The Weekly Journal for No. 5105 February 27, 2009 Price £1.70 Church Bell Ringers since 1911 Editor: Robert Lewis

On December 20th 2008, a peal of Erin Cinques was

rung at Trinity Church in New York. This was the first peal at Trinity by an all-local band, and it took place barely two years after Trinity’s bells were installed. It was the first peal for three ringers in the band, including myself. I had first put my hands on the end of a rope in July 2007.

So Trinity built an all-local Cinques band in less than two years. How did Trinity do this? What strategies did Trinity use? And what was it like to learn to ring on 12 bells?

October 2006: Dedication service

For me the story began on October 8th 2006. At that time I was a parishioner at Trinity, but not a ringer; so I knew little of the years of planning, effort, and philanthropy that had brought Trinity a new ring of bells – which were on that Sunday sitting on the pavement beside the tower. We parishioners, sitting in the pews, could see little; but the sound was piped in, so we heard the bells’ munificent donor, Dr Martin Faulkes, and Trinity’s Rector, Revd Dr James Cooper, take part in a dedication liturgy. Later we sang a ringer’s hymn, the melody of which apparently had a ringing significance, although it sounded vaguely pornographic. (“‘Tittums?’ What are they, exactly?”)

Later in 2006, the bells were hoisted skyward, to their home high over the churchyard. Trinity’s steeple dates from the 1840s; it once dominated Lower Manhattan and served to guide ships into New York Harbor. Since then, steel frames and elevators have changed the skyline, and the towers of the Financial District loom over Trinity. But what Trinity lacked in height, it would now make up for in volume. Over the cacophony of capitalism, bells would call people to church.

These days, some people in Financial District towers are not office workers, but residents. Many Manhattanites could look out their bedroom windows and see Trinity’s steeple – at eye level. So, cacophony being a relative concept, sound control became urgent. To achieve it took much thought and labor. For a time, the bells hung silent.

Once upon a time in America – or An Erin startby Jeremy C. Bates

NORTH AMERICAN GUILD

NEW YORK CITY, TrinitySat Dec 20 2008 3h18 (23)5016 Erin CinquesComp T J Barnes 1 Anthony C Furnivall 2 John S Danaher 3 John Hitchings 4 Lynn E Kodrich 5 Tina Hitchings 6 Anthony P Micocci 7 R Roger Savory 8 Jeremy C Bates 9 Timothy J Barnes (C) 10 Duncan J Large 11 J Chapman Knott 12 Gregory F Russell1st peal: 1,6,8.1st on 12: 3,5.1st Erin for all except 7,9.1st peal by an all-local Trinity band.

Trinity Church, Wall street amid the skyscrapers

194 – The Ringing World February 27, 2009

Spring 2007: Struck by the soundIn the spring of 2007, I was walking to

church, making my way to the main Sunday service, when the sound of Trinity’s bells, ringing publicly at last, struck me.

Much of my life has been ruled by bells. At one school, I rang a set of tubular chimes. At another, our daily schedule was marked by a bell with an authoritative tone. At college, some fellow undergraduates would ring a set of Russian bells. Best of all, I had lived for many years near Washington Cathedral, and had heard change ringing there.

So the sound of Trinity’s bells hit me hard, and wakened warm associations: school, neighborhood, family, home. Then and there, on the corner of Rector Street and Trinity Place, I resolved to try to ring. I asked to be part of the next learners’ course.

July 2007: The week-long handling courseSo it was, on the evening of Monday, July

9th 2007, that I wandered into Trinity’s parish hall to find 3 people – Greg Russell, John Danaher, and Tony Furnivall – gathered to teach ringing. There were also three learners, so the teacher-student ratio was luxurious. That night and the next, we learners rotated from working out theory with Tony, to ringing handbells with John, to ringing a dumbbell with Greg.

On Wednesday, Trinity’s regular practice night, we climbed 99 steps up the tower to emerge, panting and exhausted, into the ringing chamber. The chamber itself was striking – roughly a square, with fieldstone walls, four feet thick, punctured by Louis Kahn–style circular apertures that contained clock mechanisms and tracery windows. We could look north up Broadway, south toward the Battery, and east down the narrow canyon of Wall Street to the East River, and Brooklyn beyond.

But better than the views was the very kind welcome we received from other core members of Trinity’s band: Lynn Kodrich; Cathy Russell, Emily Russell, and Kirby Russell; Tim Barnes; Chapman Knott; and Roger Savory. Other learners were already at work, such as Pam Mosley, Tony Micocci, Krystl Hall, Cynthia Moten, and Evelyn Shoop.

Once we new arrivals pulled off, the bells quickly informed us that working with the dumbbell had not really been ringing. The bells continued to teach us on Thursday evening and Friday evening, and for much of that weekend. As we worked on our handling, members of Trinity’s band corrected us. We watched them ring real touches. And ringing slowly became, for us, not something we heard, but something we did.

Patient teachers and tolerant visitorsAfter that week ended, Ringing Master Tim

Barnes kept us learners busy. Rounds and call changes developed our rhythm. Trebling enabled us to lead off the tenor and to open up handstroke gaps. Tenoring behind on the middle 6 gave us glimpses of ropesight. Dodging and making places helped us calibrate our ringing gearboxes.

The 2007 crop of learners was lucky. We were starting out in a 12-bell tower that on a good night in 2007 had eight experienced

ringers – Tim, Lynn, Greg, John, Chapman, Roger, Cathy, and Kirby. So the learners’ quick development was essential, and we received generous amounts of teaching attention and rope time.

Equally generous was the gift of the Dill Faulkes Educational Trust. Trinity’s bells are the only ring of 12 bells in the US. Visitors often say that Trinity’s bells go very smoothly. And thanks to sound control, the bells are audible to the neighbors only when they should be. So we learners could crash about without shame or fear.

Not that our teachers tolerated much crashing about. For we had locked into a band that included some of the best ringers in the US. And our tower attracted visiting bands from the UK – bands that included some of the best ringers in the world. Nearly every band that visits North America now rings in New York. This makes Trinity Wall Street the Piccadilly Circus of ringing in the Americas.

Thus our early ringing education combined careful nurturing by our local band with bracing exposure to visiting bands. There was no need for us to attend area meetings; transatlantic meetings visited us. Practices with visitors were always illuminating, and most visitors were extremely generous in sharing practice time, and very patient with us local duffers. A particular saint was Alan Regin; he visited us several times, and each time was a model of effective coaching.

It must be confessed, however, that some visits were embarrassing, as talented visitors discovered just how far Trinity’s learners had to go. Once or twice a visiting conductor became frustrated when we did not react to instruction as expected. For my part, I was unaccustomed to being yelled at by total strangers with impenetrable accents using novel jargon. Sometimes during bruising weekend practices, I longed for our just-folks Wednesday evenings. On Wednesdays one could polish one’s Plain Hunt, and misunderstand the conductor, in relative obscurity.

Captain BarnesFortunately, our usual Wednesday conductor

– Tim Barnes – was a clear communicator. And his leadership style was demanding yet reserved. He would explain things clearly, but he would then trust to practice and to time to inculcate lessons, without much teacher intervention. He thought that people learn best by doing, not by being talked to. His conducting style was similarly respectful and quiet. In these senses, the Barnes yoke was easy.

But Tim rarely tolerated the response, “I can’t do that.” He did not hesitate to call on reticent ringers by name, and then to give them challenging assignments. He would

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deploy us learners with a confidence that we did not always merit, like a general throwing a green regiment into a breach. If our unit was mauled, if the ringing did not go well, we were patched up and given a sympathetic word and pointers for the next effort. Clearly Tim preferred that we splash around in the deep end of the pool, and perhaps excite the attention of the lifeguards, than remain safe but bored at the shallow end.

The core bandTim’s understated ambition matched our

tower well. For the tower’s feeling of fellowship did not disguise the dedication and serious talent that our band brought to bear. In ringing terms, Trinity’s core of experienced ringers, taken together, had rung hundreds if not thousands of peals. In non-ringing terms, our band’s collective intellectual firepower was quietly thunderous: Among us were a Bell Labs alumna, an IBM engineer, an investment banker, a Google programmer, an organist/technologist, a teacher, yet another computer expert, and an arts producer. Many of us worked with code or with music. As a lawyer (code) and amateur choral singer (music), I found the atmosphere congenial but heady.

One night I looked around the ringing chamber and estimated how much my colleagues could charge for their professional time. The answer was stunning. In economic terms alone, the opportunity cost of teaching us to ring was enormous – it totaled thousands of dollars an hour. And in human terms, each hour teaching in the tower was an hour not devoted to family and loved ones (except, that is, for the fortunate phalanx of Russells). It became clear that ringing inspires great devotion in intelligent people who have many other uses for their time.

From that premise, three conclusions followed. First, change ringing must offer some reward: No matter how ridiculous it might seem to the uninitiated, it must afford deep pleasure to the adept. Second, when our teachers said they saw ringing futures ahead of us, and places for us in the tower, we could trust them on this, because they had seen others make the same journey. Third, common decency required that we attempt that journey, because the best way to show gratitude for generous welcomes and patient teaching was to keep on ringing.

Besides, I was enjoying it. Early on, trying to hold a bell at the balance, stroke after stroke, was fun. It still is. Rounds and call changes were fun too. They still are. I enjoyed the dance of Plain Hunt, and the growing challenge of looking around to find my next bell. Ringing exercised muscles that I hadn’t used in years; it put eyes and ears and brain through new paces; and it placed me in a group that was friendly yet ambitious.

Learning how I ringI also began to realize that there are

different approaches to ringing – that there is diversity within the Exercise. This dawning realization was confirmed when a considerate visitor from the UK, on being asked to stand behind me for a plain course, asked me, “How do you ring it?” She knew that different

people approach ringing differently, and that effective teaching depends on knowing the learner’s approach.

Trinity’s band included some who emphasized ringing by constant rhythm, and others who emphasized ringing by ropesight. I tried to take both approaches into account. With singing and also rowing in my background, I usually trusted to hearing and rhythm to place myself generally, and then used ropesight to make finer adjustments.

November 2007: First quarter pealIn the latter half of 2007, the tower’s

teaching began to have notable effects. Tony Micocci and Evelyn Shoop scored their first quarter peals in August 2007. Evelyn rang hers within 5 months of first taking hold of a rope. Evelyn’s and Tony’s achievements gave the rest of us rookies something to aspire to.

In late November, we fell short of ringers who had remained in New York for Thanksgiving weekend, and so my own turn came to attempt a quarter. It was nothing fancy – just tenoring behind to Plain Bob Doubles – and I had tenored behind on our middle 6 before. So the challenge was simply to do this for 45 minutes.

Visiting us that Sunday was David Weir, who kindly agreed to conduct. I didn’t want us to lose his first quarter outside the UK. Although I got tired and a bit sloppy, I managed to keep going, and we scored it.

The Barnes manifestoIt was in autumn 2007, as the stable was

filling up with learners who were ringing quarters, that Tim published his magnum opus: a spiral-bound pamphlet that he titled, with understatement that verged on fraud, “Change Ringing Step by Step: A Guide for New Ringers at Trinity Wall Street.”

Goodness knows how long Tim had been drafting this 20-page work. From September to November, it went through several editions, and each sold like hotcakes in our ringing chamber. (The final edition is in the “band development” section of our website, www.trinityringers.org.)

When Tim loosed his screed upon an astonished tower, we realized that it described learning how to ring remarkably clearly. But it was more than a how-to guide. Tim’s pamphlet had direction and purpose, and was targeted at Trinity’s needs. Close inspection revealed the following fateful sentence:

“I propose that to help keep our practicing focused on a single, core objective, we aim to ring a peal of Erin Cinques with an all-local band before the end of 2008.”

So Tim’s guide was actually a road map to Erin Cinques. It went from step 1 (“Understanding bell mechanics”) to step 20 (“Plain course then touch of Erin Cinques”). It concluded by urging, “When ready, ring a quarter peal of Erin Cinques.” This was a plan for the coming year under Tim’s captaincy. The pamphlet might more accurately have been titled: “Erin Cinques or Bust”!

Tim explained his reasons for choosing Erin as the method on which to build our 12-bell skills. Erin was a natural next step after Plain Hunt, because in a plain course of Erin, the

First Peal CongratulationsAnthony C. Furnivall, Anthony P. Micocci, Jeremy C. Bates, Sam Shead, Joanne Bower, Robert C. Dietz

EditorialOur cover story this week is an extra-

ordinary one. The achievement of a 12 bell peal by a new local band in a tower that has possessed bells for just two years is fairly amazing in itself. The fact that this tower remains the only tower with change-ringing bells in one of the greatest cities of North America makes the story even more remarkable. It would seem that anything is indeed possible in the ‘Big Apple’. Jeremy’s account is quite long, but we hope that you will agree that it is exceptionally well written and provides a unique insight into a truly ambitious project; we felt it would be a shame not to reproduce it in full.

It is good news indeed that the redundant Gillett & Johnston ring of ten from St John’s, Hanley in Staffordshire has been found a new home within the county (see report on back page).

bells are passed in Plain Hunt coursing order. Erin would also boost our bell-control skills by giving us plenty of dodging practice. Indeed, because Erin moves slowly by sixes, we would be able to hear the changes more easily, and correct any mistake in one dodging position before moving on to the next. Lastly, Erin’s structure makes it a stepping-stone to Stedman.

Reaction to the Barnes Manifesto was mixed. On us learners, it had a quietly electrifying effect. We had no idea whether Tim’s challenge was reasonable. But we were grateful that he sought to integrate us into the band. And we were pleased that he thought us capable of working up to a peal of Cinques.

In this issue: page

Reflections on the record peals of Stedman Cinques 196

A Ringer’s Scrapbook 200Letters to the Editor 201Peal reports 202From the E-Lists 204Quarter Peal reports 205Obituary - Ernest Willcox 212Big Ben Competition 213Notices 214Turret Clock Forum 215Tail End 214Thought for the week 214

Continued on p.197

February 27, 2009 The Ringing World – 197

The 1983 Worcester band:R1. obert C KippinMartin J Whiteley2. David C Brown (Conductor)3. Peter J Sanderson4. Paul N Mounsey5. John C Eisel6. James W Belshaw7. George H Campling8. John P Loveless9. Frederick Shallcross10. Mark Regan11. Christopher J Pickford12.

Several long peals of Stedman Cinques over 10,000 changes are notable because they were rung on heavy rings of twelve:

11,111 changes at St Martin’s Birmingham on 27th March 1978;

11,111 changes at St Martin’s Birmingham on 28th December 2001 for the 100th anniversary of the 1901 record peal – St Martin’s Birmingham is the only tower where long peals of Stedman Cinques have been rung on three different rings of twelve;

11,111 changes at St Mary le Bow, London on 8th May 1988;

12,345 changes at All Saints Rotherham on 16th April 1990;

12,675 at Southwark Cathedral on 10th May 1998, to commemorate the false peal in 1923;

13,579 changes at St Giles’ Cripplegate London on 17th April 2006. The longest peal rung in the City of London.

The young, talented ringers in the 1966 Birmingham peal inspired another generation, as every successive generation of ringers has done since the first peal of Stedman Cinques in 1788. Stedman Cinques is still a popular choice for ringers, composers and conductors, and that brings me back to where this story started. The thirteen consecutive record peals of Stedman Cinques were rung in ten different towers, by 154 different ringers in the 195 years between 1788 and 1983. In writing an account of the twelve ringers meeting to mark an anniversary in Worcester, I was intrigued by the rich history of all the record peals of Stedman Cinques. Each peal tells the story of people, their rivalries, their disappointments and their successes. I wonder what will happen next? MARK REGANBibliography:

Revd Charles D. P. Davies, Stedman, Fred R. Spark and Son, Leeds, 1903

Various Bell News and Ringing Worlds

AcknowledgementsRichard Allton, Alan Ainsworth, Rod Pipe,

Chris Pickford, Jim Clatworthy, Richard Jones and Paul Williamson

Photographs were provided by Frank Byrne, JJ Ford, Tony Kench, Mike Palmer, Chris Pickford, Robin Hall and Rod Pipe.

Alison Regan edited the article.Ed. – John Eisel writes: “Reading the first

part of Mark Regan’s article on Stedman Cinques, on p.146 it implies that Rick Shallcross rang in both the Birmingham long lengths. That is incorrect, however – I am the only ringer who rang in both the 15,699 and the 20,001. I have written about these long lengths before – Ref. RW 1987, 32-3, 57, 80-1.”

The idea of working up to a peal of Erin did not meet with universal approval among our band’s experienced ringers. Perhaps they thought that a peal of Erin Cinques within a year was too ambitious. Perhaps they thought that Erin was boring.

For a time our focus on Erin became a standing joke. Visitors from Philadelphia and Boston would shake their heads and mutter, “Still working on Erin, are we?” To which our leaders would respond, “Yes, we are. And remember, it’s a Plain Bob start.” Conversely, although most Trinity learners had mastered Plain Bob, I didn’t, because I was working on Erin. So at the start of a practice touch of Plain Bob, my colleagues had to remind me, “It’s an Erin start.” They seemed to find this amusing.

Arrivals and occasionsThat same November, another learner

arrived. One day after parish choir practice, Fiona Somers, a fellow choir member, followed Cynthia, Pam, and me up the tower. Fiona’s presence meant that I was no longer at the bottom of the tower totem pole, and there was now someone in the band whom I could usefully advise. But not for long: Fiona made astonishing progress, and very quickly surpassed me.

As the year turned, tower life began to feature special occasions. New York’s most famous New Year’s party now takes place in Times Square; but if the history books are right, the city’s celebration used to take place downtown, on Broadway, right in front of Trinity. So for our tower to celebrate the New Year was very fitting. Our celebration attracted 35 people – not just band members, but visitors and non-ringer friends too.

Soon we gained another experienced ringer. Duncan Large, who had learned to ring as a teenager, but hadn’t been on the end of a rope in about 10 years, climbed up the tower one January morning. Apparently Duncan had visited his ringer parents in England for the holidays and had been roundly scolded for living in New York but not ringing at Trinity. We owe a debt to Duncan’s parents. He checked us out and decided to stay.

Sunday, February 3rd 2008, was Super Bowl Sunday. Super Bowl 2008 was of great local interest because the New York Giants were playing. As fortune would have it, they won, and Mayor Bloomberg scheduled a ticker-tape parade up Broadway, right in front of Trinity. The last ticker-tape parade had been in 2000, so this was the first parade after the Faulkes gift.

Trinity locks up tight for a ticker-tape parade, lest spectators looking for a better view climb atop churchyard tombstones and injure themselves. So on Tuesday, February 5, eight of us made our way through the crowds to Trinity’s back door; marched through the deserted church and up the tower; and proceeded, under the direction of John Danaher, to give the crowd – estimated at a million people – a taste of bell metal. We even indulged in the first firing of the Trinity bells.

Our efforts were mentioned in The New York Times the next day. A Long Island tabloid, Newsday, deflatingly reported that

Trinity’s bells “were ringing for 45 minutes, but were mostly drowned out by the noise of the fans.” Considering the quality of our first firing, this might have been a good thing!

Other occasions – weddings and a funeral – followed. They showed how bells play not just a liturgical part every Sunday, but also an emotional part. Bells give voice to community feeling, be it joy or grief. It is an honor to express community feeling in this way. It’s also fun to look out of the tower and watch a parade go by.

Plain courses of Erin The band achieved another milestone on

February 24th 2008, when Tony Furnivall, Tony Micocci, Evelyn Shoop, and I all rang plain courses of Erin Cinques. With our experts, we now had 12 ringers who could manage Erin Cinques – although not yet at the same time. So we had reached step 20 of the Barnes Manifesto. The band had 10 months left in which to perfect Erin Cinques.

Word was that we would need every week. The Erin Cinques front work was not bad; we knew that from lower numbers. The 4-5 and the 10-11 dodges generally sorted themselves out. But there was a muddle in the middle: The 6-7 and 8-9 dodges were tough to see and hard to hear. I often ended a plain course shaking my head.

On good days, though, a course of Cinques felt like a roller-coaster ride. The speed of Cinques was thrilling, because it forced the brain to process what it saw and heard at a faster pace than ever before. Twelve-bell ringing isn’t any harder physically; it just requires the brain to run many more operations per second. This is a huge rush!

TimeoutsIncreasing comfort with 12-bell ringing in

general, and with Erin in particular, was matched by an increasing ability to assess what was going right or wrong. For not every touch showed steady progress, and I suffered a few moments of embarrassment. Usually I could step back and figure out why: A blue line had slipped my mind, or I had failed to see my dodging partner, or I was having trouble controlling a little bell. My ringing could go wrong in all these ways and more.

It was when things went wrong and my feelings got the better of me that I lost the ability to concentrate that is essential to ringing well, or even safely. Soon I realized that once this concentration is gone, and has been replaced by feelings of frustration, shame, or even anger, it is best simply to take a “timeout.” That is, it’s best to stop ringing, whether for 15 minutes or for the day.

There are various ways to take a timeout, some more artful and some less. Once I announced that I suddenly felt a need to mingle with my fellow parishioners at the after-service coffee hour. I had not attended the coffee hour in months, so this announcement was less than credible, especially given the shambles that had gone before; but at least it preserved the social niceties. I stomped downstairs, seething quietly; made a surprise appearance at the coffee hour; and comforted myself with cake.

An Erin start Continued from p.195

198 – The Ringing World February 27, 2009

More artful was the device of “letting others have the rope.” That is, rather than openly decline an uncomfortably ambitious suggestion that I ring something difficult, I would look around the ringing room and try to pass the rope to Someone Else, observing that “Someone else hasn’t rung in a while; let her take hold.” Other avoidance devices, truthful in and of themselves, included the oh-my-back-is-sore complaint and the I-think-there’s-someone-downstairs-who-needs-to-be-let-in-the-tower-let-me-go-look ploy.

One hopes to resort to such devices less as one’s ringing career progresses.

Tim broadens our repertoireOn April 23rd, I invited the band back to

my apartment, a few blocks from Trinity, for a post-practice dinner. From the kitchen I heard the assembled horde lean on Tim to vary our ringing diet a bit more. It seemed that Erin, of which we had recently had a full practice day, was thin gruel for some. The rabble was rousing itself, and redress of grievances was sought. But we learners emphasized that we rather liked the idea of a peal. So Tim took two steps to balance these interests.

First, for our Erin-weary sophisticates, Tim began to end our Wednesday evening practices with touches of Surprise Minor, often spliced. These touches had the salutary effect of showing us learners that there is more to ringing than methods that move by sixes. These touches also showed that our sophisticates were human: At first, they could make spliced Surprise fall apart just as easily as I could doom Plain Bob. To watch our superstars come to grief on spliced Surprise Minor was strangely reassuring. And once our leaders began ringing Surprise during practice, they had to show us learners what that was all about. So Tim began to dole out plain courses of Cambridge Minor, and Tony Furnivall and Tony Micocci became quite proficient.

Second, Tim also changed the method that we were planning to ring. This shift in part reflected Tim’s growing concern about the relative difficulty of calling a standard composition of Erin. He decided that we should instead focus on Stedman Cinques, a peal of which could involve fewer calls; and Erin was, for a time, forgotten. Stedman seemed more agreeable to the sophisticated palates – a dish that, although quite familiar, the gourmands were quite willing to chew over again. As for us learners, we again were flattered to have earned what sounded like a promotion. So the band concentrated on Stedman – and on July 27th we rang many plain courses of Stedman Caters and Cinques.

Yet Stedman Cinques did pose a serious ropesight challenge. Before we could ring Stedman as well as we could ring Erin, much more practice was needed.

Life intervenesIt was in July 2008 that life began to

intervene for us learners. I left my job as a lawyer in the Financial District, took a vacation in the Baltics, and then left New York for two months to do voter-protection work for the Obama campaign in the Midwest.

Life intervened for other Trinity ringers too. Kirby left in August to attend Smith College, the long-dormant tower of which she began to revive. Fiona had applied and been accepted to medical school, so during late summer, she began to attend less to her Stedman and more to her studies.

Evelyn’s marriage in July had given the band the great pleasure of ringing a quarter peal in the newlyweds’ honor. Then, in early December, Evelyn decided that she probably should not attempt her first peal while in a family way.

We took the long view: The tower must be peopled. And the more medical talent around, the better!

November 2008: Back to Erin, plus some Kent

These developments forced some adjustments. To take Fiona’s and Evelyn’s places in the peal band, Tim recruited John and Tina Hitchings, who fortunately were willing to make an exception to their no-peals policy. John and Tina had become regulars in the tower over the course of 2008, and indeed had often been instrumental.

By the time I returned to New York for practice on November 5th, Tim had announced that we would attempt to ring a peal of Erin after all. Chapman graciously relayed this news to me without implying that my months of campaign work had caused a tactical retreat. I tried not to feel guilty about the return to Erin, and the tower sophisticates pretended not to mind. Tim kept throwing spliced Surprise their way, with which they seemed content.

Tim also introduced Kent Treble Bob as a focus method – to train us learners on higher-number even-bell ringing than Cambridge Minor afforded. A course of Kent Royal hammered home how heavily, in odd-bell ringing, one relies on hearing the tenor at the end of each change. Without that landmark, Kent resembled a steadily darkling plain. This said, touches of Kent, combined with some lingering Stedman, made Erin Cinques seem relatively simple.

Throughout the fall of 2008, Tim scheduled post-service quarter attempts. Although at first they were not of Erin, the quarters accustomed us novices to the scale of a quarter and to the endurance and discipline required. The quarters were also very enjoyable: The brain-teasing aspect of ringing came to the fore, and when after many permutations the ringing came round to a familiar change, our pleasure grew.

“Extreme,” “Big Single,” and “Barnes Start”

In late November, Tim began to assign touches of Erin specifically to the peal band. This band now contained three peal novices – Tony Furnivall, Tony Micocci, and myself. Tim deployed us to the treble, 6th, and 8th, respectively – bells that would be less affected, or entirely unaffected, by his calls.

Tim’s Erin calls were growing increasingly specialized, and it seemed that this specialization had enabled him to produce a peal of Erin that would be significantly easier

to conduct than a standard composition. For by eliminating bobs, and instead using “extremes,” Tim had come up with a 12-part composition that kept the treble, 6th and 9th entirely fixed, and largely allocated the work to the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th. The “extreme” was a Stedman Doubles–style single made in 10-11.

In addition to this “extremes,” and along with the regular single, Tim also used a “big single.” This was a single made in 7-8, as opposed to 9-10, and was used to swap over the 7th and the 8th. Happily, of these three calls, only the “big single” affected me, and it did so only twice. (Perhaps its name was meant to compensate.)

Lastly, Tim introduced us to the backstroke start, so that the first change “in method” was at backstroke. One of our wits termed this “the Barnes start.” Tim said that the backstroke start would help minimize calls, especially in the first course.

Quarters of Erin CinquesOnce we all were familiar with the calls, we

attempted some quarters of Erin au Barnes. In all, we would attempt four quarters of Erin, each of which would use different back-bell positions, so that we would effectively practice the entire peal.

It was not always apparent, however, that a quarter was being attempted. On Sunday, December 7th, Tim organized a post-service Erin Cinques practice for a mostly local band (“mostly” because Tony Furnivall and I were lending our voices to a St Nicholas concert). I’m told that after two successful 15-minute touches, the band thought they were starting out for a final touch. The calls kept coming, and so a quarter of Erin Cinques was rung without any pre-quarter jitters. This was a first for nine of the ringers.

Our second attempt – the first to involve the entire all-local, peal-attempt band, including myself – failed. When we knew where we were supposed to be, the striking was fairly good; but we didn’t always, and there was much correction of errancy. When we stood the bells, Tim quickly confessed that he had missed a call. Roger agreed with this assessment, so nobody was inclined to argue. As one of us said, “Well, Tim, now we know you’re human.”

On the way to our café, Tim noted that he had made “the classic conductor’s mistake”: He had put a ringer right, but at the same time he had forgotten to make a call. He stressed that the conductor’s priority has to be to make all calls correctly. One ringer can be put right at any time; but if a call is missed, then the opportunity is usually gone.

Fortunately, other experienced ringers in the band were becoming more familiar with the composition. Greg, Chapman, Duncan, Roger, Tina, John Hitchings, and John Danaher had been giving us novices help all along, and they stepped up these efforts. I began to feel that even if I had tried to lose my way, several people would put me right. This feeling of mutual support vastly increased my confidence.

And yet our third attempt to ring a quarter of Erin ended in a crashing failure. After 35 minutes of ringing that proceeded promisingly, and gave glimpses of what we could do, I beheld

February 27, 2009 The Ringing World – 199

a chilling sight: four or five sallies coming down at the same time. Even worse was the ensuing sound. We were hopelessly discombobulated, and Tim called us back to rounds.

At last, on Wednesday, December 17th, the peal band succeeded in ringing a solid quarter of Erin Cinques. This was the first for Tony Furnivall and me. Thus of the four attempts to ring a quarter of Erin in December, two had failed. The only all-local success took place three days before the peal attempt.

The curse of the tenor clapperAs if to heighten the suspense, the clapper to

our twenty-four–hundredweight tenor chose late 2008 as its zenith of recalcitrance. First, on November 16th, it broke. This was the second time that our tenor clapper had broken while transatlantic visitors were attempting a peal. As Greg Russell said, our tenor clapper’s “mean time before failure” was about eight months.

Greg then proved his steeplekeeping mettle. In his cellar shop, our local Hephaestus built a lighter replacement with a double shaft – a narrow A-frame. It looked like a pair of giant tweezers holding the clapper ball.

Greg’s replacement survived for several weeks of general ringing, but then some bolts came loose and the ball dropped off. This occurred on Saturday, December 6th – yet again while visitors were attempting a peal. Our clapper gremlins are most inhospitable.

Undaunted, Greg engineered a sturdier substitute overnight, and the next morning’s service ringing proceeded as usual. But the querulous began to question whether we should use a Russell clapper for the peal. Meanwhile, the powers in the tower debated what kind of replacement to order, and how many. In the end, this debate was settled by the shipping calendar. We did not obtain a new clapper from the manufacturer in time for the peal attempt. So we forged ahead, using Greg’s design.

December 17, 2008: The peal memorandum

At our final practice, in addition to conducting a successful quarter, Tim distributed a memorandum, aimed at the novices, that listed nuggets of how-to-ring-a-peal wisdom. First, in line with our band’s general chattiness, Tim urged all of us to put each other right, if we thought we saw errors and knew how to correct them. This was an explicit delegation of authority to those in band – half of us, really – who could be counted on to have a sense of where we learners should be, and how we might go wrong.

Tim also asked that if he himself put any of us right, and we thought he was actually putting us wrong, we do as instructed but shake our heads in disagreement. That way, we could efficiently inform Tim that we didn’t think we were being put right at all. This seemed a reasonable compromise between conductorial authority, on the one hand, and ringer situational knowledge, on the other.

Tim also told us frankly what we would do if we lost the peal: We would attempt quarters in several methods, as time permitted. This acknowledgment that failure was possible took some of the pressure off. If our Ringing Master was willing to contemplate the chances

of a flop, then we were approaching the attempt reasonably.

Lastly, the memo raised the issue of maintaining good circulation. To keep the blood flowing, it was vital to keep the legs moving. On reading this advice, I doubted that I would need to follow it.

December 20th, 2008: The peal attemptSaturday, December 20th, finally dawned.

The morning was cold and snowy. The night had not been restful: It had felt like the night before a big court appearance, and I had not slept well. Dodging the ice on the sidewalks, I arrived in the tower at 9.40am to find most of the band already there. Perhaps no one else had slept well either? Duncan had arrived so early that he had raised all 12 bells.

It being so cold, there was some fussing about the heat before we pulled off. Once we started, the peal passed more quickly than I had expected, much of it in a blur. Part of the blur was slight disappointment: I had hoped to make a technique breakthrough during the peal, and to become a more efficient ringer, so that I would not spend as much energy on each stroke, and could get through the peal more easily. But there was no efficiency epiphany.

Rather than make a technique breakthrough, I encountered a stamina problem. As Tim had predicted, I began to feel light-headed. About an hour into the peal, the ringing chamber seemed at times to tilt slightly toward me, and the sally seemed to descend more threateningly. At one point, I almost lost the sally because I was losing my balance. For a while, I contemplated whether to stop and set my bell – and what the reaction of my fellow band members would be if I did this. That was not a happy thought. So I kept breathing deeply, remembered Tim’s advice, and began to mimic Chapman, who has a habit of

bouncing up and down on his toes and lifting his feet at backstroke. (He calls it his “happy dance,” but I now suspect it has other purposes.) The footwork helped. Also, knowing that the entire tower moved with the motion of the bells, I told myself to think of the ringing-room floor as the deck of a ship.

As for the method, there admittedly were times when I got confused among the little bells, and rang over the wrong one. More bizarrely, several times I nearly forgot to finish my lead. Both Chapman and Duncan were eagle-eyed enough to anticipate this and put me right. And once I was a full blow off, still in 5-4 down when I should have been making thirds. This prompted Tim to mutter, like a friendly doctor, “Now, Jeremy, what’s going on here?” Chastened, I raced for the front.

Halfway through, after the second call of “big single,” fatigue and optimism began to war with one another. My handling occasionally deteriorated, as did my striking. I renewed my concentration. And renewed it again. And again!

Eventually Tim announced that there were 12 courses left. Morale visibly improved. Tim, Roger, and Greg remained vigilant to the end, but Chapman and Duncan began to grin broadly. Perhaps they were rejoicing that our fixation on Erin – which Chapman teasingly described as “Tim’s white whale” – would soon cease? Later Chapman claimed that he was just beginning his celebration early.

The celebrationIn our last course, as we neared rounds, the

smiles spread from face to face. We set our bells with great contentment. Each of us was very glad to be done, but also delighted with each other. Duncan began to applaud, everyone shook hands, and Tim was mobbed with backslappers. We learners were in the mood to hoist him to our shoulders and carry him to the pub, but unfortunately our tower’s steep ladders and winding stone staircase did not permit this. And in truth, such jubilation would have been physically beyond me. Reaching for my water bottle, I tumbled to a bench and began to knead my aching shoulders. Tony Furnivall called our regular hangout to ask that Champagne be put on ice.

At the pub we were met by other Trinity ringers, who shared good-naturedly in the general delight. As we toasted our Ringing Master, Tony Furnivall recalled that before Trinity’s bells were even installed, Tim had suggested that we could ring a local-band peal of Cinques within two years. At the time, Tony said, he had thought Tim crazy. “Now I realize,” said Tony, “that this is the kind of craziness we need more of.”

For his part, Tim admitted that he had long thought of the peal attempt as a target to shoot for, rather than a goal actually to reach. He said that the ringing during the peal had been better than the ringing during any of the quarter attempts, and that we had performed “beyond expectations.” So management was pleased.

To this must be added the fact that Tim himself never missed a call. Indeed, the entire peal ended was much quieter and calmer than I had expected – much less desperate, much

The formidable Erin ‘hot house’

Continued overleaf

200 – The Ringing World February 27, 2009

Hubert was a member of the band who rang a record length of 13,001changes of

Grandsire Cinques on the 14th February 1920, in 8 hours and 45 minutes at St Mary the Virgin, Painswick.

At St Laurence Stroud we have a splendid, large, professional photograph of the band seated in the churchyard wearing suits etc. – many sporting watch chains and half of them holding pairs of handbells. Details of the peal and their names are on the mount. Most of the ringers appear to be of mature years and, from my research, Hubert would have been 62 years of age and Albert Hanks, who rang the tenor (26cwt) for 8 hours and 45 minutes, 75 years!

The friendly rivalry with the neighbouring tower of St Laurence 10 (20cwt) Stroud during the 16/17/1800s over who could have the largest number of bells has been well documented, with Painswick achieving a ring of 12. However the first peal was rung at St Laurence; Grandsire Triples on 4th December 1722, soon after the “first peal ever” (at Norwich in 1715).

With the help of his daughter he assembled a scrapbook which was retained by her after his death and following her demise earlier this century, a family friend, unknown to me, passed it to me with a brief letter.

It contains some 82 pages and the contents are cuttings from The Ringing World, local and national newspapers. There are prints

of photographs of 87 male ringers – the first being Sir Arthur P. Heywood and the last, by sequence, Rupert Richardson and his wife of Surfleet with many other well known names in between from before and after the two World Wars, ending in the late 1940s. There are also photos of Sylvia Boyer (Ipswich). Hilda Snowden, Mrs E. K. Fletcher and Jill Staniforth, then Jill Poole at the age of 15 and a peal report including her, of Cambridge Surprise Maximus at Leicester Cathedral in 1944.

There are prints of a variety of towers including unusual ones such as Quex Park and the Boston Stump, poems on bells, meeting reports, outings and peals by other Associations. Also quite a number of tributes and/or obituaries of well known personalities including, Revd E. Banks James (Gloucester and Surfleet), Gabriel Lindoff (Dublin), and John Austin (Gloucester).

The following headings have caught my attention:

First peal on the bells of Gloucester Cathedral for 45 years

On Saturday, 7th September 1946 a peal of 5056 changes of Cambridge Surprise Major was rung in 3 hours and 40 minutes. The band consisted of five from Birmingham. two from Cheltenham and one from Bristol with Wilfred Williams as tenor ringer and conductor. An earlier attempt in July was abandoned after 2½ hours due to the bad ‘go’ of the tenor. The slow time with a 24cwt tenor rung by Wilfred and the failed attempt speaks volumes on the condition of the bells and frame. In consequence the peal came round only 7 minutes before the last train of the day to Birmingham at 8.35pm and despite every effort the ringers missed it. After spending time in a local hostelry, they caught the next train at 2.25am arriving home at 4.30am. It is recorded that they all turned out on time for Sunday service ringing!

Early Days – A picture of Gloucester Cathedral Belfry

To quote from the late ‘Ringing Dean Very Revd Gilbert Thurlow’ writing in 1979 “even until the recent past, evening ringers, old and young of both sexes had to negotiate the long climb in pitch dark with no handrails. When I first rang there in 1944, we stood in a vast space, dusty, filthy and open to every kind of weather”.

I was a member of the Cathedral band during the 1970s, then a peal of 10 which we rang regularly in much the same conditions. Poor lighting and heating (or none), the floor covering was ‘dirty coconut matting’ (a fire hazard) and as the late Les Barry, the tower master, occasionally ‘smoked cigarettes’ between touches, we envisaged that the Cathedral might become our funeral pyre! The ringing chamber only occupies a corner of the central tower with two external walls and in those days (before global

warming) it was quite common for rain and/or snow to blow into the ringing chamber from between the large stone louvres.

This changed in 1977/8 when the Dean achieved his ambition to re-hang the bells and augment them to 12. However, before the Whitechapel Foundry could carry out the new work, extensive repairs and replacements of the supporting floor joists, taking several months, had to be carried out by the Cathedral Staff to the requirements of the Cathedral Architect.

Again I quote from the Dean “the new bell frame, an excellent design of 1978 in Iroko, an African hardwood, given by the Langtree Trust stands on the original floor joists contemporary with the tower. The removal beforehand of the floorboards showed that, owing to neglect of the roof in the past, water had penetrated some of the joists and considerable proportions had rotted. The general condition appeared to be such, that had the rehanging work not been undertaken, in future years the whole might have crashed through the quire vault below and rebuilding could have cost millions of pounds”.

Great Peter – Mediaeval Bourdon Bell – 59cwt 3qr 141b

The following is an extract from an article by Revd E. Bankes James of Gloucester printed in The Ringing World of 4th October 1940. “Up the tower to see Great Peter being rung up muffled for the funeral of Canon Sir John Seymour. No light task that! It took 8 men to ring her. She was rung from the ground floor, and 80 feet of slack rope had to be kept under control. There were 6 tail ropes spliced onto the end and George Wankelyn (Conductor of the band) stood to catch the sallie. Another man stood by the wheel to steady her in when she had to be set. It was a three-quarter wheel and she would only set at hand. That was the last time she was ever ‘rung up’ (1878)”.

When John Taylor examined her some 20 years later he said he would never have dared to hang a bell of that size on such small gudgeons.

To quote the Dean again “So Great Peter went to sleep for a hundred years. In 1927 it was badly re-hung, fixed and unable to swing and it was thereafter sounded by having its clapper pulled by a chain and banged against the sound-bow”. In 1977/8 it was re-hung by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry. The wooden headstock was replaced by a shaped metal one, so that the centre of gravity nearly coincides with the bearings and causes the bell and clapper to swing very slowly and grandly. Motion is imparted by an electric motor. Great Peter is swung daily for Evensong and before the main Sunday morning service.

Although I have rung peals at Painswick and been a visitor over many years, I have never been a tower member. I therefore propose handing over the book and letter to their members for placing in their archives.

LAURENCE E. HITCHINSSt Laurence, Stroud, Gloucestershire

£10

A Ringer’s Scrapbook: Hubert Scrivens – Painswick

more confident, much more rhythmic. It had indeed gone better than any of the quarters. Labor was pleased too.

The joy of ringingAnd so it was over. The dance was done,

the peal was ended, the celebration finished. As the year concluded, there was a sense of letdown, of anticlimax. This was to be expected: Like all music, ringing is evanescent, and any sonic achievement vanishes swiftly. In this sense, a peal is like a sandcastle, doomed to oblivion.

So why did we take such joy in our peal? Why indeed do we take pleasure in any ringing? And what was especially enjoyable about Trinity’s approach? I have no other tower by which to judge; but the joy of working up to this peal seems to me to have depended on several factors, some of them specific to this experience, and some general to all ringing.

First, our band took steady steps toward a major goal. The Barnes Manifesto had given us a goal and showed us how by increments we could achieve it. We were therefore able to judge where we stood in relation to our goal, to understand what logically came next, and to see how far we had come. Each increment of progress – each method rung cleanly on a higher number of bells – was an interim

An Erin start Continued from p.199

Concluded on p.212

212 – The Ringing World February 27, 2009

Ernest F Willcox (1934 - 2008)

I first met Ernie Willcox in the early 1970s, when he was the formidable Ringing Master of St Chad’s, Shrewsbury, and I was a bit of a rabbit at twelve bell ringing. I soon learned that, besides being a superb heavy bell ringer whose high standard could lift the performance of the whole band, he was also very kind to novices. A man of few, and ruthless, words, if the ringing was sloppy, whose glare from the tenor box wilted many pretensions, he also had an impish sense of humour and a fund of funny stories. He was not a man who sought office, he simply loved ringing. Nevertheless, he worked hard for the Shropshire Association, taking on the roles of Ringing Master and Central Council Representative for some years.

Ernest Frank Willcox was a Salopian born and bred. He was twelve years old when he first climbed St Mary’s tower in Shrewsbury town centre, and asked to learn to ring. Another youngster there at the time was Cliff Barron. A couple of years older than Ernie, he was later to conduct Ernie’s first peal and became a life-long friend.

In those days there were separate bands at St Chad’s and St Mary’s, and Fred Beddow was Ringing Master at St Chad’s. If Ernie had any doubts about ringing, they ceased when Fred turned up to St Mary’s practice one evening with his daughter, Sylvia. Ernie started ringing at both towers. He was thirteen when he asked Sylvia to go out with him.

After leaving school, Ernie took a brick-laying apprenticeship. This was followed by National Service, from 1953 to 1956. He went into the Royal Horse Guards regiment (now part of the Blues and Royals), where his equine partner was named Spook. When stationed at the Knightsbridge barracks he took every opportunity to go ringing. In May, 1954 he was invited into a Cumberlands peal of Stedman Cinques, but had to decline. Her Majesty the Queen was

returning from a Commonwealth tour and all leave was cancelled for the day in question.

Imagine the consternation when Trooper Willcox was summoned, without explanation, to the CO’s office. There, he was ordered to present himself for peal ringing duty at St Martin-in-the-Fields, and to do his best for ‘the honour of the regiment’. Ernie kept a straight face. Strings had been pulled, and Stedman Cinques was duly scored.

He returned to Shrewsbury and married Sylvia in 1957. He hoped to join the police. Shrewdly recognising that it would be difficult to police his home town, where he was so well known, he applied to the Buckinghamshire force, and worked there for the next ten years. Four of his five children were born during these years, which came to an end when Ernest’s mother-in-law became ill. The family returned to Shrewsbury, where Ernie resumed his first trade as a bricklayer, and gradually took on a leading role in local ringing. Ann Williams recalls that he was always very encouraging to novice ringers, and steered many people through their first quarters and peals, often at Atcham. When she started a new band at Moreton Corbet in the 1970s, Ernie came regularly to help. He promoted the regular ringing of quarter peals which is still a feature of the Shropshire Association. He also donated the cup for our striking competition.

Ernie rang 137 peals for the Shropshire Association, of which he conducted 19. His first peal, in March 1952, was of Plain Bob Minor at Cound, and the last was exactly 40 years later, in March 1992. A link with the beginnings of the Association is that Ernie rang peals with Teddy Rodenhurst, who rang in the Association’s first peal in 1926. Ernest also rang in the first peals at Atcham and Meole Brace. He rang the tenor at St Chad’s to peals from Triples to Maximus. An attempt for Minor was abandoned when one of the other ringers had had enough.

In total, Ernie rang in excess of 250 peals, for 18 Associations. His 100th peal was in 1970 on the tenor at Liverpool Cathedral. By modern standards he didn’t ring advanced methods – his peals included Cambridge Royal – and he often volunteered for treble or tenor. He is remembered for impeccable striking and concentration.

Apart from ringing, Ernie much enjoyed military band music. For many years he acted as general factotum and minder to the bands at the Shrewsbury Flower Show, and was to be seen alongside the bandstand, keeping a warning eye on the audience. He also enjoyed his regular visits to the Munich Beer Festival.

In the mid 1990s Ernie’s health began to deteriorate. Characteristically, he decided to stop ringing while he still maintained a good standard. He was seriously ill for some months before his death on December 20th. He will be remembered as a colourful character, and as a ringer who was generous with his talent.

GILL GLOvER

Shrewsbury, Shrops. (S Chad) 8 Jan, 1313 Stedman Cinques: George W Pipe 1, Neil Bennett 2, Gillian R Glover 3, Nicholas J Green 4, Michael Wilshaw 5, Edric W Broom 6, Brian S B Kear 7, Andrew W Gordon 8, Roderick W Pipe (C) 9, Robert C Kippin 10, Richard B Grimmett 11, Mark Adams 12. In celebration of the life of Ernest F Willcox, sometime ringer and tower captain at this tower, on the day of his funeral.

Shrewsbury, Shrops. (S Chad) 11 Jan, 1259 Grandsire Caters: E Ann Williams 1, Dawn V A Offen 2, Philip W Gay 3, Gillian R Glover 4, John D Neal 5, Brian S B Kear 6, Adrian G Roberts 7, Nicholas J Green (C) 8, Geoffrey A Edwards 9, Alan M Glover 10. On the back ten and to celebrate the life of Ernest Willcox, sometime ringer and tower captain at this tower, who died on Saturday, 20th December 2008.

OBITUARYeditor@ringingworld.co.uk

accomplishment toward an end that was always in view. By the same token, we knew what methods we should not be working on, because they did not help us toward Erin Cinques. A clear and ambitious goal made our time in the tower more efficient and more meaningful.

Second, if I am any judge after ringing just one, any peal has at least a little glory. A peal is a pinnacle of pattern and proportion. To ring a peal is to impose order on chaos, to build a satisfying structure, to make more elegant a little stretch of time and space. Each and every peal attempt is a chance to construct a castle in the air – to create something nearly useless, but nearly perfect.

Putting these two factors together – steady marching toward a castle in the air – suggests that more than most endeavors, working up to a peal is a very Aristotelian striving toward a very Platonic goal. In this sense, working up to a peal unites the experiential and the conceptual, the physical and the mental, the inductive and the deductive, the real and the ideal, the fleeting and the timeless.

No one at Trinity said all this, of course. These are merely my musings, and I have never shared them aloud. We don’t get that drunk at the pub, and the Trinity band has too keen a sense of the ridiculous.

Our band also has a sense of perspective. As hard as we worked towards our goal, and as earnestly as we wished to achieve it, we understood that far more important than whether we made the peal was whether we remained friendly after it was done.

Indeed, all along, our leaders had modeled teamwork and cooperation, and had given us learners unstinting support. That is why Tim began his memo in forgiving fashion, by describing how we would usefully spend our time together even if the peal failed. That is also why he concluded, “Let’s all give it our best shot and enjoy it!”

After all, which matters more, the striking or the smiling? From this learner’s point of view, the band that knows the answer to this question can ring Erin Cinques and much, much more.

Plain Bob Major, anyone?Or, in my case – at least in the near future

– much, much less. For after 18 months of marching towards Erin Cinques, my skill set is a bit out of whack. It’s as though I were a Formula One driver who cannot be entrusted to drive around the neighborhood. My technique needs consolidation, and some basics need brushing up.

So, if you visit Trinity Wall Street anytime soon, please do not assume that we can all ring, say, Plain Bob Major. If you remind me that it’s an Erin start, though, I may stand a chance.

JEREMY C. BATES

An Erin start Concluded from p.200

240 – The Ringing World March 6, 2009

New sanctus bell for Bishopstone

St Mary’s church in the pretty downland village of Bishopstone, seven miles east of Swindon, is blessed with a complete 1891 Mears octave with a 19-2-19 tenor. In 1553 there were three bells and a Sanctus. By 1704, a full peal of eight, the oldest said to date from 1602 summoned the faithful to worship. But on Good Friday 1891, all the bells, including some recast by James Wells

of Aldbourne in 1796, were destroyed in a disastrous fire. Villagers rolled up their sleeves and installed a new ring by Christmas that year; but not the Sanctus bell – eight was enough!

Fast forward to December 2008 and the installation of a 1928 Sanctus bell (1-0-22) in honour of the 100th birthday of Queenie Cull, Bishopstone’s oldest resident and mother of Tower Captain, Jane McCutchan. The Taylor’s bell, sourced from the Keltek Trust near Bath and given by her family, was installed by Whites of Appleton. A quarter peal of Grandsire Triples (see p.946) was rung to celebrate the purchase of the bell and the installation costs were met by the local Finch family in memory of their son, Joe.

A highlight for Queenie’s birthday was the peal of Grandsire Triples, rung as part of the centenary celebrations, following the tradition set in 1967 when a peal commemorated the 100th birthday of her mother, Mrs Emily Molton at Blunsdon St Leonard (see p.1306). This prompted some of the ringers to note June 2046 in their diaries.

The Sanctus bell was dedicated by the Bishop of Swindon, Rt Revd Lee Stephen rayfield, on Sunday, 15th February 2009 and a quarter peal was rung at the end of the service to celebrate the completion of the project. Thanks to G&B Bells Advisor, Jim Taylor, dAC Secretary, Jane Holmes, The Keltek Trust, Brian White, Tony Crabtree, Revd Robin Cardwell, the PCC and local ringers. The bell speaks for us. dArrAn rICKS

Bishopstone, Wilts. 15 Feb, 1260 Grandsire Doubles: Jane McCutchan 1, Lucy Laird 2, Darran Ricks (C) 3, Daniel Knight 4, Tony Crabtree 5, Scott Stevens 6. Rung to celebrate the completion of the project to install a Sanctus Bell into the tower of St Mary’s, replacing the one destroyed in a fire on Good Friday of 1891. Ringing commenced immediately after morning service at which The Bishop of Swindon dedicated the new bell.

We have received many favourable comments concerning last week’s front page article about the first local band peal attempt at Trinity Church Wall Street, New York (see letter on p.223). Unfortunately we didn’t have a picture of the Erin peal band available at the time of going to press – but here it is now, together with the composition for the peal on p.239. Our thanks to Tim Barnes and Jeremy Bates for supplying these.

The Ringing World congratulates the follow-ing people who have gained badges in the Sherbourne Teaching-aids Bell Club scheme:Blue Badge (Ambitious Apprentice)Brockworth, Glos: Lauren Gifford, Daniel Gill,

Connie PlantLongstanton, Cambs: Andy MarshallRayne, Essex: Scott Finlayson, Lewis WilliamsSt Albans, Herts, (St Peter’s): Katherine

Butler, Nick Butler, Philippa Parker, Benedict Parker

Stinchcombe, Glos: Nick Morganupper Cam, glos: Hannah SearleWrittle, Essex: Ellanor Collop, Thomas Sloman,

David MeahGreen Badge (Happy Hunter)Aberdare, Mid Glamorgan: George LewisBssaleg, Gwent: Charles CowperBocking/Stisted, Essex: Abigail Thompson,

Michael ThompsonIslington, St Mary’s, London: Keziban YusufLongstanton, Cambs: Susan RutterPlymouth, Emmanuel, Devon: Joseph PeckPoynton, Ches: Ben HuggettRayne, Essex: Ryan Finlayson Redbourn, Herts: Alex WellsShirenewton, Gwent: Merrick Stanley,

Rhiannon MillarRed Badge (Artful Dodger)Longstanton, Cambs: Jeremy Cartwright,

Hannah CartwrightOver, Cambs: Lucy CookWrittle, Essex: Emer Wilson, Becky PasmoreGold Badge (Champion Campanologist)Aberdare, Mid Glamorgan: Emily Howells,

Matthew Davies, Mike LewisBurwell, Cambs: Catherine SmithOver, Cambs: Tristan Johnstone

For more information about the scheme see www.btinternet.com/~copson.

For inclusion of your achievers’ names in RW please email to copson@btinternet.com or send in letter to Ted Copson, 40 Hammerton Way, Wellesbourne, WArWICK CV35 9nT.

Please do not send direct to RW.

* * * * * *

BELL CLUBAWARDS

Queenie being presented with the new sanctus bell at Whites (photo by Ian Clark)

The Trinity Wall Street Erin peal band

Left to right – Back row: John Danaher, John Hitchings, Lynn Kodrich, Tina Hitchings, Tony Micocci; front row: Roger Savory, Tony Furnivall, Jeremy Bates, Tim Barnes,

Duncan Large, Chapman Knott and Greg Russell