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English
style church bellringing is a fascinating activity that requires physical co-ordination, a sense of rhythm and good listening
skills. It provides mental and physical stimulation, along with the social aspect of working with other ringers. For those
that are interested, there is a wealth of opportunity to become involved with many different aspects of ringing (teaching,
organising, conducting, composing, theory, technology, history, ...).
There is a brief introduction to ringing on the website of my home tower. The animated image is courtesy of Fortran Friends . You can see six ringers ringing in sequence here and you can hear the sound of English style ringing here .
I learnt to ring in 1959 at St Wilfrid's, Kirkby in Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, where I grew up (see pictures). I lived in the overlapping territory of two ringing societies - the Southwell Diocesan Guild and the East Derbyshire and West Notts Association - so I joined both and benefitted from their different cultures. Kirkby only had five bells in my day, but was augmented to eight in 2001, and I was privileged to be in the band that rang the first peal on the eight.
I was tower captain briefly before I went to Cambridge University ( Sidney Sussex College) where as a member of the Cambridge University Guild of Change Ringers, my ringing developed rapidly. I rang at Guildford Cathedral for a year before I married. I rang very little for the next ten years. I now ring at All Saints Wokingham , which has been my home tower since the late 1970s.
50 years after I learnt to ring, I arranged a celebratory peal of Kirkby-in-Ashfield Surprise Major (named after Kirkby-in-Ashfield where I learnt to ring). We rang the peal at Wokingham, where I have rung for most of my life. The band included people who rang with me in Kirkby, and at Cambridge University, as well as current and former Wokingham ringers (see pictures ).
I have been involved with training ringers for many years. I am chairman of the Education Subcommittee of the Oxford Diocesan Guild of Church Bellringers , and training co-ordinator for the Sonning Deanery Branch. I am one of the Guild's representatives on the Central Council of Church Bellringers, and was chairman of the Council's Education Committee from 2000-2007. I am currently a member of the Council's Public Relations Committee and its Biographies Committee. I led the working group that set up The Ringing Foundation .
I have taught many ringers, tutored ringing courses, and run courses on listening in many different parts of the country. My most unusual training assignment was to teach the actors who played bellringers in the Midsomer Murders episode called ' Ring Out Your Dead'. For more about how this happened, see here.
I have written several books on ringing (mostly available from CC Publications) including four volumes of The Learning Curve, a monthly page about learning and teaching that I wrote from 1999-2007 in The Ringing World. More recently I wrote a series of articles about music in ringing for Making Music Southeast, after being invited to give a talk to a group of musicians.
My latest book 'Living Heritage ' covers the history of bellringing in Wokingham over the last 300 years. Unlike the others, this one was written mainly for non-ringers, and presents a social history of a group that shared a common interest and skill through many generations.
Like most ringers, I have rung in hundreds of different, towers in UK and abroad, enjoying the universal welcome that is characteristic among ringers. You can find details of around 6000 ringing towers in Dove's Guide.
I use modern teaching aids including a simulator. I have produced training aids, including CDs and software to help ringers develop the difficult but critical skill of accurate listening. This software !Strike runs on RISC-OS . I have used it in courses on listening in many different parts of the country.
Some years ago, I made a counter-rotating dumbbell (which works with a simulator). Although I didn't realise it at the time, it is based on a similar principle to that used by my namesake, the 18th century John Harrison, in his marine chronometer. Even longer ago, I built some interesting models that represent the way change ringing works, and I do talks on the technology of bellringing, and the maths of ringing .
If you would like to know more about ringing:
Click image to enlarge.
** Copyright Nikki Mahadevan and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence .
All other material Copyright © 1964 - 2010 John Harrison.
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