Ringing Forums

The use of the headings for calling positions 'W M H' in Plain bob is usual nowadays, first appearing in a text book in Shipway I believe (1813/16). However, ever since Jasper Snowdon's 'Ropesight' (1879) - in Triples the use of W and M has often been interchanged, because the position of the notated bell is exchanged because of the odd number. (it's more logical to keep the order W,M,H because of l/e order, CO and transpositions).

I wonder if someone with access to a copy of Shipway could look up Bob Triples (and caters and cinques) to see which way round he used - I know the compositions appearing, but only second hand, so no telling which was original! Unfortunately the CC's History books uses the Ropesight layout, without indicating original format.