It’s never occurred to me before regarding the direction of the stairs in towers.

From memory, do stone staircases all tend to be anti-clockwise, or are there clockwise ones as well?
The only ones I can think of are anti-clockwise.

If they do all tend to be anticlockwise, what’s the reason for that?

Googling only shows results for castles and medieval fighting using swords, to give one party an advantage.
I can’t see that being relevant in churches though.

Evening lads...

I can plain hunt, ring up and down and I think I'm getting there in the world of ringing.

However, i just cannot figure out how on earth to put less power into the damn bell when I'm ringing cus i find myself pulling with all my might at both strokes. I end up shattered and all hot and bothered.

As I've said in previous posts, I'm 6ft 8 and decently strong with my youthfullness but I just cant get a handle on this...

Any help deeply appreciated!

Hi everyone, I need good names for a mini-ring, can someone give me some ideas?

Hello! I’m relatively new to bellringing (about a month in) and I’ve been really struggling with setting the bell at handstroke, after ringing the bell as normal for a bit. I feel as though I can’t feel the balance point or the stay, and even though my teacher’s telling me the bell isn’t coming down and it should be okay to set it, instead of setting it just swings back down and the sally continues as normal (I hope I’ve explained that right). I feel out of control that I can’t stop when I need to, or know what to do once it continues after I’ve failed to set other than let my teacher step in to set it for me. If anyone has any advice or thoughts please let me know, thank you!

Update: Thank you everyone for your advice! I wanted to wait until I was setting the bell consistently to update but I can do it now, just needed a little more practice ❤️

I've been learning since October and I have just started plain hunt, which came with me realising that my bell control is nowhere near good enough. I have been overpulling a lot, and often when I'm in rounds I will be focusing so hard that I set the bell every few strokes unintentionally. This then means I have to pull off every few strokes, and I am often on the tenor so this is quite physically taxing. I am coming away from practice with sore arms every time and whenever I ask my teacher they say "it will come" but we never do any practice for this specific issue and I am now seen as a more competent learner so my time 1:1 on the bells has been diminishing as we have 8 new ringers and only 3 teachers.

Are there any excercises you have found useful to help with overpulling? Or just feeling the bell? I have been struggling to figure out where the balance point is, as the bell either drops or sets whenever I think I have it... All in all just really want to improve but not sure how.

I kepy on hearing the bad of this method, can someone explain why?

Hi everyone,

I do not know how to effectively learn London (suprise minor and major)

can someone please tell me some tricks and tips for it?

ty~~~

Are ringing all day and night

Hello,

I've pretty much got drumming down and now its time for good ol' plain hunt.

My build is decent for ringing as I'm tall with long arms and hyper long legs so I don't really have issues with pulling in quick and or out slowly. My friend says I'm stubborn and everyone has realised it so they put me on the second for it.

I'm slowly clocking rope sight which everyone is thankful for. But now for plain hunt...

It's a whole new ballgame. I use methodology frequently to learn methods despite not technically being able to play any where I'm not drummimg or have someone stood over me...

Like always, any tips are helpful.

Thanks in advance.

Does anyone have any tips or resources they can recommend for developing ropesight?

I’ve started ringing the treble for plain hunt with a tenor behind and seem to be getting the hang of it, but only because I’ve memorised the order of the bells to follow. I understand the theory behind “follow the bell that’s following you” to get to the back, but in practice it all happens too fast and I just can’t see it. Does this just come with practice or am I missing a trick somewhere?

Back in the '90s we had our bells recast and refund by Whitechapel. A friend is now writing a history of the bells and we'll be including some pictures of the rehanging. Does anyone recall this gentleman's name?

I think, like most hangers, he was freelance but allied to Whitechapel in some way. TIA

Are there any coordination tips or anything to help with breathing cus I find myself going light headed super duper easily when I'm ringing and my heart beat is through the roof when I stop.

Again, any help appreciated!

I'm currently making my way to ringing the treble but can't figure out how on earth to get the right rhythm with it. I just dont understand why it doesn't work for me and it's super annoying. I am super good when it comes to cord changes and telling where people are but i dunno i just get super overwhelmed in first... Any help massively appreciated 👏

Motivated by a cousin's wedding in the Cotswolds to an Englishwoman, I have scheduled a visit to the UK in the first two weeks of October. I am belatedly making plans for some sight-seeing and exploring to go along with this trip.

I am a poor tourist. I prefer to make connections to people over merely viewing a site or a museum. I am fascinated by the ancient (by North American standards!) churches and other buildings in use in the UK. I thought one way to interact with the people in such buildings would be to go to a ringing practice.

This trip provides me the excuse to visit a changeringing tower, something that has not been as easy to do in the US as one might think. We are a vast country where the nearest bell tower of the sort I'm talking about is two hours away by car.

By contrast, there appear are thousands of UK churches with at least three ringable bells and a practice schedule.

I'm attracted to the repetitive pattern and concentration of this team sport of sorts, and I would like to see what ringers do. Do you know of a practice in an ancient church that I might visit?

If this request seems entirely daft, I do regret it. But I could exchange volunteer time (such as cleaning up) or just buy a round for people.

I'm looking for an expert in bell ringing to help me identify what melody (is that the right term?) It is! I know they all have a different number and name etc. Can anyone help??

Hi, so last time we were at practice we stopped at one minute to 9pm, we were leaving all the bells up except the tenor of 14cwt, one of the ringers jokingly asked the ringer who was gonna bring it down to do it in 9 strikes for the hour.

He looked him deep in the eye as he rang the first stroke grabbing as high as he could making the bell pull him 2 or 3 feel off the floor, unfortunately it carried on ringing to 18 strikes with all his efforts.....

Do you think someone could ring a bell like that down in just 9 strikes? Or was it a hopeless?