Paul Cattermole 1941 - 2009

Paul gave a lifetime to bells and bell ringing.

He learned to ring in Beccles as a 12 year old living opposite the church when his curiosity was aroused by the sound of bells on practice night. In Norwich, where aged eight he had won a scholarship to the Norwich School, he joined the St Giles practice. He also hauled his friend Peter Adcock along, an early manifestation of a lifelong ability to involve others in ringing. By the age of 16 he was teaching fellow youngsters and forming bands.

Paul’s parents moved to Worcester and he did A levels at Bromsgrove High School, being firmly directed towards mathematics as a degree subject despite his love of history. At university in London and Oxford his peal ringing took off, and his ringing repertoire widened considerably. However he came to hate urban life in London and this profoundly influenced his future.

As a mathematics teacher at the King’s School in Worcester, Paul’s willingness to take on outside activities meant he built up an array of other responsibilities, teaching sailing, as a scout leader, and running the school’s Activity Centre in the Brecon Beacons at weekends and in the holidays. He also rang extensively and taught ringers (of course!) and most importantly he met Barbara, then teaching at the Girl’s Grammar School. They shared many interests including a love of the outdoors and of walking, and together they started the Schools Ringing Society. They married in 1973 and moved to Norwich with Paul’s appointment as Head of Mathematics at the Norwich School. A year later they settled in the South Norfolk village of Tharston, Paul’s home for the rest of his life and where their daughters Alice and Sarah grew up.

Paul’s interest in church buildings started in school holidays, travelling with his father around Norfolk. Thus began a fascination with the archaeology and history of bells and their churches. This matured into an immense and scholarly knowledge which underpinned his roles as Diocesan Bells Advisor, first in Worcester and for 31 years in the Diocese of Norwich.

His research into the bells of the Norwich Diocese led to a PhD from London University in 1985, and he wrote many publications, books, monographs and local guides. He was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 2004 and was described as "one of our best scholars at work on regional history". His research was meticulous and he enjoyed its challenges. He loved cracking the ‘code’ of Medieval Latin, for example, a skill he taught himself.

As Norwich’s Bell Advisor he immediately initiated inspection of all of the diocese’s towers, creating a database of enormous value for future projects and on-going maintenance. He also brought together a volunteer team dedicated to the support of belfry restoration. In the 30 years that followed he and they worked on 65 major restoration projects and many smaller ones. Paul had huge respect for craftsmanship, believing it to be as valuable a contribution to society as that of people who were ‘educated’.

In restoration projects Paul excelled in finding solutions that reconciled the demands of conservation and the need to create sustainable ringing facilities for the community. His creative energy and wide knowledge often opened up unexpected opportunities and found ways forward to achieve them. Paul’s masterly way with words made him formidable in argument, and he had some memorable confrontations. He also forged working relationships of deep mutual respect and his loss in restoration activities will be keenly felt.

Paul’s influence in teaching also stretches down through the decades. The roll call of ringers that he taught is very large indeed. Paul was an inspired teacher, able to light the way to learning with a combination of clarity and enthusiasm which struck sparks of ambition. He was inclusive, equally ready to teach learner bands and advanced practices. If your interest was kindled and you were prepared to put the work in to learn, he was endlessly patient, totally focused on helping you. He had high standards and believed that good ringing, well learnt and well struck, was a fundamental aim and no-one who rang with him had any doubts about the need to achieve it!

Paul himself rang over 300 peals, 201 for the Norwich Association. He particularly enjoyed five and six bell methods and between 1965 and 1984 he held the Association record for the most doubles methods to a peal. He did most of his ringing in rural Norfolk, valuing the tradition of ringing in country churches and doing much to maintain it.

He contracted aspergillosis, possibly from belfries or ancient documents. It was first evident in 2002, and although medical staff at London’s Brompton Hospital finally eradicated it, the consequent damage was too great and he died weeks before his 68th birthday. New Buckenham church was packed for an intensely moving funeral service.

Paul could not have lived the life he did, or found such fulfilment without the support of a close and loving family, Barbara his wife, and Alice and Sarah. Our thoughts are with them now.

Maureen Gardiner

Dr Paul Cattermole, FSA – an appreciation

The death of Paul Cattermole has left a huge void in the Norwich Diocesan Association of Ringers and, more particularly, in the Southern Branch. These words do not constitute an obituary – I am hardly qualified to write one – merely a glimpse at a tiny fraction of a life well-lived and how that life has affected me over the years.

I’m fairly sure that I first encountered Paul when I was about thirteen years old and was being taken ‘out and about’ by Charlie Banham to every possible practice or meeting within the Southern or Western Branches. Like Charlie, Paul could spot potential and, ever the schoolmaster, would do everything in his ability to allow its development. I remember thrashing wildly through some Grandsire Doubles – the comment at the end being "not too bad"… Paul would always give encouragement but would never lower his high standards and tell someone that they’d done really well if they hadn’t.

It is fair to say that the zenith of my ringing on five and six bells came with Paul. I began to attend the practice he ran on a Friday evening in the Tas Valley. We would ring at all the towers but it was at Tacolneston and Forncett St Peter that things really got going. Bands of ringers, in common, with all those who take part in ‘team based’ activities, will experience high and low points. With the emergence of Alice and Sarah Cattermole as incredibly talented ringers and the presence of Jeremy Spiller and his then wife Caroline nothing was too difficult. The regular Friday band could, at that time, ring any of the regular 41 Surprise Minor methods – with ‘bold and regular striking’. If the striking were not so, the touch would be set up. Lest this paint a picture of a practice where nothing but surprise was rung let me rectify that by saying that all the high-powered ringing was on the back of rounds and call-changes, Grandsire Doubles, Stedman Doubles and a whole host of other methods. Everyone left that practice more-or-less satisfied. It was a shining example of how, given the right stimulus, more experienced ringers are very happy to ring simple methods to develop the ringing of newer ringers.

I had always respected and admired Paul for his intellectual abilities. These were recognised in Paul’s latter years by the Society of Antiquaries which made him a Fellow. I was delighted when the opportunity came to work closely with Paul on the production of The Church Bells of Norwich. This book became, I think, a labour of love for both of us. Paul’s quest for perfection was seemingly limitless – and rightly so. Paul arranged for us to go up the tower of the church of St Lawrence to photograph an historic frame. It was, possibly, one of the last times he climbed a tower but he was determined to show me the minutiæ that he wanted me to capture on film. I will treasure the look which spread across his face when I rushed over to Tharston with a copy of the book ‘hot off the press’. The grey hairs which Paul’s intellectual pride (he wasn’t perfect) had caused me were worthwhile. We were able to work together on what might well be Paul’s magnum opus – Wymondham Abbey – A History. Again I was left in no doubt that only the best would do and the result is possibly the finest expanded church guide in the world …

The quest for perfection and the exact knowledge of what he wanted did not leave Paul. I was able to visit him a week before his death and he, although confined to bed, gently controlled my visit. Most importantly for him was being able to brief me about some photographs he wanted of Westhall church near Halesworth. Westhall, you see, shares many architectural (and other) details with the Chapel of Norwich School for which Paul was producing a guidebook. Gudrun and I took the photographs and, thank God for digital cameras, I was able to print out the shots so that Paul could see and comment on them. Evidently I did a good job …

So please pray for Paul’s soul as he journeys toward a place where the striking is always perfect (if it isn’t, it soon will be when he gets there); where he will be able to praise the Brasyers for some wonderful examples of mediæval bell-founding and gently chide other more recent founders for some poorer examples. Pray too for Barbara, Alice, Sarah and all members of Paul’s family.

Rest eternal grant unto him, O Lord and may Light Perpetual shine upon him.

Jeremy Warren