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.