The ringing
of bells, or ‘change ringing’, evolved in England in the early part of
the 17th century. Since those early times, there have been some
improvements made to the materials used in the belfry and new bell
installations are usually hung in steel frames rather than the
traditional timber.
However, if a bell ringer from
those early days were to return now he would have no difficulty handling
the bells today. The way we make them ring, and the words and phrases we
use in the tower, are much the same as they were then. Tradition is a
very important part of bell ringing and ringers are careful to preserve
all that has been handed down over the years.
At
St. Mary’s, Holme-Next-The-Sea there is a ring of five bells. The
heaviest bell, called the Tenor, weighs 7¾ cwt (394 kg) and the
lightest, the Treble, weighs 2 cwt (102 kg). The Treble is also our
oldest bell having been cast by Eddy Tooke in 1677.
For a number of years the bells
had been chimed by swinging them to and fro using the attached ropes.
Although the bells did ‘ring’, it was very difficult to control the
order in which they sounded.
In August, 2002 a band of local
villagers investigated the possibility of restoring the bells to full
working order with a view to ringing them full circle - the way they
were designed to be rung. At that time we knew nothing about bell
ringing, but we soon started to learn!
After seeking the advice of a
few experts we worked on the bells and soon had them ready to be rung in
the traditional manner. At this stage we hit a snag. We had no idea what
the traditional manner actually involved!
With the help of other towers,
especially those at Great Bircham and Dersingham, ten of us started to
learn how to handle the ropes - and the bells attached to the end of the
ropes. A few months later, and slightly nervously, five of us rang in
rounds (that’s the five bells in order from the lightest to the
heaviest) for the first time. Soon we were ringing before Sunday
services and that was particularly satisfying being the reason the tower
was originally built and the bells cast and hung in the belfry.
During the last four years the
number of ringers at Holme-Next-The-Sea has fallen but a year ago we
were fortunate that two from Heacham joined us, bringing our numbers up
to six at the time of writing. We still manage to ring for just about
every service and for all of those events when ringing has been
requested. The bells have joyfully announced weddings, rung solemnly and
half-muffled for funerals and have rung to mark special occasions
including H.M. The Queen’s 80th birthday, the 200th
Anniversary of Admiral Lord Nelson’s Victory at Trafalgar and the 60th
Anniversary of the end of World War Two.
Bell ringing is fun and a very sociable hobby. It is being part of a
team and learning something new. Most importantly, it is providing a
service to the church. Once the basics have been mastered many ringers
are quite content to ring the more simple change patterns for services.
However, there is much to aim for and a ringer can choose to learn named
patterns of changes called ‘methods’. Wonderful titles such as ‘Plain
Bob Minimus’, ‘Reverse Canterbury Pleasure Place Doubles’ ‘Grandsire
Triples’ and ‘Stedman Cinques’ are
given to methods where the bells ring in a different
order at each pull of the rope."
If you are between 10 and 80
years of age and reasonably fit then you could probably learn to ring
church bells and join the other 40,000 or so ringers worldwide who enjoy
‘The Exercise’. They are young and old, men
and women, short and tall, girls and boys, non-musical and musical,
church-goers and non-churchgoers. There are more than 5,000
church towers with bells suitable for change ringing and a ringer is
always made welcome at any of them.
Many towers also have a set of
hand bells and, whilst these can be used to ring similar changes to
those rung on the church bells, the ringers can also ring well known
tunes. Unfortunately, we have no hand bells at St. Mary’s, and, as
always, funds are low. If anyone knows of a set of hand bells just
sitting around in a cupboard, attic or cellar and doing nothing we would
be very pleased to have them refurbished and give them a loving home!
Do come along and see for
yourself the bell ringers in action. If you have ringing experience come
and join our band. If you have never rung a church bell now is a good
time to start! Please contact me and I will be happy to chat about
learning to ring or arrange a visit to the tower at St. Mary’s,
Holme-Next-The-Sea.
Tony Foster Phone
01485 525149 E-mail tonygfoster@hotmail.com
St. Mary’s,
Holme-next-The-Sea ringers
from left to right
Janet Abbiss, Hilary Davey, Ann
Rossington,
Colin Abbiss, Janet Foster,
Tony Foster
