Fun with Bells

For this episode, we have provided a Transcript with photos

Ringing can be spooky at the best of times – you may get shivers down your spine with a nicely struck touch of Stedman, or perhaps an eerie sensation of being watched when you’re on the treble.

However, for Halloween, Fun with Bells turns up the terror with this chilling collection of ghostly goings-on. Yes, this episode is even scarier than the ringing cage at Pershore Abbey.

This petrifying podcast is full of ominous, deathly warnings and the mournful sound of drowned, lost or buried bells ringing without the help of human hands. We also discover that not only has the Devil got the best tunes, he has also stolen the best bells!

Scare yourself silly with stories of bells that ring by themselves or bells that don’t ring at all. If you’ve not heard your church bells for some time don’t blame coronavirus restrictions. It’s much more likely that pixies have kidnapped your ringers and are holding them captive in a cave. Pixies just hate the sound of the bells – a bit like some newcomers to the village then.

Turn off the lights, turn up the volume and be afraid, be very afraid …

Credits

The ‘Ringers’ Arms’ image used for our Halloween special episode is a fake pub sign created by Maggie Willans.

Our violinist was Vaughan Jones from Manor House Music.

For all other credits – see the transcript

Sponsor: This podcast is sponsored by the Association of Ringing Teachers (ART).  To find out more about learning to ring, learning to teach or other resources to support your ringing go to bellringing.org

Podcast team:
Anne Tansley Thomas
Emily Roderick
John Gwynne
Emily Watts
Cathy Booth

Ringing by:
The Cambridge Youths (supplied by David Richards) and for later episodes, The Liliputters Guild (supplied by Simon Edwards).

For bellringing training and support for teachers and ringers see: bellringing.org

The ‘Ringers’ Arms’ image used for our Halloween special episode is a fake pub sign created by Maggie Willans.

Podcast team:
Anne Tansley Thomas
Emily Roderick
John Gwynne
Emily Watts
Cathy Booth

Ringing by:
The Cambridge Youths (supplied by David Richards) and for later episodes, The Liliputters Guild (supplied by Simon Edwards).

For bellringing training and support for teachers and ringers see: bellringing.org

Following on from last month’s edition, podcast host Cathy Booth reveals another dodgy dozen or so weird and wonderful towers. WARNING - this podcast contains details of hair-raising ringing environments, definitely not for the nervous ringers amongst you! 

Enjoy another litany of trapdoors, spiral staircases, beam scrambling, comedy pulleys and 17th-century ladders.

We now have a whole new list of things to watch out for – bizarre ringing circles, ropes arranged around the organist, and, erm, falling concrete!  And as lovely as weddings are, Cathy discovers these can be the source of much distraction. Please do be careful not to lasso a bridesmaid!

Lastly, and most importantly, always be EXTREMELY cautious if you accept an invitation to ring a quarter peal at a church whose bells are described as “rung from cage above chancel crossing”.

Featured towers:

St Mary Magdalene, Cottingham, Northamptonshire

• Simon Head read to us about Cottingham
• For more information see : http://cottinghamhistory.co.uk/Churches%20-%20St%20Mary.htm

St George’s, Great Bromley

• David Sparling reads to us about Great Bromley
• For more information see https://www.greatbromley.org.uk/st-georges-church-great-bromley?fbclid=IwAR0QwFFqHiL_J0jwQSXXcM04_0qRAk5MDHHnWlCb3y0KlapdjK4hr0F7q3I

Pershore Abbey

• Pershore Abbey where ringers ring from the square platform that you can see suspended in the top centre of this photo
• Stuart Piper told us about Pershore Abbey
• For more information see
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JN0AyqSl9gI
• http://www.merrix.eu/BellRinging/towers/worcs/Pershore-Abbey.htm
• http://www.archive.pershoreabbey.org.uk/bells.html

St Peter, Great Livermere

• Neil Dodge read to us about the tower at Great Livermere
• For more information about this church see http://www.suffolkchurches.co.uk/gliver.htm

Crowland Abbey

• Alison Davies read to us about Crowland Abbey
• For more information see:
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8DHfZ5y2oo
• https://meanderingthroughtime.weebly.com/history-blog/bells-of-croyland-abbey-in-lincolnshire
• https://ldgcb.org.uk/news/news2014/crowland_radio4.php

Inveraray

• Steve Johnson read a story recalled by Roy Le Marechal about a failed quarter peal attempt at Inverary.

St Wilfrid’s church, Hickleton, Derbyshire

• St Wilfred’s church, Hickleton : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Wilfrid%27s_Church,_Hickleton

Several London towers

• Steve Johnson read a report from Steve Jakeman about towers he has come across in his role as Bell restoration officer for the Middlesex County Association.

St. Michael And All Angels, Skelbrooke

• Helen Nichols read to us about Hickleton and Shellbrooke

Sponsor: This podcast is sponsored by the Association of Ringing Teachers (ART).  To find out more about learning to ring, learning to teach or other resources to support your ringing go to bellringing.org

Podcast team:
Anne Tansley Thomas
Emily Roderick
John Gwynne
Emily Watts
Cathy Booth

Ringing by:
The Cambridge Youths (supplied by David Richards) and for later episodes, The Liliputters Guild (supplied by Simon Edwards).

For bellringing training and support for teachers and ringers see: bellringing.org

These tales of weird and wonderful towers are definitely not for the faint-hearted ringers among you.   Podshow host, Cathy Booth, invites us behind the scenes of 15 of the most outlandish ringing environments from across the world, featuring trap doors, vaults, ventilator shafts, crawlways and external ladders. Clock cases also play a starring role, along with gas lamps and one particularly chilling occupant!

Some helpful tips here, though, should you find yourself faced with one of these terrifying towers. Need more ventilation as the ringing room is turning into a sauna? Just take the door off its hinges! 

And it seems that a whole new set of skills is needed to ring in these peculiar places. Ropesight won’t hold you in much stead in many of these challenging ringing environments, and listening will be difficult too, underneath the headphones you’ll need to use to preserve your hearing. Extra kudos, however, if you have the skills to get a barrel of beer up an external ladder – maybe a new module is needed for this in the ART ‘learning the ropes’ scheme … 

Featured towers:

St James, Garlickhythe, City of London

• Dickon Love read about the bells of Garlickhythe

The Waterloo Tower, Quex Park, Kent

• Simon Davies contributed the reading about Quex Park
• For more information see: http://www.quexringers.org.uk/pages/change-ringers.htm and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQ3nKr1aNXo

St Mary, Launton, Oxfordshire

• Rose Nightingale – who reads information about Launton. Rose also instigated and compiled the material for the Weird and Wonderful episodes of Fun with Bells.
• For more information see: https://www.facebook.com/stmaryschurchlaunton/

St Mary the Virgin, Cottingham, Riding of East Yorkshire

• Steve Johnson read to us about Cottingham. For more information see: https://www.stmaryscottingham.org/

St Patrick’s, Patrington, Yorkshire

• Chris de Cordova tells us about Patrington …. and the Patrington crawl
• For more information see: http://www.stpatrickspatrington.org.uk/the-church-building/the-bells/ and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zb1Fh8q2XNM

St Cuthbert’s, Cotherstone, County Durham

• Gordon Gray tells us about St Cuthbert’s church, Cotherstone. For more information see: https://northeastbells.co.uk/cotherstone/

East Bergholt

• Johnathan Williamson who tells us about East Bergholt
• For more information see: http://www.constablecountrychurches.co.uk/bells, http://www.eastbergholt-bells.org.uk/ and https://www.eadt.co.uk/news/weird-suffolk-east-bergholt-devil-1-6132132

Various other towers around the UK and the World

• Dee Smith also contributed several stories of towers from around the UK and the rest of the world.

Sponsor: This podcast is sponsored by the Association of Ringing Teachers (ART).  To find out more about learning to ring, learning to teach or other resources to support your ringing go to bellringing.org

Podcast team:
Anne Tansley Thomas
Emily Roderick
John Gwynne
Emily Watts
Cathy Booth

Ringing by:
The Cambridge Youths (supplied by David Richards) and for later episodes, The Liliputters Guild (supplied by Simon Edwards).

For bellringing training and support for teachers and ringers see: bellringing.org

This episode sees host Cathy Booth in conversation with Andrew Wilby for a fascinating insight into the Taylor Bell Foundry's past, present and future.

Based in Loughborough, we hear all about the history behind the foundry and some of the exciting attractions on site. The foundry has its own museum, 12 bell tower renowned for being the site of the world's longest peal and even a carillon. Plan your visit now for when lockdown is over!

You'll also discover what JS Bach has got to do with bell ringing, the ins and outs of harmonics and what equal temperament is - and no it's not an easy-going tower captain!

Andrew then gets into some heavy stuff, bells that is, before regaling Cathy with some hair-raising stories of his bell ringing travels abroad. Brilliant stuff!


Top 5 takeaways

• Find out more about the Taylor bell foundry on its website http://taylorbells.co.uk/
• A carillon is a musical instrument.  where a set of bells is played by a keyboard and pedals. The keys mechanically activate levers and wires connected to metal clappers which strike the bells. You can find out more about the Loughborough Carillon on its website https://www.carillontower.org.uk/index.htm
• Try listening to some bells cast by different methods and see which you think sounds best!
• Why not watch the bells of St Pauls in action on this YouTube clip Bells of St Pauls Cathedral, London 2
• And if you want to do your bit to ensure that the last remaining major bell foundry in Britain isn’t lost, visit  https://loughboroughbellfoundry.org/

NB. The photo for this episode was taken by Tommy Pengilley.

Sponsor: This podcast is sponsored by the Association of Ringing Teachers (ART).  To find out more about learning to ring, learning to teach or other resources to support your ringing go to bellringing.org

Podcast team:
Anne Tansley Thomas
Emily Roderick
John Gwynne
Emily Watts
Cathy Booth

Ringing by:
The Cambridge Youths (supplied by David Richards) and for later episodes, The Liliputters Guild (supplied by Simon Edwards).

For bellringing training and support for teachers and ringers see: bellringing.org

Can one ever have too many belfries? In this fascinating podcast, show host Cathy Booth finds the answer to this is no, as she quizes Helen McGregor about the amazing ringing centres at Tulloch and Alderney.

Helen’s bell ringing started as an excuse not to commit to babysitting for a neighbour but quickly turned into a lifetime’s addiction. What’s more, together with husband Peter, bell ringing has inspired what can only be termed a “belfry creation scheme”.

If developing two ringing centres isn’t enough, Helen also has ambitious plans for her hand bell ringing. She is confident that she could teach you, and possibly your dog, handbells too, if either of you have rhythm.

Whatever your interest is, be it tower bells or hand bells, there’s plenty to interest you in this wide-ranging podcast. And if It gets you thinking about your own ring of bells, there’s always the garage ...


Top 5 takeaways

• Your hands are stronger together, so don’t ring more with one hand than the other, keep them together
• It’s a rope, not a rod, so you can’t try and push it up! Keep a gentle tension in the rope at all times
• Fancy a trip to Tulloch or Alderney? Find out more at www.tullochbells.com  and http://alderneybells.com . If that’s too far to travel, look for a ringing centre nearer to you.
• Don’t just get stuck on one bell, or pair of bells if you or are ringing handbells. Moving around will help improve your ringing
• Set yourself some ringing goals. You may not want to ring a quarter peal in each quarter of the British Isles like Helen, but be ambitious and have fun!

Sponsor: This podcast is sponsored by the Association of Ringing Teachers (ART).  To find out more about learning to ring, learning to teach or other resources to support your ringing go to bellringing.org

Podcast team:
Anne Tansley Thomas
Emily Roderick
John Gwynne
Emily Watts
Cathy Booth

Ringing by:
The Cambridge Youths (supplied by David Richards) and for later episodes, The Liliputters Guild (supplied by Simon Edwards).

For bellringing training and support for teachers and ringers see: bellringing.org

Originally timed to coincide with the 75th anniversary of VE day, this unique episode sees host Cathy Booth, joined by a whole cast of ringers, bust the myths about ringing during World War II. This is the abridged version of ‘thirty voices, seventy-five years, one story’ aimed at non-ringers. And what a story!

For more information, including photographs and the biographies of the 2 interviewees, Dennis Brock and Eric Hitchins, see the show notes behind the full version.

Sponsor: This podcast is sponsored by the Association of Ringing Teachers (ART).  To find out more about learning to ring, learning to teach or other resources to support your ringing go to bellringing.org

Podcast team:
Anne Tansley Thomas
Emily Roderick
John Gwynne
Emily Watts
Cathy Booth

Ringing by:
The Cambridge Youths (supplied by David Richards) and for later episodes, The Liliputters Guild (supplied by Simon Edwards).

For bellringing training and support for teachers and ringers see: bellringing.org

Originally timed to coincide with the 75th anniversary of VE day, this unique episode sees host Cathy Booth, joined by a whole cast of ringers, bust the myths about ringing during World War II. This is the full version of ‘thirty voices, seventy-five years, one story’. And what a story!

Bell towers across the country are currently silent due to the coronavirus pandemic. Unprecedented is currently a much-used word, but in this case not warranted, as we discover that 2020 is not the first time in living memory that ringing has had to stop.

Cathy discovers the true story of this earlier ban on ringing, brought to life from archived letters and articles, and the amazing true-life experiences of people who were there, including Dennis Brock, Britain’s oldest bell ringer and Eric Hitchins who rang his first peal on VE Day 1945.

The parallels with the current situation are striking. We discover that ringers’ concerns echo down the years, with their distress at the prospect of not being able to ring at Easter felt as keenly then as now. And, it appears, they were just as resourceful when locked out of their towers. Oh, and not much has changed with the locals either – always complaining about the noise of the bells, until, of course, there’s a ban!

We obviously all know end of the story as we wouldn’t all be here today had the ringers not got back to their towers, rolled out their recruitment plans and shared their passion for ringing. This is a hopeful, positive and inspiring tale – truly a story for our times.


Story behind the story

Harry Badger sent a letter to the Ringing World about the ringing at Thame for the victory at El Alamein

Knowing bell ringers were missing their ringing due to the Coronavirus ban, Cathy wanted to produce an episode of Fun with Bells that looked back at the time when bell ringers endured a similar ban – in World War II.  Believing, as many historians do, that the ban was only lifted on VE Day, she asked Alan Regin to help her find bell ringers who had lived through the ban and could tell her about not being able to ring and what it was like being able to ring again.

Alan replied to Cathy, by return email, with suggestions of who Cathy could talk to and also sent 41 attachments, mostly scans of articles and letters published in the Ringing World  during the war.

Cathy enjoyed reading the eloquent language in the Ringing World and realised that, as well as the original idea of interviewing those that were there, there was a story portrayed in these Ringing World passages that was not widely known.  She then pondered how to put this across in the podcast until she hit on the idea of having current day bell ringers reading the passages. 

As she only thought of the idea on the 23rd April and wanted the podcast to be published on 7th May, to coincide with VE day, there was only 2 weeks to get everything done.

Some of the people doing the recordings had links to their predecessors including Stephen Hoare from Thame who read the letter from Harry Badger.  Stephen sent in a photograph of a peal board with Harry’s name on it.

And there were laughs as somebody sent in the wrong recording which contained frustrated expletives!!

Fortunately bell ringers are great at teamwork and with many people’s input, most notably Rose Nightingale and Steve Johnson the project was completed in time.


Top 5 take aways

• Why not take a leaf out of the book of the WW2 ringers and have a go at handbells during the lockdown.
• Now, like then, is the perfect time to put together your recruitment plan for when ringing returns.
• Why not research the local history of your tower and the local paper reports of the time. Do you know anyone who remembers the bells being rung to celebrate VE day in 1945?

Podcast team:
Anne Tansley Thomas
Emily Roderick
John Gwynne
Emily Watts
Cathy Booth

Ringing by:
The Cambridge Youths (supplied by David Richards) and for later episodes, The Liliputters Guild (supplied by Simon Edwards).

For bellringing training and support for teachers and ringers see: bellringing.org

In this episode you’ll get three for the price of one as a panel of the country’s top strikers discuss their top tips. And no, it’s not football we’re talking about, but bell ringing!

Colin Newman, Lesley Boyle and Stephanie Warboys join podcast host Cathy Booth at the Association of Ringing Teachers conference to chat about the holy grail of bell ringing, which is good striking.

What starts off with a simple explanation of what striking is and its importance to performance, then turns in into a frank discussion of an issue at the very heart of bell ringing. Do ringers focus too much on methods at the expense of good striking? And if so, how do you tackle this taboo subject if poor striking is happening in your tower? You’re all bound to have an opinion and so do our panel members!

So tune in now for some top tips for how to achieve Nirvana of ringing but first things first, work out if your bell goes ‘ding’ or goes ‘dong’.

Top 5 takeaways

We’ve a high scoring list of  top takeaways this week as instead of just five, we’ve over 15 top tips for better striking.

Also see www.funwithbells.com

Sponsor: This podcast is sponsored by the Association of Ringing Teachers (ART).  To find out more about learning to ring, learning to teach or other resources to support your ringing go to bellringing.org

Podcast team:
Anne Tansley Thomas
Emily Roderick
John Gwynne
Emily Watts
Cathy Booth

Ringing by:
The Cambridge Youths (supplied by David Richards) and for later episodes, The Liliputters Guild (supplied by Simon Edwards).

For bellringing training and support for teachers and ringers see: bellringing.org

In this podcast, historian Gareth Davies challenges everything you ever thought about the history of bell ringing in one of host Cathy Booth’s most engaging interviews yet.

At times, Gareth makes being an 18th century ringer sound like everyone’s dream job. Fancy being paid £80,000 a year, enjoying a free tab at the pub paid for by the parish council and getting pension support in your old age?

However, once you learn about the six o’clock starts, the fines for a no-show and the ringing room chamber pot you might well change your mind!

This brilliant romp through the history of the Cambridge ringers is full to bursting with fascinating facts, eye-opening insights and colourful real-life characters.

And as for bell ringers smoking, swearing and being drunk? Well, maybe some things never change ...

Top 5 takeaways

• Why not visit your local record office and see what you can find out about the history of ringing in your area
• If you’re struggling with your ringing technique, don’t give up! With hard work and enthusiasm it’s possible to develop from a ‘jelly fish on a piece of elastic’ to being the master for the winning band of the 12 bell striking competition
• Look after your own tower’s historic records so that historians in the future can see the part that ringing played in our culture today
• If in doubt, just ring first and ask for the money afterwards
• Look out for Gareth’s new book – his twitter handle is @charollais

Sponsor: This podcast is sponsored by the Association of Ringing Teachers (ART).  To find out more about learning to ring, learning to teach or other resources to support your ringing go to bellringing.org

Podcast team:
Anne Tansley Thomas
Emily Roderick
John Gwynne
Emily Watts
Cathy Booth

Ringing by:
The Cambridge Youths (supplied by David Richards) and for later episodes, The Liliputters Guild (supplied by Simon Edwards).

For bellringing training and support for teachers and ringers see: bellringing.org