Bell Ringers

What activity can provide you with:- · 
  • A life-long learning experience
  • Maintaining a traditional skill
  • A service to the church
  • A team activity
  • A stimulating mental activity
  • A group of friends country-wide. 

If you can ride a bike you can ring. Being able to count is all the maths you need. A sense of rhythm helps, but you don't need to know music. You can learn from ages eleven to sixty. If you want to know more, contact Stuart Tomlinson or Helen Taylor, - or visit a Monday practice night, 7.30 till 9pm.

Bell Ringers Captain: Stuart Tomlinson
St. Peter's has a fine ring of 8 bells, with the tenor (the heaviest bell) weighing 9cwt.

Our band of around 15 ringers, some of whom are pictured alongside, meet for a weekly practice on Monday's from 7:30 - 9:00pm and ring in the Sunday Parish Eucharist from 9:10 - 9:50am. Sunday evening ringing normally takes the form of a quarter peal and is by invitation only.

Leckhampton Bellringers at St Briavels - June 2007

7/8ths of the way there!

Earlier in the year the bellringers set themselves the challenge of ringing a ¼ peal of 8-spliced Surprise Major.  In the autumn we will lose our youngest ringer when he goes to university, so the aim is to ring 8 spliced by then.  We have been building on splicing over the years but only recently has the possibility of ringing the standard 8 spliced seemed achievable.  The standard 8 Surprise Major methods are Cambridge, Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Rutland, Pudsey, Superlative, Bristol and London.  The first 6 are based on similar work with increasing difficulty due to either the method or being rung infrequently.  Bristol is harder with different work and changes of direction.  London is quite different and probably the hardest to learn and ring and we have only just started learning this.

Splicing entails knowing all the methods, which bell position you will become and how each of the 7 working bells start as soon as a change in method is called.  Each bell rings at least one lead at a time – 32 changes or strokes – in a method.

The local band at St Peter’s currently has the bare minimum of 7 ringers capable of tackling 7-spliced, so March 29th, the first date when all 7 were available was set aside for the attempt of a ¼ peal of 7-spliced.  It being a 5th Sunday there wasn’t a service at St Peter’s but a joint SCC service at Ss Philip & James, so many thanks to Paul for letting us ring on this occasion.  Unfortunately we didn’t have a local band ringer for the treble but Helen Taylor’s grandson who rings at St Mark’s kindly trebled for us – the treble path remains the same throughout the ¼ peal – so still local by relation!

We made it at the first attempt!  It is thought to be the first time that a local band has rung a ¼ peal of 7-spliced (1280 changes) at Leckhampton.  Two of the ringers had rung 7-spliced in about 1995 but with help from outside ringers.  The band consisted of:

1.    Simon Ridley

2.    Barbara Pettit

3.    Anna Bayley

4.    Jacqui Hyde

5.    George Gale

6.    Max Drinkwater

7.    Sue Drinkwater

8.    Stuart Tomlinson (Conductor)

This was a first for Anna, George, Max, Sue and Barbara and Stuart’s first conducting 7-spliced.  Stuart had to remember all the changes of method as well as the Bobs (changes the order of the bells) and ringing his own bell, requiring a good memory and lots of concentration.

Jacqui was truly impressed and said that she never thought that she would be part of a local band ringing 7-spliced.  We mustn’t forget Terry Jones contribution – Terry moved to Perthshire in March 2008 and got us ringing up to 5-spliced.  Our determination to keep this up and not being able to rely on Terry to ‘put us right’ has strengthened our teamwork and concentration.  So onto 8-spliced! Watch this space!

April 2009 

The Banner Trophy

In June 2007, six ringers from Leckhampton won the Banner Trophy striking competition, held this year at St.Michael and All Angels, Stanton. It is exactly 30 years since Leckhampton last won this competition.

A striking competition is a test of how good you can make the bells sound. When ringing, the bells should be evenly spaced with no gaps or crashes, which is quite hard to do. The Banner Trophy is a contest between churches in the Cheltenham branch of bellringers for teams of six ringers and as a reward for winning, the Leckhampton team will go on to represent Cheltenham in the Gloucester and Bristol Diocesan Association striking competition in March 2008.

Not only is it difficult to strike bells in a church where you do not normally ring, the bells at Stanton are hung anti-clockwise, which is an unusual arrangement. Usually the bells go in a clockwise circle starting with the lightest and ending up with the heaviest. Several members of the Leckhampton band had not rung an anti-clockwise ring before, so did particularly well.

The photograph shows the Banner Trophy and the winning band who are (clockwise from top right) Terry Jones, Stuart Tomlinson, Huw Davies, Anna Bayley, Max Drinkwater and George Gale.

Leckhampton Bells

How evocative is the sound of bells. Their ringing calls people to worship, celebrates weddings and mourns the passing of a soul.

At Leckhampton we have 8 bells. The lightest, the treble, weighs 3 cwt and the heaviest, the tenor, weighs 9 cwt. This is considered a light ring. An average ring consists of 6 or 8 bells, the tenor weighing 10 – 12 cwt, but many rings have a tenor weighing 20 – 60 cwt and may have 10 or 12 bells.

Ringing bells requires skill in handling and a sense of rhythm, rather than strength. There are two ways of ringing: chiming and change ringing. When chiming, the bell is swung through a small arc, the rope checked and the clapper then hits the bell. This happens for a five minute service bell and at the consecration during the Eucharist.

For change ringing, the bell is gradually raised until its swing is 360o, then balanced upside-down by means of a stay or bar attached to the headstock resting against a slider bar underneath. The rope is wound around the wheel at one stroke (you can see only the rope’s end) and unwinds at the next stroke, when the ringer catches the ‘sally’ (the fluffy woollen section). This is called handstroke. It is hard to describe but is about coordinating the ringer’s actions with that of the rope. There is a sense of satisfaction in controlling several cwt of bell metal.

 

Ringing together involves timing: knowing when to pull the bell off the balance and ringing the correct distance after the previous bell to produce an even cascade of notes. We start by ringing rounds – that is the treble rings first, followed by the other bells in order down the scale. The conductor then calls two bells to change places: thus 2 to 3, which results in the order 1, 3, 2, 4 … Familiar ‘change’ calls are 1, 3, 5, 7, 2, 4, 6, 8, called ‘Queens’ and 1, 5, 2, 6, 3, 7, 4, 8, called ‘Tittums’.

Over the 300 years of ringing, methods have been devised whereby the bells change one place every time they strike, starting and finishing with rounds without repeating a particular order of bells (or change). Some methods rung frequently are called Grandsire, Stedman and Kent treble bob. The pleasure lies in getting these changes rung evenly and accurately.

In 1688, 5 bells were cast for St Peter’s by Abraham Rudhall and hung in a wooden frame. In 1746 a treble was added, making 6 bells. Since then, several bells have been recast and in the 1930s the bells hung on ball-bearings. Two bells, the present treble and second, were given in 1904, making an octave. A major overhaul in 1970 replaced the old frame with a cast iron frame; the tenor, 7th, 5th and 3rd were recast and a new 6th installed.

The old 6th bell is now in Cheltenham museum. It is of historical significance because it bears the coat-of-arms of James II, who only reigned for a few years. It is an early Rudhall bell: four generations of the Rudhall family cast bells in Gloucester from 1684 until 1835.

If you are interested to know more, come along to our practice night at 7.30pm on Mondays. So you can see that, as well as a service to the church, bell-ringing is a blend of sport, music, exercise, friendship and a challenge to one’s wits and skill!

Helen Taylor

Leckhampton Bellringers 1904

Standing, L to R: W Townsend, W Harrison, Arthur Caudle, Jack Shill, Alfred Pratt (Fred), Noah Newton. Alfred Hunt (always called Richard). 
Seated: William Harley, Tom Hunt.

In the 'clock room' below the belfry is an old photograph of St Peter's bellringers, posing with a set of handbells in front of the west door. The photograph, in a frame made from an old bell wheel, was presented by W Harrison, who also owned the handbells and identified the ringers - mostly with good old Leckhampton surnames.

The date is given as 'about 1904', in which year the bells underwent a major restoration, and for a time the ringers would have had only the handbells at their disposal. The absence of carving on either side of the door means that it had to be before mid-1907 which is when it was added. Today the carved foliage and especially the heads of a bishop and king are badly weathered. If when visiting the church you look at the window immediately above the door, you will see two cubes of plain stone still waiting to be worked on - suggestions to Paul Wilkinson!

Eric Miller

Contrary to popular opinion, ringing does not call for any great amount of strength, however new ringers do need to be patient as the physical and mental skills required take a long time to master.

Ringing is a rewarding and absorbing pastime, new recruits are always welcome!

For further information about bells and bell ringing, visit:-

    The Gloucestershire & Bristol Diocesan Association of Church Bell Ringers

    The Central Council of Church Bell Ringers

Contact:  Helen Taylor via the Parish Office 

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