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Scottish Association of Change Ringers |
• We are sad to report the passing of Don Towers of Dundee, for many years tower captain at the Cathedral.
• Congratulations to William Dawson and Helen Darbyshire on their engagement in January.
On new year's eve 2009 the 'powers that be' had cancelled the event to be held in the Northern Meeting Park behind the Cathedral, because of a few centimeters of snow. Not so the intrepid Cathedral ringers, eleven ringers plus 5 friends and families travelling from up to 20 miles away gathered in the tower to ring and welcome the New Year with hot mince pies and a 'wee dram'.
The artilce from the 'Inverness Courier' below describes the situation.
With no less than two visits this year from the media, SS Andrews and Georges in Edinburgh certainly get the medal for flying the Scottish Ringing flag to the masses!
In January 2009 a reporter and film crew from STV's Five-Thirty show arranged a visit to the tower to learn more about the art of bellringing as part of their "get fit for new year" feature. Footage of the ringers appeared on television, along with the presenter receiving expert tuition from Mike Clay. A superb feature, and a great advert for new recruits!
More recently, the BBC - and Michael Portillo - turned up to record the bells, ably "played" through the chiming apparatus by Saskia Palmer. This recording was of the Scottish tune "Why Should I Be So Sad On My Wedding Day" - originally sounded from St Giles to mark the Act of Union 300 years ago. The footage is due to be shown on BBC 2 in January.
In January 2010 the bells of SS Andrews and Georges hit three out of three, with an article in the Sunday Post.
Many congratulations to the Inverness band on winning the Striking competition this year. They won the Inveraray Sheild for the first time as a 'Method ringing band' Although in 1987 it was won with a 'Call change band'.
The Band: from bottom right - Sue Varley, Emma Clements, Mark Burt, Mike Neale, Hugh Collins, Peter Shipton.
The ringers of Aberdeen recently rang a quarter peal half muffled to commemorate the recent helecopter crash and those who lost their lives
Scottish Association
Aberdeen
Roman Catholic Cathedral Church of St
Mary of the Assumption
Wednesday, 15 April 2009 in 48 mins (11 cwt)
1274
Plain Bob Triples
1 Sarah K Buchanan
2 Michael S Capocci
3 Colin P
North
4 Ruth C Perrett
5 Elizabeth Stott
6 William J Dawson (c)
7
Simon A Lucas
8 Lloyd E Dodd
Rung half-muffled by an Aberdeen band prior to the memorial service at the Kirk of St Nicholas, Aberdeen, for those lost in the North Sea on 1st April 2009
On Sunday 26th November 2006 the restored bells of Ss Andrew & George were dedicated. At the time of the dedication, the local band was mainly getting to grips with ringing rounds. Now, on Monday 23rd February the 50th quarter on the bells was rung by a local band. The band consisted of a learner from the initial intake, those who were instrumental in helping teach the learners, two who had come back to ringing after a long sabbatical, and a university student who helps support the tower. This band is an accurate reflection of the general ringing at the tower: locals whose home tower it is, plus those who come along to support them as they progress.
Over the 50 quarter peals there have been some notable firsts. Morven Wardley, Becky Noonan-Heal and Ian Green have all rung their first quarters. Sally Evans and Roy Dyckhoff have rung their first quarters again after lengthy sabbaticals. Both David Roskelly and I have scored our first quarters as conductors here, and rang our first quarters of spliced major as well. There have also been numerous other firsts as well.
These quarter peals reflect the progress that the tower is making as a whole. Nearly all the learners can plain hunt to a greater or lesser degree, and others have progressed onto trebling to Plain Bob and Grandsire on various numbers. Becky and Ian have moved onto learning to ring Plain Bob Doubles and Minor inside. The next milestone for the learners will be first quarters inside and first peals.
For the tower to have come this far in the space of less than 27 months is a real achievement. This could not have happened without the support and enthusiasm of Mike and others who come along to the practice to support the learners as they progress. And not to mention give up an extra hour on Monday nights to ring quarters! Long may it continue.
Saskia Palmer
Click here to read about The Old Steeple on the BBC
Three years ago (I think), Innes Duffus from the Nine Trades of Dundee contacted me to put forward the idea of reinstalling the chimes in the Old Steeple as they were some years ago. Over the next two years there was considerable to-ing and fro-ing in conjunction with the XM engineers from Michelin to ensure that the newly installed chimes would not interfere in any way with the ringing of the bells. This involved quite a lot of advice on the bell ringing side to ensure the safety of the bells. The engineers had been told that then no way were they to touch the original frame despite the fact that the mounting holes for the original chime brackets were already there and could presumably have been reused without altering the frame at all. However this was not to be and large obtrusive brackets were mounted outside the frame, fixed to the floor. These eventually had to be painted bright yellow as the engineers kept tripping over them in the dark. The chiming mechanism itself consists of a hammer mounted on a round shaft held in place by a friction bolt with a lock nut. The driving mechanism was sourced from Holland and consists of a solenoid that is impulse driven. A short electrical pulse fires the hammer and immediately releases it ensuring the hammer can't remain in contact with the bell. The weight of the hammer keeps it going under gravity and momentum so the hammer continues forward and hits the bell.
Unfortunately it was not possible to position the hammers at exactly 90° to the swing of the bell because the frame was in the way. This means that under some circumstances the chiming mechanism sets the bell swinging slightly. If the same chime is fired a second or subsequent time the volume can be slightly affected. This is particularly noticeable on the tenor when it chimes more than six or seven times. The most awkward chime to fit was that on the fifth because of lack of space between the fifth and the sixth. This meant a very short hammer and to increase the volume of sound it was made rather heavier than the others. This was only one of numerous problems that were encountered in trying to ensure that there was no risk to the swinging bells from the positioning of the chiming mechanisms.
The bells sound according to the Westminster chimes, with the timing controlled by the computer in the clock chamber. This is fed by sensors on the main clock mechanism that tell the computer exactly what position the minute hand is in. The hour is ‘remembered’ by a counter, which means that if there is a power failure, or twice a year when the clocks change, the hour has to be reset using controls beside the computer. The electronics were built and programmed by Allan Grant, working for XM, who said he found it a pleasant diversion from his normal line of work!
The chimes are fully electronic; there is no mechanism to be pulled out of action physically. Instead, the mechanism is switched on and off from the ringing chamber using a clearly marked switch with corresponding red and green lights, similar to that installed in St Andrew and St George Edinburgh from where I got the idea!
The chimes were finally commissioned on Tuesday 16th of December 2008 with a great deal of publicity from STV and the BBC and several radio stations including Wave 102 and Tay FM. There have been a lot of positive comments from members of the public in favour of hearing the bells chiming again and everyone involved is really pleased at the culmination of a lot of hard work and skill that has gone in to reinstating these historic chimes.
Stephen Elwell-Sutton, Dundee
The blustery weather may have put off some ringers from attending the SACR Social Event, but they missed a splendid day out, hosted by the ringers from St Andrew and St George, Edinburgh.
During their fundraising campaign they set a high bar for entertainment, and this weekend lived up to our high expectations. In addition to the ringing, the STAG ringers, and in particular Simon Aves and Saskia Palmer, created a treasure hunt (in which several hardy souls ventured into the teeth of the gale to complete), and a fiendishly difficult quiz. There was even a third event planned, which has been filed away for future use.
The evening's do included a plentiful supply of food and drink (which of course had no bearing on the difficulty of the quiz), which was almost single-handedly masterminded by Barbara Ross. Margaret Williams helped to organise a raffle, and the whole event raised about £170 for the Bell Restoration Fund.
Many thanks to the STAG ringers for pulling off another grand day out. Our next meeting will be held in January and is hosted by Glasgow and Paisley. Could be good, you had better come and find out......
In 2006, Matt Edwards ventured over the border to ring in his first Society of Royal Cumberland Youths peal attempt. As part of the November peal weekend, two peals were scored that day in the Newcastle area. Matt vowed that he would organise an attempt in Scotland however it took until 2008 to get enough resident members in the same place at the same time!
On Sunday 16th November, 6 ringers met at the recently restored ring of 8 at St. Andrews & St. Georges in Edinburgh. A very respectable peal of surprise minor was scored, and included many firsts. Not only was this the first peal of minor on the bells, but a first peal for the society for both Bill and Helen Brotherton. After checking with various people, it transpired that this was the first tower bell peal in Scotland for the society by a band who were all resident in Scotland.
Society of Royal Cumberland Youths
Edinburgh, Lothian - St Andrew & St
George
Sunday, 16 November 2008 in 2hrs 57 (14-2-23)
5040 Surprise Minor
1: London, 2: Wells, 3: London & Wells, 4: Beverley, 5: Surfleet, 6: Beverley &
Surfleet, 7: Cambridge
1 Helen M Brotherton
2 William A Brotherton
3
Tina Stoeklin
4 Stephen A Elwell-Sutton
5 Matthew D Hetherington
6
Matthew J Edwards (C)
First for the Society: 1+2. First minor on the bells.
The first tower bell peal for the Society in Scotland by a band who are all
resident in Scotland. For Society Peal Weekend.
In October, the band at St Mary's Cathedral in Glasgow bid a reluctant farewell to Mike Harrison. Mike arrived to the 'dear green place' two years ago to take up a job at the Glasgow Transport Museum, and unfortunately neither they nor we were able to persuade him to stay longer!
Mike immediately took an active role in the social and ringing life of the band, becoming Deputy Tower Captain in very short order. During his time he also conquered the heights of 8-spliced Surprise Major, Glasgow Surprise Major and called a quarter of Grandsire Triples (which was extremely well struck).
In between his ringing and work duties, Mike and his partner Matt also managed to see more of Scotland and Eurpoe than possibly the rest of the band put together. His final grande tour was to return to his permanent home in Washington D.C. by sea. On his last practice, the band presented Mike with a memento of his time here and generally embarrassed him by saying nice (and true) things about him.
We wish Mike and Matt the best of luck for the future.
Thank you to Tina Stoecklin for submitting this article.
Peter Shipton, owner of the most Northerly Ring of Bells in the world, the Druim Croft Campanile at Nairn was approached by the BBC’s Landward programme makers, who wanted to feature the bells on their pre-Christmas show. The broadcast was scheduled for the Friday before Christmas with filming to take place in the week before . Peter welcomed a team of four from BBC Aberdeen. Producer, Camera man, Sound man and Presenter Sarah Mack. Preliminary filming and some of the techniques of bell ringing were demonstrated by Peter before the other 5 ringers arrived from Inverness and Kinloss at 19.00.
Introductions completed it was decided to film first and socialize afterwards. The ringers Alison Andrew, Sue Varley, Hugh Collins, Mark Burt, Mike Neale and Peter Shipton, are all members of the Association and have been ringing regularly on the bells for over two years. To give as good a performance as we could it was decided to ring plain courses of Grandsire Doubles while the camera man filmed us from many different angles. He then went up among the bells to get shots of the bells ringing.
Ringing completed we were then interviewed in turn on camera by Sarah whose questions ranged from, why and what we liked about ringing to how long we had been ringing. With answers of ‘to keep an ancient craft alive’ and in my case ‘I rang for the Queen’s coronation’.
After more than an hour of filming, what would the 4 minute item be like? We do have a DVD of the programme that could be copied. Email me at inverness@sacr.org.
The programme makers had a story they wished to tell and all of us who took part feel that ringing was favorably portrayed. As usual broadcast time severely restricted the amount of material that was used.
Mike Neale
On Saturday 13th of January the first peal of 5,024 changes was rung at St Andrew's and St George's, Edinburgh, following the recent restoration of the bells. The band comprised of Scottish Association members who had been involved with the project, either through assisting with the fundraising, volunteering to help with the reinstallation or both. Following the peal the band were joined by many others involved in the project including members of the fundraising committee for a well earned champagne celebration. The peal can be found on Campanophile.
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