Stedman's is another of the standard repertoire of a ringer. It is, however, very different from Plain Bob, or Grandsire, or from the Treble Bob methods, which one can learn in a progression. Stedman's stands on its own, with essentially no easier methods to build up to it, and no more complicated methods built upon it.

Technically, Stedman's is not a 'method' but a 'principle' -- because in a method the treble does simpler work compared with the other bells, always plain hunting or always treble bobbing, whilst the other bells do different work. But in Stedman's all the bells do the same work, just starting from a different point in the cycle. But this is being rather pedantic.

Stedman first described this way of change-ringing in his Campanologia, published in 1677, in the reign of Charles II, a hundred years before the American revolution. Stedman was probably just trying to find a different way to arrange the bells in valid changes. He realized that if you take 3 bells, then there are 6 combinations of these bells, and there are 2 ways to to arrange these 6 changes, given the rules of bellringing (no bell may move more than one place at a time). If we have 3 bells, a, b, and c, then we can arrange them thus:

(1)   (2)
abc      abc
bac      acb
bca      cab
cba      cba
cab      bca
acb      bac

In column (1) bell (a) plain hunts from the front, rings 2 blows in 3rd place, and hunts back down to the front. In column (2), bell (c) hunts down from 3rd place, rings two blows in the lead  and hunts back up to 3rd place.

Stedman's principle consists of ringing each of these chunks (called, in Stedman's, by the self-explanatory name 'sixes') alternately, while the bells above third place double dodge up to the back and down again. At the end of every 6, the bell in 3rd place -- b in column (1) above, or c in column (2) -- leaves the front three to join those dodging at the back, and the bell in 4th place leaves the dodging to join the front three.

It should be fairly clear, then, from the diagram above that, at the start, bell c has just dropped into the front 3 from 4th place. This is true in both columns. But at the bottom, in column (1) it is bell b that drops back to 4th place in the next change, whereas in column (2) it is bell c. So, in column (2), bell c drops down into 3rd place, hunts down to the lead, back up to 3rd place and back out again into dodging 4-5 up. Consequently, bell c is said to have 'gone in quick' (i.e. gone straight in from the back down to the lead) and similarly to have 'gone out quick' (i.e. from leading hunted straight back out into the dodging). And this 6 (i.e. the one I have labelled (2)) is called a 'quick six'.

Conversely, at the start of column (1), bell c rings 2 blows in 3rd place before going down to the lead and is said to have 'gone in slow', and at the end of column (1), bell b rings 2 blows in 3rd place before going up to 4th, and is said to have 'gone out slow'. And the 6 changes in column (1) are called a 'slow six'.

So, let us now consider a plain course of Stedman Doubles, i.e. rung on 5 bells -- invariably rung with another bell, the tenor, ringing each time in 6th place, after the other 5. Stedman arranged the start of this composition to be identical to the start of Grandsire, and this means that we in fact begin in the middle of one of these sixes -- a quick six in which the treble plain hunts straight out to 5th place.

12345 -- 'Go, Stedman Doubles!'

12345
21354 -- 1 hunts to back, 2 leads, 3 makes 3rd place, 4 & 5 dodge
23145 -- end of quick 6: 1 goes out quick

32415 -- slow six: 4 goes in slow; 1 & 5 dodging at the back
23451
24315
42351
43215
34251 -- end of slow 6: 2 goes out slow

43521 -- quick six: 5 goes in quick
45312
54321
53412
35421
34512 -- end of quick 6: 5 goes out quick

43152 -- slow six: 1 goes in slow
34125
31452
13425
14352
41325 -- end of slow six: 3 goes out slow

14235 -- start of quick 6: 2 goes in quick
12453
21435
24153
42135
41253 -- end of quick 6: 2 goes out quick

14523 -- slow six: 5 goes in slow
41532
45123
54132
51423
15432 -- end of slow six: 4 goes out slow

51342 -- quick six: 3 goes in quick
53124
35142
31524
13542
15324 -- end of quick 6: 3 goes out quick

51234 -- slow six: 2 goes in slow
15243
12534
21543
25134
52143 -- end of slow six: 1 goes out slow

25413 -- quick six: 4 goes in quick
24531
42513
45231
54213
52431 -- end of quick six: 4 goes out quick

25341 -- slow six: 3 goes in slow
52314
53241
35214
32541
23514 -- end of slow six: 5 goes out slow

32154 -- quick six: 1 goes in quick
31245
13254 -- 'That's all!'
12345 -- which is rounds

From this we can draw a blue line through one of the bells, say number 4, to get this path

---4-  (rounds)
----4  (dodge 4-5 down)
---4-
--4-- (and go in slow)
--4--
-4---   \
4----   \  This section, marked '\' is called
4----   \  the 'first whole turn':
-4---   \    down to the lead, lead 2 blows,
4----   \    one blow in 2nd, lead 2 blows
4----   \    and back up to 3rd place
-4---   \
--4--
--4--
-4---   /  This section, marked '/' is called
4----   /  the 'first half turn':
-4---   /    down to the lead, only one blow in the lead, back to 3rd
--4--
--4--
-4---   \  This section, marked '\' is called
4----   \  the 'last half turn'
-4---   \    down to lead, only one blow in the lead, back to 3rd
--4--
--4--
-4---   /
4----   /  This section, marked '/' is called
4----   /  the 'last whole turn'
-4---   /    down to the lead, lead 2 blows,
4----   /    one blow in 2nd, lead 2 blows
4----   /    and back up to 3rd place
-4---   /
--4--
--4--  (go out slow)
---4-  (double dodge 4-5 up)
----4
---4-
----4
---4-
----4 (two blows at the back)
----4 (and double dodge 4-5 down)
---4-
----4
---4-
----4
---4- (end of dodging, now go in quick)
--4--
-4---
4---- (lead 2 blows)
4----
-4---
--4-- (end of quick 6 -- go out quick)
---4-
----4
---4-
----4
---4-
----4  (two blows at the back)
----4
---4- (start to double dodge 4-5 down)
----4
---4- (which is rounds)

Learning to ring Stedman involves learning this 'blue line', conveniently remembered by the symmetrical sections I have marked above (although their names are distinctly peculiar, even by the mysterious language of bellringing: who thought of them as 'whole turns' and 'half turns'?). Once the pattern is understood and memorized, then Stedman is relatively easy to ring. You do have to remember, after dodging, whether you are supposed to go in quick or go in slow.

We can extend Stedman Doubles to Stedman Triples very easily. The work of the front three bells, and these alternating quick sixes and slow sixes is unchanged, and we simply add two more bells dodging at the back. The two pieces of dodging work (which in Stedman Doubles are each: double dodge 4-5 up, then double dodge 4-5 down), now become: double dodge 4-5 up, double dodge 6-7 up, double dodge 6-7 down, double dodge 4-5 down, and in quick or slow as appropriate.

There are no bobs in Stedman Doubles: the 10 sixes of the plain course are half the full extent of five bells, and we just need a single to switch two bells so that we can ring the other 60 changes. This single has the effect of causing the two bells at the back to miss a dodge and instead make an extra blow in 4th or 5th place. This is enough to swap them over.

In Stedman Triples we do have to call Bobs, but again they do not affect the front three bells. A consequence of this is that any bell which goes in quick must always come out quick; and any bell which goes in slow must always come out slow. To do anything else means that the ringing has gone badly awry.

simon
on a stiflingly hot Sunday afternoon in St Ives