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”

September 2011

We did it - 100% quarter peal success in September! Ok, so it was only a 3-Sunday ringing month but hey! What was also particularly pleasing was that each of the 3 quarters scored was a first for someone. Martin rang his first ‘treble to triples method’ in a quarter of Grandsire Triples, Kat rang her first quarter of Plain Bob Major and I rang my first quarter of a Surprise Major.

Talking of “our” Kat; we do miss her. She did brilliantly in her A Levels and has gone off to University to study Veterinary Science at the Royal Veterinary School, University of London. Hopefully she will come and ring with us whenever she is home.

Another outstanding success in September was our performance at the Guild Striking competition this year. The aim of the Striking Competition is to promote and improve the standard of Sunday Service ringing for those participating members of the Guild. In essence it’s a test of how good you can make the bells sound. It’s hard enough ringing the bells well - evenly spaced and with not gaps or crashes - but at a church where you do not normally ring it is even more difficult.

Anyway!...... The Guild 6 Bell Competition was held at Witchampton on Saturday 10th September - our band was Hayley Newman, Linda Hough, Angie Jasper, Tim Rose, Julian Newman and David Haysom – and we came 1st out of 9 bands with 14 faults, narrowly beating Wimborne who had 14.5 faults. The judges comments were: “Brilliant piece of ringing, lovely rhythm and speed. Excellent.”

The Guild 8 Bell Competition was held at Cranborne also on Saturday 10th September – We entered as part of The East Dorset Branch band which was made up of 4 Swanage ringers and 4 Wimborne ringers – and we came 1st out of 3 bands.

Well done Swanage!

August 2011

August, for anyone who lives in a coastal town, is busy. We suddenly become very popular and are inundated with people wanting to come and stay. It’s not just at home that August has this effect – up here in the tower it does too. Ringers away, ringers busy – the normal equilibrium of practice nights and Sunday mornings changing. One practice night this August we had 8 holidaying visitors which made one of our band members comment on whether he had stumbled into the wrong tower!

One of the benefits of the Summer is the Music at St Mary’s programme of six concerts. How lucky are we to have this? Unfortunately I was only able to make one of the concerts but what a concert Simon Lole’s was! Magic! I learnt the organ at school so have an inkling of how difficult it is. I can hardly get my right hand to know what my left hand is doing let alone my right and left hands to know what my right and left legs are doing!

August also usually sees a summer social event for the Bellringers and this year again saw the ringers getting together for a BBQ. We were very lucky with the weather. It’s good to get together socially and to talk about things other than ringing.




One more new method for some of us this month - a quarter of St Simon's Bob Triples. I enjoyed ringing this, thought it sounded really nice and wonder why its not rung more often.

July 2011

Up in the belfry we have had a few notable ‘firsts’ recently. Before practice on 29th June Edward Clark successfully rang this first quarter peal “inside”. Ringing inside means that he rang a bell which was not the treble nor the tenor, thereby having to actually know the method. He did brilliantly!
I also scored my first quarter peal of Stedman Triples on 3rd July which I was really pleased about. Stedman Triples is actually a ‘principle’ rather than a ‘method’; I don’t really know myself what this means except for the fact the treble bell rings the method like all the other bells (apart from the tenor) rather than just hunting up and down through the bell order.

July was a five Sunday month with quarter peals being rung for Evensong on each of them – and a successful month it was too with four of the five quarters being successfully scored and the fifth almost being scored! The fifth quarter peal was unfortunate to say the least. We were ringing – rather well as it happens - Cambridge Surprise Minor (NB a 6 bell method) when unfortunately the conductor “miscalled” it. To his great credit he carried on hoping to get the quarter to come round at the end - which he did successfully. However, when he got home and worked out exactly how many changes we had rung it came to 1247 – just 13 pulls short of the necessary minimum 1260 changes (on 6 bells) needed for a successful quarter peal. So I am still waiting for our 100% successful quarter peal month……….maybe August?!

July 23rd saw the very successful annual Parish Fete. Our role for the fete was different this year. Firstly we were asked to ring “open” (ie with the shutters open) for half an hour before the fete opened. We were delighted to do this and really enjoyed it. We were then asked to open the tower (with the shutters closed for noise control) for only a further 40 minutes for people to come and visit us and to “have-a-go” at ringing. In the past we have manned the tower all day and, as well as helping raise funds for the chosen charities, used it as a recruitment opportunity. I have to say that I felt sad to have to turn away disappointed visitors (and potential future ringers) and that the Bellringers were unable to contribute as much as we would have liked to the monies raised.

May/June 2011

I was shocked, stunned and left virtually speechless last Saturday!

The Swanage Bellringers were “out of town” on the first of two outings planned for this year. Outings are a traditional social event for ringers and, apart from being good fun, they give learners an opportunity to experience new towers and handling different types of bells. Usually ringing takes place at 5 or 6 towers with a long lunch and often tea too (I keep telling you that ringers like their food!)

So, last Saturday (4th June) eighteen of us set off to join Gill and Richard Loyd in South Oxfordshire. Gill and Richard have a holiday home in Swanage and ring for us whenever they are down and they very kindly organised this outing for us on their home patch.



We started our days ringing at SS Peter & Paul, Wantage. I’m actually not keen on the town itself as I was unfortunate enough to be sent to school there which, for the record, I hated! However the church is another matter and is particularly significant for me personally as I was confirmed there way-back-when in 1964 and it was lovely to return and remember that day.

Our next tower, St Matthew’s Harwell, was followed by a long and delicious lunch at The Red Lion in the stunning village of Blewbury. This was followed by ringing at St Michael and All Angels Blewbury (rather than a siesta) and then it was off to Cholsey to ring and to have tea. We also visited the grave of Agatha Christie who is buried there. Our next port of call was St Agatha’s in the pretty little village of Brightwell-cum-Sotwell.

Finally we rang at the Abbey Church of SS Peter & Paul in Dorchester-on-Thames, more usually known as Dorchester Abbey. The Abbey is actually the parish church of Dorchester-on-Thames, a small village of just 1000 inhabitants. This is the Dorchester (rather than “our” Dorchester) after which the Bishop of Dorchester is named. I don’t really know the history but it’s all to do with Saint Berin’s mission to the West Saxons in 634 which led to the baptism of King Cynegils in the River Thames close to where the Abbey now stands. Cynegils gave Dorchester to be an Episcopal See. In 664 the See was moved to Winchester, Dorchester having become a bishopric in the Kingdom of Mercia. The seat of the bishops remained at Dorchester until the Norman Conquest.

Anyway, back to why I was shocked, stunned and left virtually speechless – which to those of you who know me will appreciate is a difficult thing to achieve! It was during our stop for tea at Cholsey. I was quietly munching away on some rather delicious cake when, out of the blue, I was presented with a Certificate of Achievement for the Most Improved Ringer Award 2010, an award scheme run by the Salisbury Diocesan Guild of Ringers. To get this award was one thing but to have been nominated for it by my fellow ringers quite another.



You might recall that Kat Clark won this award last year. It speaks volumes for the teaching, but more importantly the learning environment, here at Swanage that the East Dorset Branch nomination for this award has come from our tower two years running. Unless you are a ringer it is impossible to appreciate the talent and high standard of ringing we have here. Well done Swanage!

April 2011

Lots of ringing in April – Easter! We were really pleased to ring for the “Churches together in Swanage” Maundy Thursday Eucharist service. We also rang half muffled on Good Friday for the 3hour service. This seems to have become a custom over the past few years as has feeding the ringers with coffee and hot cross buns in St Mary’s Rooms first! A simple but nicely sociable thing to do. Ringers enjoy their food! I was away Easter Sunday and, feeling guilty, decided to leave the ringers an Easter cake to enjoy….needless to say most of it had gone by practice night.



The other event in April of course was the Royal Wedding. We were pleased to ring a Quarter Peal of Grandsire Triples at 2.15pm to celebrate the marriage of HRH Prince William with Miss Catherine Middleton. Tradition dictates that a peal is rung to celebrate such an event but unfortunately we were unable to get a band together to ring one. It is hoped that a peal will be rung in June or July. We also rang for the first Swanage wedding of the year on the 2nd.



21st April 2011

Yippee – my first quarter of (Cambridge) Surprise Minor tonight :o) Thanks to those who rang with me……here’s to Major!

March 2011

March, like February, was a relatively quiet month up in the tower although we did ring a Quarter Peal for the Ash Wednesday Eucharist service as well as for the four Sunday Evensong services. On a personal front, in March I successfully rang my first quarter peals of Single Oxford Bob Triples and Little Bob Major which I was really chuffed about.

I hope you like the posters I have put up in the Church porch. I have also put up our Ringing Programme for the month for you information. Keep an eye on them – things might change!

February 2011

Last week (2nd March) was the Bellringers AGM and I have to tell you that you have me as your Tower Captain for another year. Can you believe it has been a year already? I can’t! It has been a year of information overload – both from the point of view of actually continuing to learn to ring as well as the ins and out of running a tower. It’s amazing I haven’t gone grey!

We have been given permission to use one of the notice boards in the church entrance. It seems the first section on the left is ours – well if the old rather sad notice is anything to go by! I hope to revamp this section shortly with new displays. I will also put up our monthly ringing programme there so, if you are interested, you can see who is ringing what when!

January 2011

January has been one of those rare beasts; a relatively quiet month. Half way through the month our tail ends arrived which was a huge relief! I am now confident that we can continue ringing the bells until the new set of complete bell ropes arrive towards the end of the year.

I thought you might be interested to know more about the actual bells here at Swanage. Until 1888 St Mary’s had only four bells, the earliest of which dates from 1594 (however there is evidence of there being four bells in 1552), three of them by John Wallis of Salisbury and the fourth by Lester & Pack of Whitechapel. The present treble, second, third and tenor were added in 1888. At that time three of the old bells were re-tuned and one was replaced making the total up to eight. The cost of the new bells was met by George Burt in memory of his wife.

The present frame was also installed in 1888 and is of a high-sided “A” pattern which John Taylor & Co. had introduced and was using about this time.  

The frame-sides are iron castings fixed between oak heads and sills; the foundation beams are also of oak.  1888 was some eight years before the introduction of systemic true-harmonic tuning so when the bells were restored in 1940 it was decided to replace the three lightest bells that had been cast in 1888. Also in 1940 the bells were re-hung on ball bearings and some other fittings were renewed.

On a personal front, I scored my first quarter peal of Grandsire Doubles this month…. what an exhausting method that is! Even when you get into the hunt you don’t stay there for more than a few blows – I can only liken it to being on a never-ending switch back ride.

January 12th 2011

Discussing the most boring books Swanage bellringers owned in the pub last night: 1st prize goes to Martin and his “World Guide of Screw Threads”.

December 2010

Great News! We have been granted the funding for a new set of bell ropes and the order has been placed. Thank you! Hopefully these will be with us in the Autumn.

Not such great news is the fact that we are still waiting for our 4 new tail ends. Despite being told when we placed the order in October that they would be with us “in weeks”, and then that they would definitely be with us by Christmas, we still haven’t got them. According to the manufacturers “snow and ‘flu” have contributed to the delay. I can understand how ‘flu can affect rope making, snow I have more difficulty with! Anyway, we continue to ring and, fingers crossed, the worst worn-out ropes will last until the new tail ends arrive.

As always, December was particularly busy up in the tower. Christmas sees us ringing for three services on Christmas Eve as well as Christmas morning in addition to our usual Sunday ringing. This year we were struck down with a lot of illness and there was a lot of “last minute” change of ringers. I was very pleased, and extremely appreciative of our dedicated band of ringers, that we still managed to ring all 8 bells for every service.

One of last year’s learners, Edward Clark (aged 13), rang his first Quarter Peal on Christmas Eve at a few hours notice! This was his first attempt at a Quarter Peal and he rang it excellently. Well done Ed!

We welcomed members of the youth groups “Juice” and “Refresh” up to the tower during the month. We showed them the bells and let them all have a go at ringing a bell. Sadly I don’t think any of them want to take up bell-ringing but it was fun having them – even if I had forgotten how noisy children can be!

So here we are - January. New year, new resolutions, new challenges, new aims but one constant: every Wednesday night and twice on Sundays a Band of Swanage Ringers will climb the 50 steps up to the tower and ring our wonderful peal of 8 bells.

November 2010

Brrrrr the tower is very cold! Luckily we do have two heaters and even though ringing warms you up last night’s practice (Dec 1st) saw us all ringing in jumpers.

The beginning of November was the Salisbury Diocesan Guild of Ringers Quarter Peal week. The aim of this 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 six quarter peals during the week of which we got three and lost three. Martin got a quarter of Grandsire Doubles ringing the treble and I got my first quarter peal on handbells ringing Plain Bob Minimus and my first quarter ringing Plain Bob Caters on an inside bell. We’ll gloss over the ones we lost!

You will see from the above that method names, eg Plain Bob, are followed by words such as Doubles, Triples, Major etc . This indicates the number of bells involved in the method and are as follows:
Singles – 3 bells, Minimus - 4 bells, Doubles - 5 bells, Minor - 6 bells, Triples – 7 bells, Major – 8 bells, Caters – 9 bells, Royal – 10 bells, Cinques – 11 bells, Maximus - 12 bells, Sextuples – 13 bells, Fourteen – 14 bells and Septuples – 15. Methods with odd number bells often have another bell, the tenor, ringing constantly at the back.

November is also the month for half muffled ringing with Service ringing and two quarter peals on Remembrance Sunday. There is something very haunting yet beautiful about half muffled ringing. The only problem being that it is slightly soporific and tends to send the ringers off into a dream like trance taking them longer than normal to ring the quarter peal! I rang in both quarter peals on Remembrance Sunday and scored personal firsts in methods called Ashford Little Bob Triples and Middlesex Bob Triples.

On the 21st November the Swanage Ringers made a First in the history of quarter peals by ringing a quarter peal whilst wearing Pudsey Bear “ears” and in so doing, raised £32.50 for Children in Need. Of course we chose to ring Pudsey Surprise Major!

As the year comes to a close, I would like to thank you all for your support and encouragement since I took over as Tower Captain. One of the pleasures of taking over this post has been meeting you and getting to know you.

Finally all of us “up here” wish you all a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

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

September 2010

I was going to start with “September, what a busy month!” however looking back I find I often start this way. It seems that our bellringers are always busy so I shan’t comment along those lines again unless it’s to tell you we’ve had a quiet month (I wish!). As well as our regular service ringing September saw us ringing for five weddings, welcoming two visiting bands and the start of our 2010 Autumn bellringing course. We also held our Summer BBQ.

It is now six months since I took over as Tower Captain. How am I getting on? If I am totally honest I can’t say that I have enjoyed it. I hadn’t really appreciated what an extremely busy Tower Swanage is or the amount of admin associated with running it. It’s akin to being a full time PA to an inanimate object; it doesn’t answer back but you find yourself hitting your head against a brick wall! I also feel that my own ringing has not progressed as much as it should have done since becoming tower captain, Oh well, we carry on………

This seems an appropriate juncture to tell you about the bellringing officers and their roles and to tell you who holds each post at Swanage.

First there is the Tower Captain (Sally Jenkins): The tower boss he - or she - normally runs the ringing and runs the ringers too. Decisions on, and the organisation of, service ringing, practice nights, weddings, quarter peals and learners etc are entirely his/hers.

Ringing Master (Matthew Pike): The person who runs the ringing on practice nights. Many towers don’t have a ringing master because the tower captain usually performs this duty. However, here at Swanage we have just re-introduced this role to enable me to concentrate more on my own ringing (thanks Matt!)

Steeple Keeper (Martin Wickham): This person looks after the bells, frames, stays, ropes etc. This is an important job which involves a lot of time but is often a thankless task.

Secretary/Tower Correspondent (Julian Newman): The person who receives and answers letters about the tower, the bells, requests from visiting bands etc.

Treasurer (Rachael Rutter): The person who looks after the wedding money and donations from visitors. Payments might also be among the responsibilities.

This is though, just a list of “officers”. Bellringing is a team activity and every ringer has an important part to play as without each other we can’t ring! At Swanage we are extremely lucky to have many talented ringers who each bring their own unique and valuable contribution to the band. So now you know who we are and who does what!

18th September 2010

Valuable Lesson Learnt 2: Never wear a strapless dress when bell ringing, let alone when ringing a quarter peal. (NB It wasn't me!)

4th September 2010

Highlight of my day – I discover I have a regular reader of this blog! (Hello Mary)

August 2010

August: What a month! So much happened it’s difficult to know where to start but I’m going to go with the event that, to me personally, was the highlight: The Festival of Flowers. What an amazing display of flowers so beautifully and cleverly arranged – the church looked magnificent. I was in seventh heaven! Congratulations to all those involved. We were thrilled to be asked by Bill Brown if we would ring as part of the Flower Festival celebrations, something we were delighted to do.

Traditionally bellringers have an annual outing and the Swanage bellringers are no exception. This year our annual outing, “The Glorious Guildford Getaway”, took place on Saturday 14th August and, as the name suggests, was to Guildford! Over twenty of us set off very early in the morning. We started our ringing at St Mary’s which is an anti-clockwise ring of 6 bells (usually bells are rung clockwise). This was followed by the 8 bells of Holy Trinity and then the 10 bells of St Nicholas’. A long lunch at a nearby hostelry was then enjoyed by all. St Johns at Stoke-next-Guildford was our next port of call followed by the highlight of the outing; The Cathedral Church of the Holy Spirit with its magnificent ring of 12 bells. Guildford Cathedral has to be, in my mind, one of the ugliest cathedrals, however ringing there has to be one of the highlights of my year. The climb up to the ringing chamber is long, very long – to the point where you get “muscle burn” in your legs and wonder if you are ever going to make it to the top! When rested you can then climb another couple of flights of spiral steps up to the actual bell chamber. You can walk round the bells and you can also climb higher again to a gallery where you look down into the mouths of the bells and can watch as they are being rung. Fabulous! There’s a load of photos of the outing on the website – why don’t you have a look? Well done and many thanks to Eleanor Wallace for organising it all.

We ran a taster course “Learning Bellringing” on the four Wednesday evenings of the month. Seven recruits signed up for this and by the end of it all of them were able to ring both handstrokes and backstrokes. More importantly they got an insight into what bellringing entails and the commitment needed, not only to learning but to being available to ring for the church services.

Due to the success of the taster course a continuation course follows from mid-September to the end of October. We have a couple of spaces if anyone wants to join us? If so please give me a ring on 422435.

I had two personal firsts in August: A quarter peal of Plain Bob Major and my first quarter peal of treble bobbing on 8 bells. Although pleased to have scored these it has made me realise that my ‘major’ ringing still has a long way to go.