“Ringing”

 We heard a bit about “change ringing” from a couple from Boston that was staying at the bed and breakfast where my Mom stayed during her visit.  I had asked them what they were up to in England and the husband responded with one word: “ringing.”  So I responded with an expectant expression hoping for some follow-up but  to no avail.  So I said “Ringing?” and he proceeded to explain they were here to ring bells.  Ah!  How easy it is to forget not everyone knows your jargon.  Anyway talking with them gave me the final push to look into checking out a bell tower which I had been meaning to do for some time.  When we first got to England I thought it would be fun to try to do some bell ringing, but it turned out to be a lot more complicated than I thought.  One of the best bell towers in Cambridgeshire happens to be the one in the local church we attend when we don’t go into Cambridge proper.  They have a bell ringing society based there who welcomes visitors so we went during one Wednesday practice session.

Trumpington Parish Church bell tower

The Trumpington shield

       

Door and stairway leading up.  It was a good long ways up.

Sanctus bell from 1420.  This is not used for change ringing, but is rung when the bread and wine are consecrated during mass so all the workers in the fields nearby could make the sign of the cross.

 

Some of the 8 change ringing bells.

 

 

“Those bells done 1791″–Some note about construction

 

Above it: “Huntlea 1876″–Old graffiti.  Some things  never change.

  

View of the “rope room” from the stairs leading up to the bell room.

 Stairs and ringers.  All the plaques on the wall commemorate various noteworthy ringings.  Noteworthy because they are for long ringings which are something of a physical feat–many of which were around 3 hours. Some are from the late 1800′s.  Here is one closer up:

 

 

Juliann during the one-arm-up phase.   She enjoyed the music.

 

The music notation, showing the order of the bells for each “measure”–(there is a whole set of fun change-ringing jargon I don’t know so am just attempting to be descriptive).

 

 

 

I uploaded a video with some music on it here.

.

.

.

 

Advertisement