Bell Ringing - the basics

I’m often asked during author talks about my hobbies and interests, on answering I find that the audience are taken with my answer which includes bell ringing. There’s an interest and intrigue which is quite magical, so I thought I’d outline the basics which covers the questions I’m usually asked.
 
Firstly, a selection of questions which I’ve been frequently asked where the answer is either ‘no’, or ‘no, that doesn’t usually happen.’ 
 
Do you fly through the air like the monks on the old Mars bar advert?
Do you wear ear defenders whilst ringing?
Do you have to be a Christian to ring church bells?
Were you a bell ringing family?
You have more than a rope, surely?
 
Seriously, ear defenders? That’s a funny question because whilst ringing you aren’t actually in the same room as the bells. You stand in the ringing room beneath the bells which are hung in the belfry, the ropes are channelled through the ceiling – we’d certainly need ear defenders if there wasn’t a ceiling/floor between us! Though it means playing … ringing an instrument/bell that you can’t see – now, there’s an issue in itself. Many of the bells I have rung I have never laid eyes on. I’ve climbed into the belfry of several churches where I regularly ring but that’s a mere fraction compared to the number of bells I’ve rung in five years. 
 
We tend to refer to bells as female, due to the vessel shape, so sorry if that offends though some are famously known and named as males – I still find that strange.
 
OK, the basics. Not all churches have bells, and not all churches with bells have the same number of bells in their belfry. I ring at several churches in my local area so have access to rings of five, six, eight and ten bells. Bell ringers are a dying breed in my area so I travel between churches and ring when needed and necessary so it helps to be flexible and adaptable which serves the community – which is a primary function of ringing.  Though Christmas can be a stretch – one year, I travelled between and rang at four different churches in one day to accommodate different church services. 
 
I’ll talk about a six bell tower and you can adjust the patterns accordingly, the principal remains the same. There are two ways of ringing bells: call changing or methods. Call changing relies upon the tower captain giving verbal instructions for changing the sequence of the bells being rung – which changes the sound sequence.
 
Usually bell one is called the treble – lightest bell in the ring while the heaviest bell is known as the tenor. Most towers refer to them by name until call changing when numbers are used to eliminate confusion.
 
Each bell has a number: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Each bell has a place in the round: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
 
A tower captain tends to shout an instruction which is carried out on the next round.
For example: 1 2 3 4 5 6 rounds
Can become: 1 3 2 4 5 6 
 
The tower captain’s command would have been ‘3 to 1’, so bell 3 has moved from third place to second place – it remains named as bell 3 but its actual place is different. Likewise bell 2 has moved from second place to third place, but is still called bell 2. You only ever switch bells which are neighbours. In order for the bells to shift position bell 3 would need to move quicker and bell 2 would need to ring slower by being lifted a fraction higher allowing a gap for bell 3 to move into and then sound after she’s sounded. All with the use of your rope and pure timing!
 
A tower captain will continue to move the bells as they wish so the original sequence of 
1 2 3 4 5 6
1 3 2 4 5 6
1 3 4 2 5 6
1 3 4 5 2 6
1 3 4 5 6 2
 
If you follow each line you’ll see bell 2 has moved from second place to the back of the sequence. That’s a fairly simple change, but it shows the principal.
 
Some sequences are fairly traditional, eg. Queens is odd numbers followed by even numbers. Bells 1 2 3 4 5 6 becomes 1 3 5 2 4 6 if the tower captain gives the calls ‘3 to 1’, ‘5 to 2’ and ‘5 to 3’ to reach the desired Queens (calling down to the front). Or some towers call up which results in the same sequence using ‘2 to 3’, 4 to 5’ and ‘2 to 5’ – I respond to either calling up or down as I visit towers that call different ways. Some ringers only feel comfortable with one call style – I’ve just got used to it by thinking ‘bell ? follows bell ?’ – doesn’t really matter when you bear that in mind.
 
Tower captains tend to call a sequence which starts in a basic round and ends back in that basic rounds – unless it goes wrong and we start clashing and crashing the bells, they rarely quit part way through. They quit a sequence, on occasion, because the entire community can hear our errors! 
 
Methods are easier to explain – you have to learn a pattern sequence – there’s no calling out and each change occurs on each hand stroke or back stroke (each time you pull the rope basically). You memorise the pattern and hopefully, if everyone has memorised the sequence you can move your bell into the right place and it sounds wonderful. If someone hasn’t done their homework or can’t remember it correctly, it doesn’t work. I’m at the stage of learning methods. I love and hate it at the same time. I can recite my moves out loud prior to attending practice nights but put me a rope in my hands and ask me to move a bell amongst a ring of ten and well, it goes totally wrong as my brain and hands/eyes aren’t connecting. Practise, sheer practise.
 
For example: the simplest method is 'plain hunt' which on ten bells looks like this:
 
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
2 1 4 3 6 5 8 7 10 9
2 4 1 6 3 8 5 10 7 9
4 2 6 1 8 3 10 5 9 7
4 6 2 8 1 10 3 9 5 7
6 4 8 2 10 1 9 3 7 5
6 8 4 10 2 9 1 7 3 5
8 6 10 4 9 2 7 1 5 3
8 10 6 9 4 7 2 5 1 3
10 8 9 6 7 4 5 2 3 1
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
9 10 7 8 5 6 3 4 1 2
9 7 10 5 8 3 6 1 4 2
7 9 5 10 3 8 1 6 2 4
7 5 9 3 10 1 8 2 6 4
5 7 3 9 1 10 2 8 4 6
5 3 7 1 9 2 10 4 8 6
3 5 1 7 2 9 4 10 6 8
3 1 5 2 7 4 9 6 10 8
1 3 2 5 4 7 6 9 8 10
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
 
Each bell visits each placing and returns to its home position. 
 
Hopefully, next time you hear the church bells ringing you’ll understand the basics of what we’re 'trying' to do. In addition, some of us are trying desperately hard to recall the method and not mimic the monks in the Mars bar advert!

UPDATE: having gone backwards in my ability due to the lengthy absence caused by covid, I finally managed to revise and successfully ring Plain Hunt amongst ten bells on Wednesday, 4th May 2022. Thanks to the other ringers as I can't ring without nine other bodies!

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