Ringing Forums

'free tuition in return for a commitment to stay' has a natural logic but I doubt it holds much water.

If a new recruit stays with us long enough to master the basic skills and ring r&cc, then they are probably close to being 'hooked'. At my age, I have no time or interest in teaching people who want to learn to ring simply because it might be an interesting hobby. My motivation is to maintain a viable band at my home tower.

Almost without exception, those who have mastered the basics are rather pleased when we invite them to start attending on Sunday mornings. They feel that they have 'arrived' and gained recognition of their endeavours.

Perhaps you have the luxury of more ringers than bells. Here, where I have started training a band in a tower that was dormant for almost a decade, I make the point that we will teach them completely free of charge but in return, once they have mastered the basics and can control a bell safely and competently, we hope/expect them to join the Sunday service band.

We've tried various combinations of open and closed shutters over the years. I might repeat the exercise to see if we can effect some improvement.

The louvers are already boarded up. Each vertical 'slot' in the wall has 4 panels each abour 1m sq x 75mm thick and filled with rockwool. The lowest section of each column of panels is hinged to open and is usually left open. (I was going to insert a photo but can't find how to do it!)

If we can reduce the strident note of the tenor when heard outside, we can, if necessary, also adjust the internal acoustic layer between the bell and the ringers to compensate.

Yes, that's a fair point Roger; there is another tower nearby where the quality of the sound varies considerably depending on which side of the tower you stand.

Internally, the sound in the ringing chamber is quite acceptable but outside, particularly on the south side - where the tenor is located - the 'mix' of the sound is dominated by the tenor.

I might try getting a local engineer to reduce the weight of the alternate clapper that we still have tucked away somewhere. I'm a bit wary of trimming too much off in case it weakens the shank of the clapper.

It can often be a combination of ringing skills & confidence. There is a heavy eight (23cwts) near us that have recently come back to life after hanging dormant for several years. Very few of the ringers have the physical strength or handling skills to ring them accurately to a plain hunt, let alone to methods. So we stick to the front six while we introduce them to basic change ringing and use the full eight only for r&cc.

Stella, I can see that our different conditions are causing similar but different problems. Mine is the lack of mucle-power to raise one arm to full height; yours is the far greater discomfort of arthritis grinding away against movement. Good luck in July!

If you have trouble ringing the lighter bells, surprising as it may seem, you may have less discomfort ringing the mid-range bells. With lighter bells what you are missing is the bell's own momentum. I hadn't realised, until I damaged my shoulder, how much I relied on the momentum of the bell to help lift my arms, especially at backstroke. As your hands pass you chin on the way up to either stroke, the momentum of the bell helps lift them to the end of the stroke.

Our trebles weigh around 2-3 cwts. It is necessary to consciously raise the arms as not doing so is almost a prelude to ringing down! I now avoid the problem by ringing the mid-range bells.

After a bad fall, I had a biceps tenotomy* to my right arm - consequently that the arm has only about 60% of its former 'pulling' power and raising it to backstroke can be a real ache. Occasionally I apply Ibuleve gel before I go ringing, more routinely, I ring the back stroke with my left arm only and my right arm hanging, relaxed, by my side, and use both hands on the sally. This works well for me.
(* For those 'in the trade': it was a biceps longhead tenotomy with decompression and rotator cuff repair.)

NEW RINGERS FOR OLD!
Like most towers, we welcome new recruits of any age but there are drawbacks to taking on both younger and older woud-be ringers. Young teenagers tend to develop their skills more quickly, especially as they transition from rounds & cc to change ringing. On the down side, they tend to discover the opposite sex and/or leave the area for college or university. Older recruits are usually settled in the area and in their lifestyles but tend progress a little slower. Our most recent intake were people in their 50s - almost ideal!
As regards recruiting, we run two events most years. On a Sunday afternoon in the summer we often have a Tower Open Day. Visitors can visit the tower, climb up to see the bells (we have easy access), visit the clock room and even go onto the flat roof of the tower to take photos of the townscape. There is no attempt to recruit but those who wish may have a few pulls on a silenced bell. A short Powerpoint presentation loops round continuously, projected onto the white wall. For the avoidance of doubt (!) we have ringers stationed as stewards at every level in the tower to supervise and assist the visitors.

We follow this up in September with an Open Night for people who are interested in finding out more. This is always on our regular practrice night (we don't want recruits who 'can't come on Mondays') and is our 'serious' recruiting effort with trial pulls and demonstrations of rounds, call changes and method ringing.

Picking up Peter Scott's last point about incommunicative correspondents, I have come to the conclusion that the risk of scam, malicious or junk phone calls is seriously over-egged. During the 35 years I served as a magistrate my phone number continued to be listed in the phone book and during that time I received only one unpleasant phone call. For the last 50+ years my address and phone number has been visible on a small sign at the external tower door and - touch wood - I have yet to receive a single unwanted phone call or visit.

Until this week, the church website that I manage has included the name, mobile number and email address of all the 'public facing' church officials and leaders of the several church groups. Communication was easy. (And for the avoidance of doubt, each contact had previously agreed to their details being published). This week, an edict 'from on high' required me to remove all the contact details and require that all communications are made via the generic Contact Form which will all land in the Vicar's in-box. I hope that this not the kiss of death to the messages and that our incumbent can cope with them all.

Thanks for that Martin. The church struck a remarkable deal with Morrison's Supermarket chain. They sold the site of the the 1966 church and part of the deal included the provision of a brand new church, as illustrated in the booklet shown in Martin's post. The new building really is the 'bees knees' with community hall/parish centre alongside and a new vicarage too. The church organ is rated as one of the best in the region. Sadly no bells though.

Our new emergency evacuation routecost £9.95.

A good workable rule of thumb is to aim for the number of ringers to equate to 150% of the number of bells. Our 8 bell tower has 11 ringers at various stages from rounds & cc to Stedman5. Allowing for occasional absences this usually ensures that we have sufficient for Sunday mornings.

Yes, I can agree with Richard-N, although not an engineer, I would refer to the device as a 'cotter pin'. Perhaps the term is on the cusp of becoming archaic as common usage these days seems to prefer 'split pin'.

As regards the correct term for the 'TMP' (Tower Maintenance Person), I'm quite happy to be the steeplepkeeper of our steeple-less tower. I like the quasi-alliterative sound of the term.

Two illustrations intended for my earlier message about soundproofing shutters.

Peter Sotheran

How does one insert an illustration into a message here?

" I'm currently boarding up our lower louvres "

We had a local joinery workshop make us a set of large panels, each about 1 metre square - wide enough to span across the inside of the louvers. Each panel is about 75mm thick with a marine ply panel on either side and filled with 'rockwool' to absorb sound. The outer surface is lined with roofing felt.

We screwed 75x75mm undressed timber to the wall, at the top, bottom and at either side of the louver apertures and then screwed the panels to these battens.

The lowest of the panels covering each of the four appertures is hinged to open and allow the bells to be heard clearly on 'high days & holy days".
C:\Users\User\Pictures\Marske Belfry\Shutters 1 copy.jpg

We also installed baffle boards between the lower edge of one louver board and the top of the one below it. These stop birds from building nests in the sheltered nooks and crannies.
[img]http://C:\Users\User\Pictures\Marske Belfry\Louvers & Baffle Boards edit.jpg[/img]

They were fairly quick and easy to install and after almost 60 years and they show no signs of failing yet.

I ithink there is still a hole (!) but the ceiling boss is made of cast metal rather than lathe-turned wood. The metal would inhibit the flame from a burning rope from transferring to the wooden ceiling.

A couple of further thoughts on amplified bells come to mind. There is the apocryphal tale of the church that installed an amplified system back in the 1960s or 70s. The vicar rushed out and bought what he considered to be a suitable record - The Bells of St Mary's - only to be somewhat taken aback when the velvet tones of Bing Crosby boomed out from the church tower!

To my own knowledge a modern (1950s) church on a large housing estate in Middlesbrough had a tall narrow tower - it was little more then 2 metres square inside. They regularly played a recording of a 12 bell tower through their sound system.