October 2010

I’m going to tell you about Sallies and Tail-ends (the most important word there being the “and”!) as we have what almost amounts to a crisis up here in the Tower.

Bell ropes are basically made up of three main parts; the top end, the sally and tail end. The top end is the longest and the length of it depends on how high the bells are above you. It goes up through the ceiling and runs around the wheel and then through a hole in the wheel where it is tied round a centre pair of spokes. It is usually made of pre-stretched polyester rope which wears much better than natural fibre and doesn’t stretch. The top end is machine spliced into the bottom end a foot or two above the sally. The sally is the tufted wool area. The bottom end (sally and tail end) are made from natural fibres. The tail end is where the rope is doubled up, by tucking the rope back through itself, which makes it easier to grip. The length of the tail end can be adjusted by moving the tucks.

Traditionally the ropes were made from hemp, the plant you get cannabis from. Originally most of our hemp came from Russia, but when the First World War cut off supplies we changed to Italian hemp instead. Of course, the Second World War did for Italian hemp what the First World War did for Russian – and growing it became controlled in many places because of the drugs implications. So in the early 1960’s bell rope makers changed to flax(#1).

A rope’s construction does affect the way it wears. Natural fibre ropes take in considerable amounts of water from the atmosphere and therefore are much affected by damp. However most rope deterioration is to do with where the various fibres rub together – internal and external friction. It is important to make sure that the rope doesn’t wear where it hits the floor while being rung. We have a wool carpet on the floor in our ringing chamber and also woollen ringing mats which are for the ropes to land on rather than the ringers’ comfort and information (each of our mats has the bell number on it!).

Anyway, back to our crisis – our ropes are worn out! Despite great care being taken our ropes are nearing the end of their days, even though they are only 3 years old. We have spliced new sections of rope into the bottom ends until we have no more rope left! However what actually turned something urgent into a crisis was discovering that the (shortest) lead time for a new set of bell ropes is 9 months...and we haven’t started to secure the funding of them yet!

However, your world is not about to go silent…………we have ordered 4 new tail ends which will arrive in a matter of weeks and these should see us through until a new set of bell ropes arrive.

(#1) Steve Coleman: The Bellringers Early Companion