Together with my daughter Jenny, I started learning to ring bells in September 2002. This page charts the progress. After some initial lessons with a tied (silent) bell we began to attend Wednesday practices at Hemingford Grey, and subsequently the new practice sessions at our own church in St Ives. Practising twice a week has helped us to learn more quickly than we might otherwise have done. These notes were begun on 26 June 2003: events before that are from memory or from very notes on my PDA.
Sunday 6 July 2003 we rang our first quarter peal at St Ives:
| On Sunday morning, 6 July 2003, at the Church of All Saints, St Ives, Cambridgeshire, a Quarter Peal of 1260 Doubles (Grandsire and Plain Bob) was rung in 52 minutes. | |||
| Weight of Tenor: 12-0-4 in G | |||
| *Susan Bates | Treble | Michael V White | 5 |
| Marianne Baker | 2 | Christoper R Armes | 6 |
| Richard C Smith | 3 | *Simon Kershaw | 7 |
| Harold S King | 4 | John Marlow | Tenor |
| Conducted by Michael V White | |||
| * First Quarter Peal. Rung with 7,6,8 covering. | |||
| Rung for the Confirmation and Sung Eucharist celebrated by Keith, Bishop of Richborough | |||
Wednesday 25 June 2003 practice at H Grey. Amongst other things I plain-hunted on treble to: Plain Bob Triples (easy by numbers); Stedman Triples; and hardest of all, to St Simon's Triples. In St Simon's the order of the bells is different coming down to the front from the order going up to the back, which means that I had to do it by 'counting my place' rather than by numbers. I more or less managed it (and didn't lose my place), which must mean that my 'rope sight' in Triples is nearly there. Going up to the back is fairly easy (using the principle 'follow the bell that followed you'). On the way down to the front I can see 7th place, 6th place (only one other rope left), just about see 5th place (two other ropes left), 2nd place (one rope gone down), and just about 3rd place (two ropes gone down) -- and try and ring somewhere right for 4th place!
9(?) June 2003 we held another ringers' meeting: Bob King was elected Tower Captain, and I was elected Tower Vice Captain.
2(?) June 2003 Michael tried getting me to call some changes. First calling the treble up over each other bell (to 7th), then 2 over the others etc, until it comes back into rounds. Later he had me try and call to 'Queen's' (13572468) but I couldn't get my head around this at the time. As usual, a bit of thinking after the practice reveals that you need to call 6 up one place over 7, 4 up two places over 5 and 7, and 2 up 3 places over 3, 5 and 7; and then get them back of course.
May 2003 for the first time we held a ringers' meeting to formally change the signatories on the Tower bank account. Sue Bates and I became signatories.
Wednesday 1 January 2003 New Year's Day: at 11.20am we rang the bells at St Ives to celebrate the New Year, followed by a lunch party for ringers from the area
By this stage I could ring reasonably well in rounds on a number of bells, and could ring a tenor cover to a Triples method. I could also ring 'called changes', but not always correctly.
Sunday 3 November 2002 All Saints' Sunday: today we rang the bells after the main Sunday service, the first time that the new band of ringers, assisted by others, had rung the bells for worship. Several people rang at least a few pulls, including Jenny and me, together with Sue Bates, and probably Carrie-Anne Armes, Chris Stephens, Andy Walker, and perhaps some others.
Wednesday 23 October 2002 After 5 lessons at St Ives, we went to practice at Hemingford Grey. First time ringing an untied bell (that makes a sound) and first time at trying to ring rounds.
Monday 9 September 2002 first practice session at St Ives. Using a tied bell (i.e. the clapper is strapped in place so that it doesn't hit the bell and ring) a group of 5 or 6 beginners practised backstrokes. Michael White, tower captain at Hemingford Grey, assisted by his wife Bridget, was the teacher, supervsing us, ringing the handstrokes, and ensuring nothng went wrong, or rescuing us if it did.