Good ringing - and a bit of photography

Ringing is commonplace ... well, it is for bellringers, at any rate.  If you are unfortunate not to like the sound of bells and live next to a church (and why would you?) it's no pleasure, I grant you.  But for the rest of us, the nights when it all comes together, and a touch is rung without a slip or a clash, and no one loses their way ... it's sheer bliss - a real privilege to be part of!

And then there's that special occasion, when there's a need for the ringing to be a little out of the ordinary.  A special service, perhaps, when we need to get it right because there's an important guest.  Or when a prominent resident has an umptieth birthday.  On such occasions, we often ring (or attempt to ring) a quarter peal.  That's a particular composition including at least 1,250 changes, and it requires about three-quarters of an hour of non-stop ringing.  But the sound itself is still commonplace - especially to the untrained ear: ding, dong, ding, dong,

Last Sunday evening, we rang a quarter peal for Remembrance Sunday.  Now this was most definitely NOT commonplace.  Instead of ding, dong, ding, dong, the bells were half-muffled, and the sound was ding, dong, bing, bong!  Since I wasn't actually taking part in the ringing, I decided to go along with my camera and record this unusual occurrence. 

The first change rang out with the usual vibrant sound of metal on metal, but the next change sounded the more mellow tone of leather on metal.  To achieve this, the clapper of each bell is muted by strapping onto it a leather pad.  We have to be careful to get the pads, called 'muffles' fixed to the same side of each clapper, or else some of the dull strokes would be mixed with the 'open' or normal strokes, and vice versa.  Of course, the muffles have to be on the correct side of the clappers, so that the first stroke is the open one and the second is the muffled one; and they have to be fastened securely, too.  If not, with all the vibration of ringing, they can slip around the clapper, allowing the metal to strike the bell at both strokes, with the muffle hanging uselessly by the side.  If this should happen, we all know who to blame - the poor steeplekeeper - although the 'blame' is cast with broad smiles and no rancour, because we all know how difficult this can be in a dimly lit bell-chamber, with a howling and chilling gale whistling around the ears (and elsewhere!)

Muffled, or half-muffled, ringing sometimes marks the funeral of a much respected member of the community, and in some places is part of the New Year celebrations.  The old year is rung out with muffled bells, and the new one rung in with the bells open.  To achieve this, someone has to scurry rapidly up to the bells to remove the muffles as quickly as possible between the two pieces of ringing.  This is not only difficult, as noted above, but is also very dangerous because, with the bells raised into the ringing position, each one is precariously balanced, without restraint. 

Such a task might be undertaken by two people together, so that one could lift the clapper and perhaps steady the bell, while the other one attacked the fastenings of the muffle.  All the time, both of them would have to be extremely careful not to nudge one of the other bells, and knock if off balance.  Quite apart from the effects of the noise when a bell is rung close by (have you read Dorothy L Sayers' excellent book 'The Nine Tailors'?), if one's body happens to be in the path of the moving bell, serious injury is almost certain to ensue, since a piece of moving metal weighing anything up to a tonne is somewhat unforgiving, to say the least!  For these reasons, while it may have been common in past ages, this practice is quite rare today, since attention to bells while they are in this position is widely forbidden on health and safety grounds.

When teaching beginners to ring, we always warn of the dangers inherent in the art, and the need to respect the bells and their power.  At the same time it is clear to anyone spending time in a ringing chamber just what a lot of fun there is to be had there, as well as healthy exercise for both mind and body.