Bell Ringing

[dsr]

Thanks Viv, your posts, photos and videos are fantastic and most informative. The two churches in our village have bell towers and the bells ring every hour, before church services and for special occasions/commemorations, but I suspect it is done automatically as I have never heard of anyone going into the tower to actually ring the bells.

Our church bells were silenced from ringing the hour many years ago, because the church is more or less next door to the Town Hall which also has a belfry. It wasn't helpful to have two adjacent, non-synchronised clocks, each ringing their own version of the time!

The manual pre-service bells are ringing again, though. Usually about 4 of them, so if anyone wants to volunteer ...

[Viv of Ginger Pop]

For those who have made a New Years Resolution to get fitter, get out more and try something different...

Last night we were discussing that those who start to learn to ring now will have a good chance of being ready to ring for the Queens Platinum Jubilee this summer

There are some good YouTube clips for aspiring ringers to watch on the Suffolk ringers website
https://www.suffolkbells.org.uk/LearningToRing.php

But ringing can take over your life - this week I'm ringing 5 times, at three different towers!

Viv

[Moonraker]

I guess it's a literal meaning of "pull the other one"!

[GloomyGraham]

I love the sounds of bells ringing.

When I grew up in Adelaide (Australia) we were called 'the city of churches' and bells could be heard around the capital especially on a Sunday morning.

Now I live in the nation's capital (Canberra) and we have the National Carillion (a gift from Britain to Australia in the 1960s) which features 57 bells and sounds lovely floating across the lake - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Carillon

[Viv of Ginger Pop]

If anyone from Australia or New Zealand are interested, you have your very own bell-ringing Association

https://www.anzab.org.au/about.php

They give a potted history...

It is common for bells to swing through a small arc, but in England in the 1600s the arc grew until bells reached the upright position - and could be held momentarily - at the end of each swing. This gave the ringers precise control over timing and enabled the art of change ringing to develop.

Change ringing remains unique to English-speaking countries, although a similar system can be found in parts of northern Italy. It is still dominated by England, where there are over 5000 bell towers. Wales comes next with around 230, followed by Australia with 61. New Zealand has six bell towers. Australia's oldest ring of bells - installed in 1847 - is at Holy Trinity Church, Hobart.

New rings of bells continue to be installed: roughly one per year has been added to Australia's list since 1990.

[Viv of Ginger Pop]

I've just won the bell-ringers Limerick competition.

Tower Captain said that I had to enter, even though I had set the opening line

When we rang for the Queen's Jubilee
I was proud to be pulling bell three.
It was simple bad luck
That the clapper got stuck,
So I rang for Her Maj silently!

I've the Forums to thank for weekly Limerick practice

[Katharine]

Well done Viv.

[Anita Bensoussane]

That's great, Viv!

[Jack400]

Well done, Viv I too love the sound of bell ringing (campanology). Nothing annoys me more than hearing of people who move next to a church and.then complain that they ring their 300 year old bells- like they didn't have a bit of warning!

[Moonraker]

Good limmy, Viv - well done!

[Moonraker]

Nothing annoys me more than hearing of people who move next to a church and.then complain that they ring their 300 year old bells- like they didn't have a bit of warning!

Reminds me of the bedroom scene in the wonderful film Genevieve!

[Lucky Star]

Excellent limerick. Well done Viv.

[Jack400]

Nothing annoys me more than hearing of people who move next to a church and.then complain that they ring their 300 year old bells- like they didn't have a bit of warning!

Reminds me of the bedroom scene in the wonderful film Genevieve!

I can't remember the scene at all

[Katharine]

Alan cancelled the booking for their hotel in Brighton, so they had to book into a scruffy room in a hotel (run by Joyce Grenfell). The room was next to a clock tower.

I think that's also the scene where the guest in the next room thumps on the wall, so Wendy bursts a paper bag next to it.

[Jack400]

Oh, I see, thanks, Katharine.