St Mary's Radcliffe on Trent

Working in love to glorify God
and proclaim Jesus Christ as Saviour

Bellringers, Radcliffe on Trent, Nottingham
Bellringers - Basics
Article Index
Bellringers
Our bells
Bellringing Basics

About Ringing

We generally ring what is called ‘English Change Ringing’. The English style of ringing is unique. The bells themselves move – unlike on the continent where a hammer strikes the bell. English bells swing through 360 degrees enabling the clapper to strike the bell each time it swings. Because of the time it takes for the bell to swing through its arc we don’t ring tunes. Instead each bell rings in turn and then we ‘change’ the order, each bell moving only one position a time. There are many different sequences of changes, known as ‘methods’. The simplest method, Plain Hunt, is shown here for six bells, with the lightest bell (treble) number ‘1’ and the heaviest bell (tenor) number ‘6’

 1 2 3 5 6
 2 1 43 6 5
 2 4 1 6 3 5
 4 2 6 1 5 3
 4 6 2 5 1 3
 6 4 5 2 3 1
 6 5 4 3 2 1
 5 6 3 4 1 2
 5 3 6 1 4 2
 3 5 1 6 2 4
 3 1 5 2 6 4
 1 3 2 5 4 6
 1 2 3 4 5 6


Links

For further information, you can check out the following websites to learn even more about the fascinating world of church bell ringing:-

Southwell Diocesan Guild of Church Bell Ringers - to which St Mary’s is affiliated www.southwelldg.org.uk

Central Council of Church Bell Ringers – the governing body for church bell ringing  www.cccbr.org.uk

The Ringing World – the weekly magazine for church bell ringers www.ringingworld.co.uk

Taylor’s Bell Foundry, Loughborough – one of only two bell foundries still working in Britain www.taylorbells.co.uk