Bellringing

Welcome to the St Andrew's Bellringing Page.

We have ten bells here at St Andrews. For more information about the bells click here.

We ring every Sunday morning at 8.55am for the 9.30am service and hold practices usually on Tuesday evenings from 7.30pm to 9pm. Check the upcoming events on the home page for details of practices.

We welcome visitors who want to ring with us on both Sundays and at practices.

 

Troyte Ringing Centre, Huntsham

Having started my new hobby of bell ringing nearly a year ago, I was asked if I would be interested in attending a day’s training course at Huntsham on raising and lowering the bells. Of course I jumped at the chance.

After a lovely warm welcome, our instructor, Mike gave us a run down on what the day would hold for us, and then we made our way to the ringing chamber. Six of the eight bells were already “up” and we took it in turns to lower the bell on a one-to-one basis so Mike could observe our “technique”. He then gave us feedback on how we could improve. This was all put across in a very friendly manner so none of us was left feeling intimidated.

The rest of the morning was taken up by practicing raising the bell and lowering while following an experienced ringer (our thanks go to Richard for being so patient in repeating the same thing over and over). Mike continued to encourage us all and answered every question we put to him.

We enjoyed a lovely lunch which included a wonderful banana trifle; I don’t think I will ever forget that trifle, it was so good.  We were very grateful to Pat for all her hard work in keeping us fed and watered.

During lunch we were joined by more helpers for the afternoon session. We spent the afternoon putting into practice what we had learned in the morning by taking turns to lower in peal, firstly as one of 6 bells and then one of 8. These were incredibly helpful and although we were not always keeping in time it was really useful to learn the reasons why and how to get back into time with the other ringers.

I am sure I am not alone in saying how helpful and enjoyable this course was. I certainly intend to take part in more in the future. All I need to do now is put everything I have learned into practice so that I, too, will be able to raise and lower in peal with confidence.
I cannot thank everyone enough, especially Mike, for their time and kindness.
 

 

Sharon McCabe
Cullompton Tower
 
First Steps in Method Ringing at Huntsham 
My husband Chris and I, in company with our friends from Cullompton and Gordon from Uffculme, attended a first steps in method ringing course at Huntsham.
The morning was a theory session with Mike Hatchett - a brief overview of the history of bell ringing and how method ringing was developed as an alternative to call changes following the development of full-circle bells in the 1600s. We looked at how many possibilities of different changes there are on 3, 4, 5 and 6 bells, until one line is repeated and the process used to create a different ringing order each time.
There are three main ‘ingredients’ to method ringing:
Plain hunting – bells changing one place at a time. We wrote this out and looked at the path of the treble and number 2 bell.
Dodging – going ‘back on yourself’ to ring over or under the same bell in order to increase the amount of changes that can be rung.
‘Making a place’ - to stay/strike in the same place more than once consecutively other than leading or ‘lying’ behind (being the last bell).
The practical afternoon session was at All Saints Church, Huntsham and we were joined by patient helpers so that all 8 bells could be rung. We practiced dodges until all the bells had been swapped on the first strike and back to rounds on the second strike. We then tried ‘making places’ before hunting on 3, 4 and 5 five bells (plain hunt) and finished with plain bob doubles which included practicing the dodge!
 We all enjoyed this introduction to the basics of method ringing and are now continuing to learn back in Cullompton Tower.
 Rachel Cozens
Cullompton Tower

 

The picture below shows some of the ringers at a recent social event at The King's Head.

Some of the ringers at a recent social event

Left to right: Catherine Ash, Ken Manley, Sharon McCabe, Sandie Reader, Steve Hellier, Brian Hancock, Richard Shere, Rachel Cozens, Matthew Webb.

Missing: Pauline Champion, Tony Cole, David Farrant, Jacob Mackenzie.