Campanology in Action

On 23rd September a group of Tweenies visited St John’s Church Purbrook to learn all about bellringing. After an introductory talk we were split into small groups to explore each level of the church bell tower. The current peal of six bells, installed in 2000 to celebrate the Millennium, are rung from the first floor. Here a small working model of how the bells are operated was demonstrated and some of the technical terms and mathematical nature of ringing some of the sequences explained.

As observers we needed to keep our hands behind our backs in the confined space to avoid anything being caught up in the ropes whilst we watched the bellringers at work. Some of the team are only 12 years of age and there is no upper age limit. Everyone then had the opportunity to join in with the experts and have a go at bell-ringing which surprisingly does not require great strength, rather a sense of timing.

We then climbed a vertical iron ladder to the second floor where the Church clock mechanism is housed and then finally clambered up a wooden ladder and over and under beams on the third floor to inspect the bells themselves. The bells can be muffled and vents in the tower closed to reduce noise for the neighbours on practice nights and the clock which has two faces is silenced during the night.
The church also has a computerised training system for people to learn the art of bell-ringing. Finally we tried hand bell-ringing, another training aid - but this is much more difficult than it looks!
It was a fascinating evening and our thanks go to the St John’s bell-ringing team on the night and Allan Yalden for making our visit possible.

Linda Wainwright