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!