes effect giving the ringer warning so they can pull their backstroke appropriately to be in the correct sequence at the following handstroke.

Call changes are usually made using the numbers of the bells with conventionally the bell with the highest pitch (treble) numbered as 1 with decreasing pitches numbered sequentially until the heaviest and deepest pitched bell which is referred to as the tenor. Often the tenor bell will always be left as the last bell in the sequence sometimes thought of as being like a drum beating a steady rhythm behind. This concept of ringing sequence is important as ringers rely on the concept of their �place� within the sequence to know their position within method ringing which is the next level of complication after call changes.

Let us suppose you are ringing bell number two and you hear the instruction, 'Two to Three', you will slow your bell down and ring after three, who has speeded their bell up in order to move in front of you. These changes of speed will only apply to a single stroke of the bell as the new sequence will continue until the next call is made.

Similarly, if you hear the instruction 'Three to Two', you will speed your bell up and follow the bell previously being followed by three whilst the three will slow down and ring after you. A kind call changer will most likely assist you at this point by saying immediately after 'Three to Two', maybe 'Two to One'. As you gain more experience, you should take notice of the bell that is being followed by the bell you are following.

Call changes are completed once the conductor brings the bells back to rounds and calls 'Stand'.

To slow a bell down, pull a little harder on the stroke before thus ensuring the bell can swing up to the balance point and be paused momentarily. It does takes some practice to work out how much a 'little' is, but this should have been covered during earlier lessons and practice.

To speed a bell up, catch the 'Sally' or the 'Tail' a little higher pull a little harder and then brake the bell at the following stroke. Catching higher will speed the bell by stopping it from swinging as far as it would otherwise go, but without a corresponding extra pull it will not swing as far at the next stroke, so rather than being quicker for a single stroke and then ringing at the normal speed it will continue to ring faster.

Neither of the speed changing techniques sounds immediately obvious to the beginner, but bear in mind that a ringing bell acts like a child's swing, to make it swing higher, you have to push harder, but it now takes longer to complete a swing cycle. The opposite is true for speeding up, where stopping it short will complete the swing cycle in a shorter period.

Other Methods

Whilst call changes provide the conductor with the opportunity to vary the sequence and hence music of the bells, they are by their nature relatively slow and whilst some bands have perfected very rapid call changes to overcome this, most prefer to ring methods. Methods are constructed around many differing ideas but follow a number of common principles:

  • No bell will ever move more than a single place within the sequence in a single stroke. From this it follows that a bell may either stay in its place or swap with its neighbour either moving forward (ringers call this moving in or down as it is towards the front of the change and the bell will be pulled in or down to speed it up) or moving backward (ringers call this moving out or up as it is towards the back of the sequence when the bell is allowed to ring further up in its swing (held up) to slow it down. The term will also be encountered when referring to pieces of work within a method where up will denote the work as being on the way out to the back and the corresponding term down will be applied to work undertaken on the way down to the front.

  • No sequence can be repeated until all possible sequences have been rung.

  • Methods may be extended by the use of calls to allow all possible sequences to be rung. With 2 bells only 2 sequences are possible but with 3 bells this becomes 6 sequences, 4 bells 24, 5 bells 120, 6 bells 720, 7 bells 5040, 8 bells 40,320 etc.

  • By convention various names are adopted for aspects of the method to assist with learning and the trainee will encounter terms such as dodge and making places clarified by detail of where these actions take place.

    Plain Hunt

    This is the simplest form of method ringing, where the bells perform the same cycle, but will start at different points. The first change will be with everybody who can (with an odd number of bells one person will not be able to change place) changing place with their neighbour. In order to avoid all immediately swapping back to their previous place the next change will leave the bell which has just led leading for a second time whilst all of the others swap again.

    Thus odd numbered places start the cycle by 'holding up' or slowing down and the even numbered places speed up, so that bells change places in pairs. They continue changing places until they are either the first bell in the sequence, or the last bell, in which case they ring one more stroke in the same place in the sequence before reversing the direction they were going in.

    This continues until the conductor calls 'That's all', when you are back in the place you started ringing from in rounds. You should continue to ring in rounds until the conductor calls 'Stand'.

    Note that a plain hunt is dependent on your starting place and not your bell number. Initially it is likely that you will start the plain hunt from rounds, in which case your place number is your bell number, but it is possible to change the place of bells from rounds (see 'call changes') and then start plain hunting. You will need to take notice of your starting place and plain hunt accordingly.

    At the end of the hunt when 'That's all' is called you should be in the same order you were when you started the hunt.

    After mastering Plain Hunt there are a near infinite number of more complex methods which can be tackled. There are plenty of books and web resources available listing these. In practice many ringers will only ever aspire to a limited repertoire as it is better to be able to ring a few methods well with perfect striking rather than having a poor knowledge of a huge number of methods with resultant clashes in the striking as errors are made.

    There are a few method diagrams on this web site which provides some interaction, but the official library of the CCCBR Central Council Methods Library holds a comprehensive range of methods.

    Chris Potter 27th March 2019
    Enhancing an original tutorial by Alan Masters February 2012.