Today was the 75th Anniversary of VJ Day marking the surrender of Japan and the end of the Second World War. To mark this occasion, some of the band met at the church this morning. After ringing up, Duncan tolled the tenor for a few minutes until 11 O’Clock, when we observed 2 minutes silence to remember the fallen.
Then Stephanie, Keith, Peter, and Duncan rang rounds and call changes for the 15 minutes allowed under COVID-19 prevention measures, before ringing down. Graham provided instruction and support.
Productive practice this evening. Early session for new learner, Peter with the 4th tied.
After removing the muffles from the remaining bells, and raising the front 6, we spent some useful refresh time in call changes going through the way in which calls are made and how bells slow or speed up according to the change in position.
Very successful long-place Mexican wave followed by a new exercise ringing Twinkle, twinkle little star which is a great way of honing bell control with a purpose.
The Castle provided the usual warm welcome for a post-practice debriefing.
Brilliant to hear all 8 bells ringing half muffled in a mark of respect to those who gave their lives in conflicts past. The ringers were:
Duncan, Jeremy, Stephanie, Louise, Wendy, Graham and Sue with welcome help from Vinni and Dave from Wargrave.
Words of appreciation were received as we mingled in the bright November sunshine after the service.
This evening was fairly well attended as Keith and Stephanie were back from their holiday (albeit somewhat jetlagged having flown in from Kuala Lumpur the day before). Duncan, Jeremy, and Rachel were also present as were Graham and Vinni.
After ringing up (attempting to ring up in peal on the front 4, followed by the 5 and 6) we did some rounds and call changes to warm us up. We then moved to Mexican Wave and plain hunt practice on 4 and 5 for Duncan, Stephanie and Keith. This went quite well with 2 novice ringers hunting at the same time.
We did several goes through ringing Mexican Wave with very few problems before moving to “Dodgy Places Mexican Wave” which was challenging, but fairly successful.
“Dodgy Places” Mexican Wave
After that we did some more Plain Hunt practice with Stephanie, Keith and Duncan practicing on different inside bells, and then did dodging practice with pairs of bells constantly dodging with each other (so, 1&2, 3&4, 5&6).
We then rang down in peal (or attempted to) and went to The Castle to discuss the practice.
We had a few of the regular band missing this evening due to illness. Graham, Duncan, Keith and Jeremy attended with Vinni and Simon joining us to help.
We started with practicing ring up in peal, followed by a brief attempt to do plain hunt on 3 bells before Vinni and Simon joined us. We then rang rounds and call changes and some Mexican Wave.
To give Jeremy and Duncan some practice moving around in a more complex method, we then practised Whitefield. In this training method, Simon and Vinni (on the 1 and 4 bells) plain hunted whilst Duncan (on the 2 bell) made places to firsts position and back, and Jeremy (on the 3 bell) made places to fourths position and back. Keith covered on the 5 bell to give Duncan a common reference when he was leading.
Whitefield training method
Keith then did some hunting from the treble to a more complex method.
We then finished by attempting “Dodgy places Mexican Wave”. This is a variation on Mexican Wave where each pair of bells dodges before and after making places. As this was a complex and unfamiliar exercise Graham, wisely, decided to do the exercise on each pair of bells individually, allowing the band to settle back into rounds before calling the next pair of bells.
“Dodgy Places Mexican Wave” training method
We then rang the bells down in peal and went to The Castle for a well-earned drink.
This morning the band went on an outing to ring at a couple of the local towers. Graham, Sue, Keith, Stephanie, Wendy, and Jeremy attended.
The first tower we visited was St. Mary’s in Shinfield. St. Mary’s Church is an ancient church which has been a place of worship since 1069. The current bell tower was rebuilt in 1664, originally with 3 bells, but with an additional 3 bells added in 1722, 1730, and 1803. The tower building has visible cracks in it, and has been reinforced with iron bands and tie rods.
The bell tower at St. Mary’s Church, Shinfield
There are 6 bells at St. Mary’s, rung from the ground floor (Dove’s Guide). The bells were down when we arrived and were let in. We rang up and then performed rounds, call changes and some plain hunting.
Although the bells were not particularly heavy, we found them to be fairly hard work compared with most other towers we have rung at. It was suggested this might be due to the bells being mounted on smaller wheels than normal.
The second tower we visited was St. Bartholomew’s in Arborfield. St. Bartholomew’s Church is a relatively new building, having been constructed in 1862-1963. However, the bells are mostly considerably older than the church (the oldest being cast around 1399) as they were originally in the old church building which was in a nearby location, now part of Arborfield Park, and which was demolished in 1862.
St. Bartholomew’s Church, Arborfield
St. Bartholomew’s also has a ring of 6 bells. These are rung from the first floor with an entrance to a spiral staircase at the front of the church (Dove’s guide).
The bells were down when we arrived, so we started by ringing them up, followed by more rounds and call changes, some Mexican wave, and some plain hunting practice for those who could.
The St. Bartholomew’s bells were mostly comfortable to ring, although the 5 bell seems to drop very easily if you don’t pull the back stroke quite hard, and the resonance of the 5 bell could be felt quite strongly on her rope even after she had been stood. The tenor is rung from what appears to be a slightly precarious position, right at the top of the spiral staircase which means, in practice, the ringer is best orientated towards the 7 bell rather than looking directly into the centre of the ring. For those sitting out, the tower noticeably moved when the bells were ringing. The bells also, famously in local circles, have an unusual sound and aren’t particularly in tune. Dove’s guide indicates that the 1 and 2 bells might not be well tuned, which probably explains how they sound.
Once we had finished, we headed to the Bull in Barkham for a well deserved drink and a meal, and to discuss the day. All in all everyone enjoyed visiting and ringing at the towers and it was deemed a success.
We started the session by practicing ringing up in peal. We then rang rounds and call changes on the front 6.
We followed that with Plain Hunt practice and more call changes.
We then did Mexican wave (places).
Then the more experienced ringers rang Plain Bob Minor on the inside bells with Keith hunting on the treble.
Jeremy needed more practice on the place making, whilst rest preferred to practice dodging, so we “spliced” Mexican Wave with double dodging Mexican wave, which worked surprisingly well.
Then we rang down and went to the pub.
This morning’s service was a combined service with Twyford, so some of the Twyford ringers joined us for ringing.
To start with Graham, Sue, Keith, Jeremy and Simon were the only ringers, so we rang up bells 3-7 in peal, and Simon rang up the 8. We then rang call changes on the 3,4,6,7 and 8. These were chosen as they form a major pentatonic scale which sounds quite nice.
Shortly after we started ringing, Matthew and Freddy from Twyford joined us, and we rang call changes on 6, alternating with Plain hunting on 5 with Keith practicing on the Treble.
We then rang down all 6 bells in peal.
Jeremy’s son had joined us to watch. We made good use of the recently set-up belfry video camera to show him what was going on.
This evening Graham led Keith and Louise in some simulator training.
The 3 bell was muffled and the 4 tied. Louise rang up the 3 under instruction from Graham, and Keith rang up the 4. Louise and Keith then both practiced ringing in rounds to improve striking and bell handling. Louise significantly improved her scores from previous sessions.
Keith then practiced Plain Hunting on 5 bells from both the treble and from the 5 bell, whilst Louise continued to practice rounds and work on her technique.
We also had the opportunity to review the bell recordings which Keith previous made, loaded into Abel. It was agreed that they probably sounded a bit shrill.
