Ringing Forums

I have come across this before. As best I could work out it happened because the person in charge, and maybe the majority of the band, didn't think it was worth the effort. I say that without passing any judgement, they simply reached a different conclusion to me.

The second reason is that once it becomes habit to ring the front 6 people stop thinking about ringing the back bells. So even if there is a band to ring to ring all 8 it might have genuinely not even crossed the organiser's mind.

It sounds like you have the second reason covered as you are asking the question of the organiser. The best way I have found to tackle the first issue is to offer to do all the work! That means offering to ring tenor, and if its still down then offering to ring it up. It helps if you have another enthusiastic friend who will offer to ring the other back bell. Faced with two keen and willing volunteers to undertake all of the additional effort it is much harder for the organiser to say no.

What on earth has either the sex or the racial background of people to do with maintaining bells? All that matters is competence and availability. — J Martin Rushton

One of Alison's points is that availability may be diminishing:

We hear that the number of people willing and able to do maintenance work in belfries seems to be reducing — Alison Hodge

And she highlights that the current pool of people is drawn largely from a specific demographic which covers substantially less than 50% of ringers.

their age profile is very high (mainly over 60). Their diversity is almost exclusively white male! — Alison Hodge

So if we want to expand the number of competent people then looking outside the current demographic is sensible/essential, as @John Harrison says.

Besides the goal of ensuring that there are enough component people we might also consider whether there are people who would like be involved in steeple-keeping, particularly woman, who lack the opportunity or encouragement to do so. This is a positive goal in its own right and worthy of spending time on. Fortunately the two goals align perfectly so its a win-win.

I agree with Simon that it is a common practice on big bells and that by trying to "outlaw it" your tower captain is, most likely unintentionally, reducing inclusivity.

The stay on a 37cwt bell will be a chunky piece of wood. When set a bell of that weight will only be a few degrees of rotation (2°-4° I would guess) beyond the balance point. If you think about it the maximum energy that can be dissipated into the stay is the energy from the bell falling under its own weight from the balance point to the set point, so falling a couple of degrees. The ringer can only put energy into the system by lifting the bell from the set point up towards the balance. if the ringer exceeds the energy requirement to get between the set point and the balance then the bells comes off the balance and its mission accomplished.

Its a completely different scenario to say a learner ringing a lighter bell without sufficient control where they can pull hard at one stroke and bounce the bell off the stay at the next stroke hard enough to bounce off the stay and back over the balance at speed.

The stay is made of ash which is a flexible wood which is designed to absorb a certain level of energy without damage, exactly the same as a sledgehammer or pick axe handle does. Those can be used virtually indefinitely without damaging the wooden handle. I'm sure you know this already but it might help to be able to frame it in these terms with your tower captain.

In terms of techniques other than bouncing the bell off, I will try and describe what I do (as a 6ft, approx. 80 kg person). I go up on my tiptoes and hold the sally as high as I can with my arms fully straight. I then sink down on my toes and hang on my arms, this shouldn't require your arm muscles to be tensed, you are hanging rather than pulling. I do this to take the stretch out of the rope, the bell has not moved off the stay yet. Its hard to estimate what is required to do this, but I'd say you want to put 30-40kg on the rope, so about half my bodyweight. After the treble ringer has said "Look to", I start to pull the bell off. To do this I think about dropping down off my toes to being flat footed, ultimately transferring all of my body weight onto the rope, and if need be I start to pull with my arm muscles, thinking about lifting myself off the box, this brings the bell up to, and over the balance.

I think the key is that I treat the pull-off as one single movement after the step to take the stretch out of the rope. I'm never aiming to get it to the balance and then holding it there. I'd say that the whole movement takes something like two seconds. I think something to avoid, and this might be where you are hurting yourself, is trying to jerk the bell with short impulses of force. Give it one firm, long duration pull and believe it is going to come off the balance. If you can, try and practice it by yourself where you don't have the added complication of trying to pull off in time with everyone else.

The final point I would make is that it is not easy, people who are very good at it make it look easy. It takes time and practice to perfect it. I've turned in 2 ton+ bells to peals and I've still failed to manage to pull a tenor off and come crashing into the following change.

What exactly is it that you are trying to achieve? Are you trying to dry out wet ropes or are you trying to keep ropes dry from ringing session to ringing session?

I suspect both units would work well for drying out wet ropes, they could easily be hung inside and would dry in the space of a few hours at most.

Both are massively overkill for trying to keep dry ropes from getting damp in a tower from week to week. They are designed to dry things quickly rather than the very low level needed to keep things dry. The Lakeland unit spec says that it uses 1kW of electricity. That's infeasible to leave on all week so I guess it would need a timer adding to dry the ropes before each practice/service ringing. The Electrolux unit uses a heat pump so will be more energy efficient but is still designed for a rapid drying.

Depending where your line between commercial and home-made is we have successfully used a tubular heater for many years. Something like this one:
https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/DXECOT1.html
They are designed for applications where a low level of background heat is required to prevent freezing or condensation.

We hang the ropes on the spider from the top of the double tuck so that the bottom half of the tail ends fall vertically down under the spider. We then position the spider so that the end of the tails hang around a foot above the tubular heater and leave it on between sessions. The low level of heat creates a small upward current of slightly warm (and therefore dry) air which keeps the tails nice and soft.

If one orders full muffles from a supplier, are they usable to either full or half muffle a bell, or are they really only usable to fully muffle? — David Smith

We got a set of full muffles from Big Wilf. They are usable as either a full muffle or a half muffle. Essentially they are the standard half muffle with normal velcro straps. The other half muffle is just the muffle bit, no straps. The straps from the first half muffle loop through the back of the second half muffle to secure them. They are easy to use and fairly quick to swap between half and full muffle configuration.

I have used self amalgamating tape to good effect to prevent muffles from slipping. Its a rubber tape that after a few days bonds to itself on any overlap to become a continuous piece of rubber.

To use it wrap 4 or 4 turns around the clapper shaft just above the ball (where the top muffle strap will sit). Make sure to pull it tight as you do each loop as its the tension that causes it to bond to itself. Do the same thing on the flight just below the ball where the lower muffle strap will sit. Ideally put the tape on a few days before the muffles are needed to give it time to bond to itself.

The rubber provides a grippy surface between the leather strap and the clapper shaft and is very effective at preventing turning. The tape can be left on the clappers permanently but if it needs to be removed then just use a pair of scissors.

One roll of tape will be enough to do a set of bells and its a few pounds from a hardware shop, B&Q, etc.