Ringing World 5258 (3 February 2012)

Front Cover: Dickens 200th anniversary – revisiting “Among the College Youths” with introduction by Michael Uphill
The bi-centenary of the birth of Charles Dickens is to be celebrated with a number of events in and around the Borough of Southwark on Tuesday, 7th February, including the Cathedral where a peal attempt will commence at about midday. The Southwark Cathedral web-site contains details of some of these.
Dickens lived in Southwark for some time and many events described in his books occurred there.
He moved from Camden Town to lodgings in Lant Street in order to be close to the notorious Marshalsea Debtors’ prison, where his parents and sister were incarcerated.

Lismore tower rescue – a practice!
St Andrew’s, Lismore NSW Australia (our original six bells came from SS Mary and Nicholas at Wilton) has had installed a number of safety features to improve the ability to evacuate an injured person from the ringing room. These include a removable section of floor, a lifting beam and a hook device. It was found impossible to get a stretcher down our spiral staircase and the windows are too narrow to lift out an injured person using a cherry picker.
It was arranged with the Lismore Police Rescue Squad to have a practice evacuation of an injured person from the belltower. In our area the Police Rescue are the only people who do vertical drop rescues which was required for our belltower. The State Emergency Service (SES) do not have that capability.

Letters
Ringing for the Olympics on 27th July 2012 - John Barnes
Come Bell Ringing - Jean Kimber
The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated - Hugh Neill
Tower archives - David Underdown
Hobson’s Choice? - John Hallett

Learning Together – 3
Making places tidily by Peter Dale
Very few ringing books, if any, tackle the problems of a band of ringers who have no experience base to draw upon, and whose captain may not have progressed far beyond the learner stage. These articles suggest to such a band of novice ringers how they may make some progress by their own efforts. Since the conventional approach is of limited help in these cases, some unconventional thinking is needed.
The first article (RW 5 Aug 2011) stressed the importance of a good handling style, and accurately struck rounds before attempting any changes. Last time (RW 9 Dec 2011) the emphasis was upon taking very small steps on the path of progress, simply swapping a pair of bells, calling them back into rounds, and repeating this until the changes are made cleanly without clipping or hesitation. There’s also explanation of place, and how to change places in pages 76 to 78 of The New Ringer’s Book.

Obituaries
Bernard Pollard, Geoffrey Cheetham, Robert Basil Woodd Walker

St John-in-Bedwardine, Worcester
Tower Appeal Update
Good news all round!
The roof is repaired and the stonework at belfry level has been completed. This extra work was both unexpected and expensive, but I am delighted to report that the Worcester & Dudley Historic Churches Trust have responded to our need and very kindly granted us a further £5,000! This means that they have doubled their original contribution and we are very grateful.

Tail Ends
Carla Carlisle, who writes a form of Tail End (although far more elegantly) that appears each week on the back page of Country Life, is usually a model of optimism. That, I gather, is because she was born in Mississippi and, although now living in Suffolk, she retains that distinctive American attribute which not even the gloom of an East Anglia winter can dispel.
So I was alarmed when I read her column headed ‘News from beyond the binge’. I shoud mention that Country Life is passed from person to person here and we are way down the chain, although it still has at least two Anglophiles further to go. Thus the article is now nearly a year old.

Thought for the week
I have recently been passed a super book entitled  Yours Reverently … from the pulpit, the pub … and the Parish Notes, 1948 - 53’ by Revd Oliver Willmott who chronicles the life in his 3 parishes in West Dorset. It’s the sort of book you can dip into anywhere and have a good read.

BellBoard Bulletin
Following the launch of BellBoard on Monday, 16th January, The Ringing World has been delighted by the large number of messages of support and suggestions for BellBoard that we have received from BellBoard users. We are actively tracking these suggestions and will keep you informed about new features and developments on the website.
There is a huge amount of work underway and an exciting development plan is now in place for BellBoard. In the past week, users will have noticed improvements to the search function (including “wild-card” searching) and an exciting new compositions feature.

Giant Olympic bell announced
On Friday, 27th January reports began to circulate in the national media that a gigantic bell would form the centre-piece for the opening ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics on 27th July. As Reuters news agency put it: “Danny Boyle, the man overseeing the opening ceremony ... revealed on Friday that it will be called “Isles of Wonder” and involve a big bell.”

Spurred on by big brother
Time was running out for Alfie. Older brother Henry had rung his first quarter peal some 20 days before his 7th birthday. There is video evidence on YouTube of Alfie ringing handbells aged 3, although at that time, a quarter peal must have seemed a long way off.