Ringing World 5257 (27 January 2012)

Front Cover: West Tytherley’s c1260 bells revived
by John Palk (assisted by Revd James Pitkin and Hugh Routh)
The three bells in the tower of St Peter’s church in the small west Hampshire village of West Tytherley have lain silent and almost forgotten for perhaps the past 60 years due, it was said, to the condition of the frame, and the bells were held to be unringable. The tower occasionally had a one line mention in the Guild’s Report under ‘Other Towers’ being listed as ‘3 bells, 4 cwt, Unringable’.
Although not realised at the time, the first move towards the restoration of the bells arose from a visit to another Hampshire tower, where a note in the ringing chamber proclaimed one of the bells to be the second oldest in the country hung for whole circle ringing. Curiosity was raised: where was the oldest? Eventually I came upon The Bell Historians’ website and put the question. Within minutes the answer came back – West Tytherley, Hampshire, the treble, which George Elphick dated as c1260.

On composing Five Rings Triples
It is over a year since Kate Flavell was able to announce on the front page of The Ringing World: “Wild Bells to a Wild Sky: CCCBR wins Olympic gold”. Below this headline was a large photograph of numerous composers and commissioners; and below that, Kate’s article, with a quote from myself: “My aim from the outset would be to understand and honour a centuries-old tradition, fully confident that my own composition would be distinctive in many subtle ways.” It seems clear that I had decided not to opt for the “wild” path!
Composition is a practical rather than academic pursuit. Composers work as they study; study as they work. With no research at all, our efforts are fumbling; even a little knowledge, though, is quickly put to good use.
The idea of commissioning a piece for church bells came from Ed McKeon of Third Ear, an independent contemporary music organisation. Ed sent me a link to a website with information about method ringing. I knew then that I would need to seek expert advice!

National Youth Forum to be launched
A prototype “Youth Forum” became a key element of the “Change Ringing for the Future” Conference held at Wellesbourne in November and plans are being drawn up to establish this body as a permanent and important part of the future strategy for ringing.

Introducing iAgrams
iAgrams is a new app for viewing methods on the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. It can display the line, grid or changes of any method in the Central Council method libraries – that is to say, any of the 17,000 or so named methods.

Bishops Lydeard
A tale of two rings
Now to get the story right I shall have to go back to 1986. It was in 1986 that Jill and I moved down to Somerset and joined the band at St Mary’s Bishops Lydeard, a lovely sounding ring of eight with a tenor weighing 23.5cwt. It seemed to us after our first ring on the bells that they went very poorly, and that was putting it mildly. It was in 1992 that I had the idea of re-hanging the bells, this was due to the fact that a QI report stated that the tower was going to be in need of serious restoration soon due to its sway when the bells were rung. Well, you can imagine the ringers response to that piece of news. Within 6 months we had stopped ringing and started a restoration fund. Twenty months later we had reached our target of £47,000. By the end of 1994 the bells were re-hung 30 feet lower in the tower and we thought and hoped that the installation would be in great shape for the next 100 years or so.

Letters
50 years ago in Worcester - John Whittall
Congratulations on BellBoard - Samuel Austin
Campanophile crash -  Stephen Stanford
‘Clamming’ - Geoff Pullin

The tale of a composition: one ringer’s story by Brian Bladon
Through the 60s and 70s a band organised by Tony Peake aimed to raise the number of Surprise Major methods rung in a normal peal length. The record had been set at 53 methods by a Yorkshire band led by Eric Critchley. Tony built on their work and over an extended series of peals composed and conducted a new record of 165 methods.
Tony then composed and conducted a similar record peal of 126 Surprise Royal. The Maximus record of 110 methods was then set by a band from the North West and Tony’s band equalled their feat soon after.
None of the preceding peals by their nature could contain ‘all the work’ of the methods but there were rumours of great things happening in the North West.

Obituaries
Alan George William Tucker, Sue Fisher

Perth Mobile Belfry by Corinne Duncan
Back in November 2010, Western Australia received a visit from Alan and Mary Collings. During their stay Alan presented a series of talks on English musical handbells and also gifted part of his significant collection of bells to the Swan Bells Foundation. Shortly afterwards, rumours started to circulate that they were also looking to donate a mobile belfry to the local ringers. Fortunately for Perth, the rumours were true.

Tail Ends
“WELbeck six oh six four.” How well I remember that sweet young female voice! What a ring that greeting had! WELbeck, so much more human, personal, intimate than merely a string of numbers like 935 6064. Now it’s all long in the past; our world is but a string of numbers, from our PIN (and please do not call it a PIN number – or do I need to repeat myself?) for a credit card, to DSS number, NHS number, driving licence number, passport number and telephone number.

Thought for the week
I have a funeral service to conduct in three days time. A parishioner who lived all his life in the village, within sound of the Church bells, has died, aged 82.
And a bell will be tolled before his funeral service and burial, in the Churchyard.