There will be lots of ringing in Swanage during April, including a quarter peal attempt for St George's Day on Wednesday 23rd April at 6.30pm before our normal practice at 7.30.(www.ringingforengland.co.uk).  
If you are on holiday in Swanage over the Easter holidays why not come and join us?  Check out the Tower Noticeboard page and see our ringing programme for the month to find out what's happening when.
There will be no practice during Holy Week, ie on Wednesday 16th April

March 2014

Just to let you know:  I've decided to take some "time out" from writing this regular blog.  I will, however, continue to post announcements - or anything else that takes my fancy from time to time!

Please note there will be NO PRACTICES at Swanage on Wednesday 5th March due to the evening Ash Wednesday Service nor on Wednesday 12th March as that's our AGM.

November 2013

It’s that time of year when, up here in the tower, we get very busy.  November brings us, not only the Remembrance Day services, but the Salisbury Diocesan Guild of Ringers quarter peal week and then December brings us Christmas and all that that entails.

I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before: the aim of the SDGR quarter peal week is not just to encourage quarter peal ringing in general but more specifically to encourage ringers to attempt to ring something they haven’t rung before.  I organised five quarter peals during the week this year, of which we got four and lost one.  Particularly pleasing of these was a first for Martin ringing a “minor” method and for Mike ringing St Martin’s Doubles up at Worth Matravers. 

 November 2013 also sees the tercentenary of the death of Fabian Stedman on 16^th November 2013.  Fabian Stedman is probably the most famous ringer and he had an enormous influence on the development of change ringing by publishing the first books on the subject;  Tintinnalogia in 1668 and which was a joint effort with Richard Duckworth, then in 1677 he wrote and published Campanalogia.    Publication of these two books was Stedman’s most significant contribution to the development of the art of change ringing, but he is better known to modern ringers as the author of a ringing method that bears his name, and which will feature in much of the special ringing to commemorate his death.  Here at Swanage we will be joining in this National celebrations by ringing a quarter peal on Saturday 16^th November of Stedman Triples.

We’ve been going through a remarkably good patch with regard to quarter peal ringing.  As you know, we ring a quarter peal every Sunday night for Evensong – and since 5th May we have scored them all except for two in July and now one in November.  This is quite an extraordinary record!  Long may it continue!  Despite this some of our Wednesday night practice sessions might have been sounding a bit ropey recently as I’ve been introducing new methods for us to ring as part of our “usual repertoire” for Sunday mornings!

As we head towards Christmas and the New Year, I’d like to thank all of you for your continued support, both to me personally and to all the bell ringers as we continue in our efforts to ring for all the services and special events. 

Merry Christmas and a Very Happy New Year from all of us in the Tower!

Swanage Tower Outing - Photos

Photos of the 2013 Swanage & Purbeck Bellringers Outing “Towers on the Thames” which took place on Friday 20th September and Saturday 21st September have now been uploaded to the Swanage Tower website.

October 2013

September saw the Annual Swanage Bellringers Outing.  This year we followed a slightly different format in that we had a two day outing, the theme being “Towers on the Thames from Wallingford to Henley”.

Our first tower was Whitchurch-on-Thames a delightful little church with a wooden spire founded in the 9^th C.  The belfry houses six bells, however, the spire wasn't strong enough to cope with the huge stresses caused by the weight of the bells when they were being rung so to resolve this problem, the Rector turned to an unusual source for help - The belfry now rests on four massive iron pillars manufactured for the church by the workshops of the Great Western Railway. It has to be said the cracks were rather disconcerting as was the movement of the spire as we rang!

We then went to Goring-on-Thames and Streatley.  Goring has a ring of 8 bells and, interestingly, one of the oldest bells in England can be seen inside the church, It was cast about 1290 and bears the Latin inscription: Orate pro petro exoniense episcopo. Richard de Wymbis me fist (Pray for Peter, Bishop of Exeter. Richard de Wymbis made me).  Streatley is an extremely loud ring of 6 – so loud you could hardly hear yourself think.  As is traditional on ringing outings a lovely long lunch was had at a pub in Goring.

The afternoon saw us at the 10 bells tower of St Mary le More in Wallingford followed by the 8 bell tower of St Helen’s, Benson.  The present tower of St Helen’s was completed in 1781 with eight bells hung anti-clockwise in an oak frame.  In 2009 the bells were rehung clockwise in a cast iron frame. This is the only tower I have ever been to which had fresh flowers on the table in the belfry and a luxury plush carpet!  The most interesting feature of the church though is the church clock which has two elevens as the nine was painted upside down in error and appears as a XI!

The second day of our outing started at the 8 bell tower of Wargrave followed by another 8 at Twyford.  I had set a competition for the ringers: “Which tower is the odd one out” to which Twyford was the correct answer (Rachael winning a bar of chocolate!) as it is on the River Loddon rather than the Thames.  Twyford was really quite innovative in that they had a camera on their bells so that when you rang you could see your, and all the other bells actually ringing.   The final tower of the morning was Sonning-on-Thames, a beautiful little village bedevilled by horrendous traffic! Apparently this tower is difficult to “get” so we were very lucky to ring the lovely peal of 8 there. 

We were certainly in need of a rest at this point and another lovely long lunch at a local pub followed.  We then set off for Shiplake, another delightful ring of 8, which is the local ringing centre, followed by Henley-on-Thames.  Henley is where I was born and brought up and was, to me, the one tower I was really looking forward to – however....!  the parking was horrendous, our contact there forgot to come and open up for us and, to top it all the Vicar, who was there with a set of keys, was really rude!  We eventually got in 20 minutes late – and actually it was just as well as the bells were horrid and difficult to ring! 

Our last tower was Mapledurham.  This was a fascinating little church with 6 bells and part of the Mapledurham estate.  The church is of modest size and consists of nave, chancel and south aisle.  The south aisle was built at some date between 1381 and 1395, when Sir Robert Bardolf  of Mapledurham Hosue was buried there.  When the Blount family bought the manor in 1490 the aisle became their burial place and still remains their private property.  It has been railed off from the rest of the church since the Reformation and has uniquely remained in Catholic hands ever since.  Fascinating!

September 2013

Getting ready for our annual Bellringers Outing this weekend it occurred to me that I never finished telling you about the rings of bells abroad.   

The Commonwealth countries have the most number of ringable peals of bells after England and the UK.  This month we’ll take a quick look at Australasia which has 64 peals of bells – 55 in Australia and 9 in New Zealand.  By far the most Australian peals are in New South Wales with Sydney alone (both city and metro) having 13 with another 13 in the country.  Interestingly there are no bells in the north of Australia and only 3 in Queensland.  

The most interesting Australian tower is The Bell Tower, Perth; Home of the Swan bells. This bell tower not only looks like a Swan (see pictures below) but is located overlooking the Swan river. In total there are 18 bells, the most ring of bells in the world.  There is also a separate 26-bells carillon.

 

                                               

Commemorating Australia's bicentenary in 1988, the twelve bells of St Martin-in-the-Fields as well as five specially cast bells were presented to the University of Western Australia, the City of Perth and to the people of Western Australia. The London diocese of the Church of England and the parish of St Martin-in-the-Fields gave authority for the project to proceed. The additional bells cast in 1988 include two from the cities of London and Westminster, who each gifted one bell to the project, and a total of three bells bestowed by a consortium of British and Australian mining companies. Completing the ring of eighteen bells, a sixth new bell was commissioned by the Western Australian Government to mark the second millennium.  The bells from St Martin-in-the-field are recorded as being in existence from before the 14^th century and recast in the 16^th century by Queen Elizabeth 1.  The bells were again recast between 1725 and 1770 under the order of the Prince of Wales who was later crowned as King George II. They are one of the few sets of royal bells and are the only ones known to have left England.

Just quickly nipping over to New Zealand; this has 9 peals of bells – 5 in the North Island and 2 in the South Island – of which 3 are unringable.  The South Island did have 3 rings but during the catastrophic earthquake of 2011 Christchurch Cathedral collapsed taking the tower and its bells with it.  Remarkably these 13 bells were recovered with all but one apparently intact.  They are now in the UK being repaired.  When they return to Christchurch Cathedral - if and when it is rebuilt of something other than cardboard - remains to be seen.

Finally I have to end on a slightly sad note. Attending our practice on Wednesday 28^th August I parked, as usual, in the Churchyard up near the steps. It seems that while I was ringing – or while I was in The Black Swan afterwards – someone parked above me (even nearer the steps) and, either on driving into the space or back out of it, they bumped into the side of my car.  What actually makes me sad is that no note was left on my windscreen, not even an anonymous one!  This person must have known they hit my car and to them I would just like to say that what they thought was a “little bump” is costing me £350 to repair. 

August 2013

Another year, another Flower Festival, another outstanding display.  How I love the flower festival!  There were some stunning floral displays again this year though it has to be said I was particularly chuffed to see bells making an appearance in some of the arrangements and on the pew ends! 

We were delighted, and actually really honoured, to be asked to take part in the festival.  I gave the matter some serious thought and in the end decided it would be nice to both “ ring in” the festival and to ring it “out” by ringing a quarter peal during the first hour it was open on Thursday and another quarter peal during the last hour before it closed on the Sunday. 

 I then set about searching to see if I could find any methods with appropriate sounding names and, for the Thursday, came up with a method called Fuchsia Festival Bob Minor.  None of us had ever heard of it before, let alone rung it!  On the Sunday we rang a quarter of Superlative Surprise Major – as I just knew the festival was going to be “superlative”!  I’m really pleased to say that we scored both of these quarter peals.

The same Sunday night saw the Swanage bell ringers gather for our summer social event – a BBQ.  We were going to hold it on the Saturday night but, having taken heed of the weather forecast of heavy rain and strong winds, postponed it by 24 hours.  Thank goodness we did!  It’s really nice once in a while to just sit and socialise with each other.

We’ve had a few problems with the new tenor bell clapper.  Initially it sounded really nice but after a while developed an unpleasant harsh sound at handstroke though the backstroke retained its pleasant solid “bong”.  We have turned the clapper round through180 degrees because of some uneven wear and it sounds much better again.   It’s thought there was a fault in the casting of the clapper ball and a new one is being cast for us which will hopefully solve the problem.

July 2013

The bell ringers have had a good patch of ringing recently!  We have had quite a few ringers ringing their first quarter peals in certain methods and we have also rung some methods not rung, or rarely rung, at Swanage before.   On top of this the ringing, for the most part, has been of a good standard. 

 

During May we attempted five quarter peals and scored four. These four were all “firsts” for someone.  In June we attempted six quarter peals scoring all six, and of these four of them were “first in methods” for someone.  Particularly pleasing was the quarter peal traditionally rung for the Civic Service. The method we chose this year was Erin Triples. This was a “first in method” for all the ringers and for the conductor and only the second time it has been successfully rung at Swanage, the first time being more than 25 years ago.  What a shame then, and hugely disappointing, to discover later that the Town Band had been playing on the church lawn at the same time.   It must have been a cacophony of sounds - and I understand they carried on playing regardless.  A councillor who was there when the Mayor of Bournemouth arrived for the service tells me that the Mayor said to him “How unusual to have both the Bells and the Town Band at the same time” to which he replied “Swanage in an unusual place”! 

 During the Parish Fete we had the tower open from 12 to 4 and were very busy. I estimate we had over 100 people come up to see us and to have a go at ringing a bell.  Of particular note was an elderly lady whose father had been ringer here in the 1940’s and 50’s.  She remembered vividly being made to sit quietly in our window seat while her father rang.  What a pleasure it was to get her to have a go too - the smile on her face alone made the whole day worthwhile. 

Our next “extra-curricular” ringing will be for the Flower Festival.  On a personal level it was the highlight of my year two years ago and I can’t wait to see what will surely be another stunning display of flowers.

Swanage Tower Outing 2013

The 2013 Swanage Bellringers Outing “Towers on the Thames” will take place on Friday 20th September and Saturday 21st September. Arranged and organised by Swanage Tower Captain, Sally Jenkins, and Richard and Gill Loyd of Blewbury.
For details see: http://www.swanagebellringing.sdgr.org.uk/page86a.html

April 2013

Here we are in April and again, this year, we will be ringing a quarter peal on Tuesday 23^rd April.  Why?  Because it is St George’s Day. 

Back in 2009 a campaign was started to encourage the celebration of St George’s Day by ringing out bells from as many English church towers as possible. The idea was to start ringing at an agreed time on 23rd April - 6pm in the evening - in a collective act of celebration of England, St George and change-ringing.   The Swanage bell ringers felt that this was a campaign worth backing and we have rung a quarter peal on St George’s Day every year since, and including, 2009.

 Bell ringing is universally identified as the quintessential “Sound of England”.  It announces not only our regular church services but Christian feast days and for generations has played an integral part in the Nation's pageantry at times of sadness and joy; notably Coronations, Royal Weddings and momentous events such as the end of the two World Wars. 

Around the world there are approximately 7,100 towers with bells hung for change ringing of which 6,673 are in England.   Quintessentially English?  Definitely!  In case you are interested the distribution is as follows:

•      England                       6,673               New Zealand              9

•      Wales                            226                 South Africa               8

•      Scotland                           20               Africa                          3

•      Ireland                             37                Windward Islands     2

•      Channel Islands             10                India                            1

•      Isle of Man                       2                 Netherlands                1

•      Australia                          55                Pakistan                       1

•      USA                                 44                 Spain                           1

•      Canada                               9

As it happens we have recently had a visiting band from the USA and they told me that most of the towers in the USA are in New England, which makes sense!

The distribution, and bells, of the other countries are very interesting.  No room to go into detail this month but it will form the basis of next month’s “View from the Tower”

Finally I just want to say “Hello” to the Tuesday Group who very kindly invited us to go and talk to them about bellringing at their March meeting.  What a lovely evening we had; thank you all for being so welcoming and appreciative of our efforts to convey what bellringing is and what it means to us.

March 2013

It seems to be “AGM season”.  The bell ringers held their AGM last week and we attempted to make the evening more enjoyable by having wine and nibbles to help us progress through the necessary business.  Personally I find AGM’s rather boring, but necessary, affairs.  TheTower officers remain the same for the next year.   I cannot believe that this is the start of my 4^th year as your Tower Captain.  Where has the time gone?  It also means “View from the Tower” celebrates its 3^rd birthday next month.  When I found myself looking into the effects of weather on ropes the other day I was getting concerned that I might be running out of things to say.  We’ll see!

One item that gets discussed every year (and frequently in between) is the problem of recruitment.  We’ve been relatively lucky this year in that we have had a new ringer join us who is retiring to the area and we have acquired one new learner.  But what to do?  How do we attract people to come and learn to ring?    The aim is to achieve a balance and diversity of skills and age range etc in the band.   Age isn’t important, though it makes a difference to teaching methods used.  The biggest disadvantage of teaching the young is that other things start to compete for their time and then the girls find boys and vice versa!

The ancient art of bell ringing will only continue if we pass it on to others and to another generation. 

We are always happy for people to come up to the tower on our Wednesday practice nights to see us and to watch what we actually do, and you never know, if you do you might just be tempted to have a go and maybe learn to ring!



February 2013

This January seems to have been particularly cold, wet and miserable.  For the first time that we can remember, we had to cancel a planned quarter peal attempt on Sunday 20^th January.  Not only had one of the ringers hurt her hand but then two other ringers were snow bound in Oxford and one other was concerned about black ice, leaving us with just four ringers for an 8 bell quarter peal!  Luckily the regular members of the Swanage band came forward and we were able to do general service ringing for half an hour before Evensong.   

 It might not have occurred to you but bell towers, particularly the ropes, bells etc, are susceptible to the weather conditions outside. 

Traditionally our rope tail ends (the bit below the sally) are made of hemp or flax.  In humid air the natural fibres absorb moisture and swell, making the rope a bit fatter and a bit shorter.  Bell ringers won’t notice the rope being 1% thicker but 1% of a 20 foot rope length is a couple of inches! Even on an the 8-10 foot length below the sally is at least one inch difference, so whereas a couple of weeks ago the rope seemed the perfect length, it might now be too short requiring either the rope to be lengthened or the ringer to stand on a box. 

                      Beware!  Ropes shorten in cold damp weather

In winter the ropes also go stiff which is, again, to do with moisture.  In winter the air humidity is regularly high, and low temperatures do not encourage moist ropes to dry out.  As well as the length change due to the swelling of the rope fibres, the swelling fibres pressing more tightly together make the rope stiff.  Also in very cold weather the absorbed water freezes also making the rope stiff and unmanageable.  Many an idle bell ringer can be found attempting the Indian Rope Trick! 

 On a general basis though, damp stiff ropes and wet sallies are just unpleasant to handle.  At Swanage we are very lucky in having good heaters and ventilation up in the tower, keeping the air dryer and warmer thereby reducing the effects of the weather.  Go to Kingston though and as well as stiff damp ropes and wet sallies you will also find wet green mould running down the walls – lovely!

January 2013

I’m not sure where the time has gone, but it seems only yesterday I thought I had two months before I needed to write another article – yet a reminder email from John Stacey landed in my in-box this morning.

We had a very successful Christmas ringing wise.  It’s always very difficult to get enough ringers over the festive period as either they are away or, if they are at home, they are busy with visitors.  However, not only did we ring all eight bells for the Evensong quarter peal on Sunday 23^rd and two quarter peals on Christmas Eve (for theCrib Service and for the Carols by Candlelight Service), but we had 10/11 ringers in the belfry for service ringing before the midnight service and before the Christmas Day morning service.  Wonderful!  The only fly in the ointment is the fact that I was away so I’m hoping the higher than usual turn out wasn’t because of my absence!

I told you some months ago that we sometimes we dedicate our Sunday night quarter peals to a particular person or event.  Last Sunday (13^th Jan) we were delighted to dedicate the quarter peal to Rev’d Nick Brown on the occasion of his licensing as the new Priest in Charge of St James, Louth which took place on Thursday 10th January 2013."  Nick, as you probably know, is the son of Bill Brown and grew up in Swanage, was in the choir, assistant organist and curate here at St Mary's. 

If you have a special occasion coming up, for example like a Golden Wedding, special birthday or birth of a child/grandchild etc and would like us to dedicate a quarter peal to you then please,  just let me know.

November 2012

One of our most exciting bits of news up here in the Tower this month is that we have a new learner.   Robert has been coming for half an hour before our regular practice for about six weeks now and already can handle a bell on his own.  We are now introducing him to ringing rounds with other ringers and hopefully it won’t be long before he is ringing with the band.  Continuing on the theme of learners;  Mike Jenkins (yes he is related to me) rang a quarter peal of Plain Bob Triples on October 28^th.  This was his first quarter peal “inside” i.e ringing a working bell rather than the treble or tenor.  I also scored my first quarter of Yorkshire Surprise Major on October 21st so there was some celebrating in the Jenkins’ household last month!

 

We are having another good run of successful quarter peals at the moment - 7 without loss so far - the most recent ones being two lovely quarter peals rung half muffled on Remembrance Sunday.  I don’t suppose you noticed but this year we “tolled” the tenor for the few minutes between the end of the quarter peal and the start of the Town Remembrance Service. We think it worked well.

 

As we approach the end of another year all that remains for me to do is to wish all of you, on behalf of all the ringers, a Very Merry Christmas and a Very Happy New Year. 

October 2012

Saturday 6th October2012 was the Swanage Bellringers Annual Outing.  Ringing outings are wonderfully social events and include a day out ringing at 4-5 other towers, and most importantly a long pub lunch.  This year our outing was organised by David Haysom - and David was always going to chose Towers that were “different” in one way or another!  

Sixteen ringers left Swanage at 8am and headed off towards Wiltshire.  Our first tower was St John the Baptist, Horningsham; a small Wiltshire village which forms part of the Longleat Estate.  The Parish Church was founded in the 12^th century but has been virtually rebuilt twicde in 1783 and 1843.  It has 6 bells, the heaviest weighing 16 cwt, which are not easy to ring as they are quite “snappy”. 

Our next stop was, in some ways, the highlight of the day (or was it the nightmare?!). We went to St Mary’s,Berkley, which is in the Mendip district of Somerset.  The church was erected in 1751and is a Grade II listed building.  You enter the tower through what feels like a barn!  It is so small its 4 bells (heaviest 8cwt) are arranged on 2 frames, one frame above the other.  What is really difficult about ringing in this tower is that the four bell ropes hang tight in each corner of the very small belfry. What does this mean?  It means you have to ring your bell facing into the corner – like the naughty corner! – with your back to the room so you cannot see the other ringers.  Trust me, ringing using only your ears is really difficult – if not nigh impossible!  Interestingly there was leather wallpaper on the walls – with suitable holes/rips where many past ringers had obviously torn it whilst trying to ring.  Let’s just say it was an experience!

The last tower before lunch was St Michael’s, Mere.  Compared to the first two towers this one was relatively normal!  8 bells, nothing odd – quite like home! 

As is traditional lunch is a very important part of any ringing outing. We went to The Walnut Tree on the outskirts of Mere – and jolly good it was too!  Good food, good service, good beer (if not slightly cold!). 

Restored by both food and liquid we set off to  SS Mary & Nicholas, Wilton.  What a church! For a small town, the church in enormous, representing the wealth of its benefactors.   It was built between 1841 and 1844 at the instigation of the Countess of Pembroke and her younger son and designed by Thomas Henry Wyatt in the Romanesque style with considerable Byzantine influences.  Many of the materials used in the church's construction were imported from Europe, including marble columns from Italy and 12th and 13th century stained glass from France.  Unfortunately the original design was intended for a warm, dry Mediterranean climate and by 1885 the fabric needed repair and the problems of leaks, draughts and damp persist to this day!

 The most notable external feature has to be the campanile (bell tower) which stands at 105 feet (32m) and it’s connected to the church by a short cloister.   I have to say we were all very relieved that the bells were not hung at the top!  In 2000 a new set of Millennium bells were installed and the old ones sent to Lismore in Australia.  There are 6 bells, the heaviest weighing 8cwt. 

After negotiating the ring road round Salisbury we eventually found The Parish Church of Sarum St Martin,Salisbury. There has been a place of worship on this site for well over 1000 years and the chancel of the present church antedates the Cathedral by about 50 years.  It has a bell tower and spire; the 12^th century tower pre-dating the spire which was added at a later date.  We had to descend to a lower floor level to get to the ringing chamber and that, coupled with wrought iron railings and a flint & stone construction made it feel rather like being in a crypt!  It had a lovely ring of 8 bells with a 13 cwt tenor.

The last tower has to have been my favourite tower of the day!  Winterslow!  What can I say about All Saint’s Church, Winterslow?  As I walked up the path to the entrance porch I noticed bell ropes coming down through the wooden ceiling - Yes, it’s a ground floor ring in the church porch!  It has 6 bells, the tenor being 11cwt.  Thank goodness we didn’t go in the winter!  We all really enjoyed ringing these bells, they were lovely.  At the end of our time one of us had to climb back up into the ceiling space and pull the ropes back .  Personally I’ve never seen anything like it!  

We had a wonderful day but goodness me, didn’t it make us appreciate, again, the wonderful bells (and easy ring) we have here at home in Swanage!

September 2012

Up here in the tower we are thrilled to bits with our newly  refurbished clappers; well actually we are thrilled with the difference they have made.  The bells sound more mellow, much sharper yet with a lovely “hum”.  They are also “swinging” more smoothly which is making handling them easier.  Thank you to everyone who helped make this possible – whether it be practical or financial – we are extremely grateful, let alone lucky, to have such support.

                                                                          Bellringer at work! 

The bell ringers did the recommended works up in the bell chamber themselves – we painted preservative on all the wooden wheels and, where needed, replaced all rusty screws, split pins and twiddle pins. We also followed the useful axiom ‘If it moves it should moves freely and if it doesn’t move it should be fixed firmly’ and loosened and tightened various bits and pieces appropriately!

The new clappers came back two weeks after having  been sent off and we spent, (I use the term “we” loosely actually as really it was 4 male ringers!), a day refitting the clappers. This is a much fiddlier job than you would imagine. It isn’t just a case of putting them in; you have to measure the distance from the central ball of the clapper to each side of the bell, constantly adjusting the fixings until the distance to each side is identical.  

 

                                                       Don't they look smart!

The first Sunday that the clapperswere away for repair Martin and Matthew had a go at ringing the Ellacombeapparatus which we still have installed. 

                                                            The Ellacombe Apparatus at Swanage

An Ellacombe apparatus is a method for performing ringing requiring only one person. Unlike the traditional method, where the bells are spun 360 degrees to sound them and one person is needed for each bell, the bells are kept static and a hammer is struck against the inside of the bell. Each hammer is connected by a rope to a fixed frame in the bell-ringing room shown above. The ropes are taut, and pulling one of the ropes towards the ‘ringer’ will strike the hammer against the bell.

The system was devised by Reverend Henry Thomas Ellacombe of Gloucestershire, who first had such a system installed in Bitton in 1821. It is believed he created the system to make bell-ringers redundant, so churches did not have to tolerate the behaviour of unruly bell-ringers just so they could have their bells expertly rung. 

As if we would be unruly!

August 2012

July was an extraordinarily busy month up here in the Tower;  five Sundays, two weddings, a Parish Fete, an Olympic Torch relay and the opening of  the Olympic Games all of which needed ringing for!  This was, without doubt, the busiest month I have known since I started ringing.

 At the Parish Fete we were asked to follow the same format as last year i.e. we rang for 15 minutes up the Fete opening time and then, having shut the shutters to deaden the noise, had the tower open for an hour.  However actually up in the tower we decided this year and to ring more for the visitors to watch and shorten the time each person had “having a go”.  This seemed to go down very well and we even got some rounds of applause!  One or two people expressed an interest in learning to ring so I am hoping we can start teaching some new recruits in the autumn.  Overall we managed to raise nearly £25 which meant that we had over 50 people come and visit us.

In the true tradition of  “ringing for events of national importance” six of us gathered up in the belfry on Friday 13^th July at 11.45am to ring a quarter peal for the Olympic Torch relay. Unfortunately we were unable to ring all 8 bells due to work, school and road closures!  However we rang a very nice quarter of Plain Bob Doubles finishing at 12.30;  leaving us just enough time to run up the road, grab a pint from the Black Swan, and watch the torch go past.

Friday 27^th July again saw a gathering of ringers up in the belfry, this time to ring for the Opening of the London 2012 Olympic Games.   We rang a quarter peal of Grandsire Triples starting just after 6pm leaving us plenty of time to get home and eat before settling down to watch the Opening Ceremony.   

And what a games it was!  I loved every single minute of the next 16 days!

July 2012

There’s bad news and there’s good news this month.   It is generally recommended that belfries have an “MOT” every three years or so.  We hadn’t had one at Swanage for over five years so we felt it prudent to have one done this year.   If you were regularly swinging a ton of metal over your head you would agree!  We were very fortunate in getting a representative from the Central Council of ChurchBellringers to come and do this inspection for us, and free of charge. 

Problems were identified with the wheels (on which the  ropes which swing the bells are mounted) which were all dry and need treatment with a wood preserver.  The bellframe itself wasn’t too bad; just some signs of rusting expansion and it was recommended that the bellframe is properly cleaned down and repainted.  All the work needed inside the belfry is going to be done by the bell ringers themselves. 

In general the actual bells were found to be in good condition, with only moderate wear on their soundbows where the clappers strikes, and need no further work  at present.  This was not the case with the clappers, all eight have different varying problems; in particular the clapper bushes are worn in bells 1, 2, 4, 6 and 8.   Worn out clappers bushing and flattened clapper balls do much to cause ringers to complain about the running order and sound of the bells

In short, all the clappers need work on them:  They all need to be stripped down, checked for cracks and to have the balls built up with suitable weld and then ground back to shape.  All the worn out bushes need to be replaced, all the clapper joint pins need replacing and the locking pins need to be restored.   This will return then all the good working order and will reduce the impact points where they strike the bells.

We are very lucky that the Church has agreed to us having this essential work done.  We are removing the clappers after ringing for Evensong on Sunday 5^th August and they are then being taken to a foundry at Loughborough and will be away for a couple of weeks. 

So, no ringing at Swanage I’m afraid from Monday 6^th August until, hopefully, the weekend of 25^th/26^th August though it might be the first weekend in September.

And the good news?  I get a couple of weeks off!

June 2012

Having just been on holiday I think we sometimes fail to realise just how lucky we are at Swanage to have such a lovely peal of bells, let alone such a nice peal of 8.   Our holiday started off in Devon, on the Hartland peninsular where there is just one church, at Stoke, covering the whole peninsular. It is an extraordinary church with the second highest spire in Devon and you can see it for miles around.  It has a peal of 6 bells.  We had hoped to ring them but due to extra ringing over Jubilee and weddings they had decided to cancel their practice the week we were there.   We then went to the Isles of Scilly.  Now they didn’t have a peal of bells at all until 2009.  The six churches on the islands all only had one bell until the good folk of St Mary’s took action and mounted a very impressive fund raising campaign which resulted in them getting a peal of 8 bells by 2009.  Apparently the pitch and weight of the bells was set to try and maximise the ability of them being heard by all the “off” islands – Tresco, Bryher etc - some considerable distances!  Sadly we didn’t get to hear them ring – I imagine the noise in the churchyard must be very loud!

For  some unfathomable reason, ringing church bells where you haven’t rung before is called “grabbing”.   Recently I ‘grabbed’ Stratton in Dorset – another interesting tower where you can literally hear the bats in the belfry.  Goodness knows what the ringing does to their hearing but I was glad I couldn’t hear them whilst actually ringing!  Later this month I’m off to grab Brownsea Island which I’m looking forward to immensely.

 The Parish Fete is on 21^st July. We will be ringing for 15 minutes before the opening of the Fete at 12 noon and then afterwards the tower will be open for an hour until 1pm. You are all very welcome to come and watch us ring, or maybe even have a go yourself. 

Why don’t you come and grab Swanage?!

May 2012

10 without loss! Cricket? No, quarter peal ringing! From Ash Wednesday on 22nd February until 15th April we got every quarter peal we rang which has got to be some sort of record! The methods rung were varied in difficulty; though the highlights were Eddie Dicken scoring his first quarter as a conductor and Mike Jenkins getting his first quarter of triples (ie on 8 bells. Another one saw Aidan Wright ringing the treble very nicely to a quarter of Middlesex Bob Triples after an absence from the tower of 4 years. He rung like he’d never been away! Probably appropriately the tenth quarter in the run was to mark the centenary of the sinking of the Titanic! We sank the following week!

If you look at our website, and navigate to the ‘quarter peal’ page (http://www.swanagebellringing.sdgr.org.uk/page16.htm), you will see that with each quarter peal entry there is a ‘footnote’. If its Sunday this always starts “Rung for Evensong” but more often than not we dedicate the quarter to something or someone e.g. the quarter on 1st April was also rung to celebrate the marriage of my daughter which had taken place the day before. Have a look – you will get an insight into what the ringers regard as special events. Prize for the person who can tell me the footnote for the quarter peal on 12th January 2012!

June and July are going to be busy months ringing wise. We have the Diamond Jubilee at the beginning of June and we are trying to learn a method called “Diamond Jubilee Triples” to ring specifically to commemorate this event. July of course is the Olympics. The torch relay comes to Swanage on Friday 13th July and, in the true tradition of church bells being rung to mark events of National importance, we will be ringing! We are aiming to start ringing at 12.26 pm when the flame leaves Swanage Middle School and to continue ringing until about 1.15 when, hopefully, the flame will have passed the church on its way up the High Street.

We also intend to ring on Friday 27th July, the opening day of the London Olympic Games. You may, or may not, have read in the press about Turner Prize-winning artist and musician Martin Creed having written a work in which “at 8am all the bells in the country are to be rung as quickly and as loudly as possible for three minutes”. In my view this just isn’t possible – apart from upsetting verger Chris chiming for the morning service - church bells just can’t be rung “as quickly and as loudly” any faster and louder than we usually ring them! We shall ring later on in the day but not sure exactly when yet.

February/March 2012

They’ve arrived! Our new bell ropes! Despite being told the lead time was 9 months they eventually arrived in January a full 14 months after we placed the order. It is wonderful to have the new ropes, thank you so much. The only down side is the red fluff on the floor from the new sallies which means I’m having to get ‘Henry’ out more often.

I told you last month that we were attempting a peal to celebrate John’s installation as a Canon. Unfortunately they didn’t get it as one of the ringers was taken ill 2 hours in and had to stop. The band is going to attempt it again on March 3rd, so fingers crossed. We did get the quarter peal on the day itself though which was pleasing.

When this edition of Church Alive! comes out it will nearly be “Leap Day”. Christian Aid has organised this fund raising event where you pay to, and get sponsorship for, abseiling down the side of the tower. It’s advertised as ‘take a leap of faith by abseiling 100 feet down St Mary’s Church”. Now I’m all for that; but me? abseil? Sorry, can’t do it! However the Vice Tower Captain, Matthew Pike is going to, as well as John Wood. Good Luck both of you, I’ll be right behind you…….on the ground

We had an interesting practice the other night when one of the ringers “broke a stay”. Now to explain what this means we are going to have to get a little bit technical! Below is a picture of a model bell in the ‘up’ position with a diagram next to it showing the various parts.




I’ll only tell you about the stay and slider this month as these are the parts my story relates too.

The Stay is a piece of wood, usually made of ash, bolted onto the headstock of the bell. When the bell is ‘standing’ in the upright position the stay holds it in place by resting against another piece of wood called a slider. One end of the stay bolts into the headstock and the other engages with the slider as the bell approaches the balance point. The slider, as the name suggests, slides back and forth as it is pushed by the stay across a track between two end stops on the lower part of the frame.
The stay needs to be sturdy enough to support the bell. If the bell is mishandled and it violently comes to rest the stay is designed to break and protect the bell, which could otherwise crack across its crown.
So, can you work out what happens when a stay gets broken? That’s right, you cannot stand the bell so if you don’t hold it in the up position by the rope then the bell would simply rotate right round! On the practice night in question the stay was broken within the first 10 minutes of our practice. For the entire evening one of our experienced ringers had to stand balancing the bell up by the rope between all the pieces of ringing. – very tedious!

January 2012

Christmas was a very busy time for us like everyone else, with three services to ring for on Christmas Eve as well as Christmas Day morning. As is normal at this time of year some bellringers were away visiting family for the festive period whereas others had family staying with them. This always makes it difficult to get enough ringers for each service, though somehow we always manage it, and this year was no exception with all 8 bells being rung for each service. I had family staying with me and the multitasking on Christmas Eve of ringing three times, cooking a ham joint, cooking dinner, eating and washing up was interesting to say the least! One of my personal Christmas highlights was James Buckle playing the trombone at the Midnight Service accompanied by Simon on the organ. I thought it one of the most beautiful pieces of music I’ve heard in a long time.

Up here in the Tower we were really delighted to hear John’s news that he is to be installed as a non-residentiary canon of Salisbury cathedral. How exciting and well deserved is that? I wasn’t actually sure how one is supposed to refer to such an event……. “canonisation” is clearly incorrect, although maybe appropriate on occasion! And “installation” to me sounded like a long awaited new boiler being installed. However I am informed that it is, indeed, “installation” is as much as John is put “in a stall”.

After I finish writing this article I am setting off to ring a Quarter Peal to coincide with the Evensong Service at Salisbury during which John’s installation as Canon takes place. We felt it would be nice for the bells of St Mary’s to be ringing out whilst the service was taking place. On Saturday we (well not me personally as it way beyond my ability!) are attempting to ring a Peal in celebration of the event too. Wish us luck!

Postscript: We didn't get the peal as one of the ringers was taken ill about 2 hours in. Re-attempt taking place beginning of March

October/November 2011

Well that was different! We quite often have visiting bands come to ring at Swanage as part of their outing and this month we had two. It was our third visitors that were different! They came from a Rock Climbing centre in Devon to look at the tower from a point of view of abseiling down it to raise money for Christian Aid. I didn’t know that apparently they do this quite often though we were the first tower where they had to climb up through the bells to get to the roof.

Talking of visiting bands: this is often a hit and miss affair with regard to the standard of ringing. When they are excellent ringers you very much hope the townsfolk think it’s you, and when they are not you hope to goodness people don’t think its you! For a general rule of thumb I’d be grateful that when you hear good ringing on a Saturday you think its us and if its bad think there must be a visiting band in town!

I read a lovely article this month in a ringing magazine about older ringers and, in particular, older learners – of which I am most definitely one. It listed all the things that went “wrong” as you got older; declining muscle strength, taking longer to learn new tasks, difficulty with short ‘thinking times’, slowness at learning automatic responses, deteriorating visio-spatial skills, difficulty with memory, aches and pains, failing sight, poor hearing etc etc. It got to the point when I wondered how on earth anyone over a certain age ever managed to learn to ring - but we do and we can! The best thing is though that I now have a list of perfect excuses for whenever I’m ringing badly!

We had Quarter Peal week at the beginning of November, and really quite successful it was too. The "Call a Quarter" challange went well with both Matthew (Plain Bob Minor) and myself (Plain Bob Triples) succeding. Our learner Mike Jenkins scored his first QP ringing the treble to Plain Bob Doubles at Corfe Castle and I scored my first quarter of Royal at Kingston.

Finally this month, it just leaves me to wish each and every one of you “down here” a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from each and every one of us “up here”