Author Archives: Roger

New CCTV at Bermondsey

The new CCTV screens

Remembrance Sunday 2016 marked the 25th anniversary of the installation of the current ring of eight bells at St James Bermondsey. The 25th anniversary was marked by a short ceremony during the morning service, when the vicar Canon Gary Jenkins invited the ringers to the front and in the talk that followed displayed some pictures of the local band and some before and after pictures of the restoration on the large LCD screens that go down either side of the nave.

Earlier in the year the Docklands Ringers had won a £400 prize award from The Association of Ringing Teachers for ‘Innovation in Social Media’ to recruit new ringers. We have used this award, together with a £200 grant from the Surrey Association of Church Bell Ringers “Fellowship Fund’, some of our own funds and money donated by own ringers to install a set of four CCTV cameras, compatible with the audio-visual system in the church. For the first time, we were therefore able to beam live video pictures of the ringers and the moving bells down into the church at the end of the service. Members of the congregation were also invited to come up to the ringing chamber and meet the ringers and some had a go at ringing back strokes. The clergy, churchwardens and members of the congregation were all very impressed.

The previous day we held a reunion for our ringers, with a meal in the local pub at the corner of the churchyard. Over the last 25 years we have taught many people to handle at Bermondsey and of these 27 have gone on to become regular members of the Sunday band. In addition, a steady stream of ready-made ringers have moved into the area, and we have unearthed some lapsed ringers. This has resulted in a further 22 people becoming members of our regular Sunday band. That’s a total of 49 ringers – almost two new ringers a year. Of these 55% have been taught to handle locally.

We have also been able to extend the skills of those 22 ready-made ringers, many coming as rounds and call change ringers and going on to ring surprise. We have also made a habit of welcoming a significant number of regular visitors to our practices and helped them to progress too, even though they have not become members of our Sunday band.

Bermondsey is very much an urban parish, and there is a high turnover in the local population. Not only do we find that we have attracted a steady stream of ready-made ringers, but a significant proportion our ringers move away after a period of time. About 36% of our Sunday band have moved away over the last 25 years, although we know that at least a third of them have joined a band elsewhere. Another third have moved overseas, the most interesting coincidence being Chris and Jillan Rusch, who joined the band at St James Cathedral, Toronto, Canada. The back ten of this ring of twelve being the old Bermondsey ring of ten. Two of our band have also gone on to be tower captains in their new towers.

A small percentage of our Sunday band have gone on to join other bands nearby in London and about 30% of our regular band still live locally, but are no longer active for various reasons. We do try to keep in touch with all our lapsed ringers and hope that they will return to ringing when circumstances permit. For example, we were very pleased that Angela Owusu who learnt as a teenager 25 years ago now has an eleven year old daughter. She came to our reunion and is keen to learn, so we have put both of them in touch with their local tower.

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Over the last 25 years we have not rung a Sunday band peal, although with our extended practice night band we have rung peals of Bob Major at Bermondsey and Walworth, a Peal of Grandsire Triples at Rotherhithe and a peal of Doubles at Bermondsey. We have also rung a considerable number of quarters from Bob Doubles up to Surprise Major. We were also pleased to hear at the weekend that Janet Ritterman one of our former ringers had rung her first peal (Yorkshire Major inside) at the first attempt and she was very grateful for the all help that we gave her earlier in her ringing career.

The reason for the restoration was that previous heavy ring of ten bells (tenor 28 cwt) installed in 1829 had become virtually unringable. The opportunity was taken to replace them with the current ring of eight (tenor 14 cwt), as a part of a major refurbishment of the church. Bermondsey has a strong local community, with a wide range of skills on tap, and many local parishioners literally mucked in and became involved in the project to help keep the cost down. Remarkably the balance of £65,000 needed to complete the project was raised within 12 months. Many of those who mucked in went on to learn to ring on their bells, and at one stage the majority of the PCC were ringers.

The challenges of maintaining a Sunday band over the last 25 years in a parish like Bermondsey are probably no different to these in many urban parishes up and down the country. The key to our success has been a strong commitment to recruiting new ringers and helping them progress up the ladder to ringing surprise, if they wish to progress that far. However, all members of the band are valued, even if they don’t become surprise ringers. We have also tried to strike a balance between the needs of our local band and those of our visitors, so that everyone puts something back. We have seen so many other bands collapse because they seem to lose touch with their local community and put less effort into recruiting and training new local ringers.

We are very grateful to the Surrey Association for their fellowship grant. Having restored so many rings of bells in Surrey, we are sure that their innovative new fund will ensure that those restored rings, like Bermondsey (and our neighbouring towers of Rotherhithe, Walworth and Camberwell) will have local bands to ring them well into the future. We are also grateful to the Association of Ringing Teachers for the support they have given us, not only through the £400 prize, but also their advice and encouragement over the recent years. Having taught quite a few people to ring we thought we knew it all, but we have learnt a lot and are probably now better teachers as a result.

The new video facilities and the work we are also doing to upgrade our simulator system will help us connect better with our congregation, raise local awareness and presence of the ringers, continue to recruit new ringers and to better train the next generation of ringers for the local band.

The tower in scaffold. The hoist was used to remove the old bells and frame and install the new frame

The last of the bells is craned into the tower

Level 5 achievers Masterclass with 12 Bell Winners

Andrew Booth is the first person in Docklands to reach Learning the Ropes Level 5. On September 17 he was invited, along with all the others who have achieved level 5 so far, to an expenses paid ‘Masterclass’ with the St Martin’s Guild, regular winners of the National 12 Bell Trophy, in Birmingham, home of the Birmingham School of Bell Ringing.

The day started with an introductory session, led by Stephanie Warboys, focussing on striking. Everyone listened to six video clips of ringing and then discussed the faults. Stephanie explained that the Birmingham ringers place great importance on discussing striking; even the most experienced ringers are never satisfied with their striking yet it is the elephant in the room that so many ringers seem unwilling to face. She also explained that no-one should take it personally later in the day if it was pointed out that someone’s backstrokes or handstrokes were quick or slow. In Birmingham feedback like this is the norm. Ringing is a team exercise and it is important for everyone to work together to optimise the performance.

The session also covered the theory of Stedman and how this doubles principle extends very easily to 7, 9 and 11 bells. Despite its simplicity, it is ‘hyper-musical’ and even the most advanced ringers really enjoy ringing it, so it provides an excellent progression path to ringing on higher numbers. As Stephanie explained repeatedly through the day, if you can ring Stedman Doubles, you can ring Stedman Triples, and if you can ring Stedman Triples you can ring Stedman Caters, and if you can ring Stedman Caters you can ring Stedman Cinques, and you will be made very welcome at any of the established centres of 12 bell ringing up and down the country.

We then headed across to St Philip’s Cathedral for the first of our practical sessions. We started on the middle six of this excellent ring of bells. Some of the participants, including Andrew, ringing Stedman Doubles for the first time, with others practicing Cambridge Surprise Minor. We then finished with the participants ringing two at a time in some rounds and call changes on this crystal clear sounding ring of twelve, with Stephanie emphasising the need to get those backstrokes up and everyone, including some of the best 12 bell ringers in the Country, concentrating on the striking.

After just over an hour and half’s intensive practice we then walked the short distance to St Paul’s in the Jewellery quarter, home of the Birmingham School of Bell Ringing. By some strange coincidence St Paul’s in Birmingham is at the top of Ludgate Hill – or is it just a coincidence? The participants then had a further three hours of intense practice with the multi-award winning Birmingham band. Lunch was served in shifts in the teaching room below the ringing chamber, so that ringing could continue without a break, and everyone was able to see the Birmingham ringers ART Module 1 and Module 2 certificates proudly displayed in the wall.

During the afternoon, Andrew moved on to ringing his first few courses of Stedman Triples, whilst others progressed on to ringing Stedman Caters for the first time. Those practicing Cambridge also rang Primrose Surprise for the first time. They did this by concentrating on hunting across the lead end and being aware of how the method was related to Cambridge, rather than learning a whole new blue line. As Stephanie explained, the helpers faces lit up as this was the key to ringing many other methods simply and easily.

The day ended with an hour and a quarter’s ringing at St Martin’s in the Bull Ring. Two at a time the participants rang rounds and call changes on 16 bells, with the crack Birmingham band. Again, striking was emphasised, especially the need to get those backstrokes up and hold them there. We then rang plain hunting on 11, Stedman Caters and Stedman Cinques, with one of the participants ringing a very well struck course of Stedman Cinques for the very first time. The ringing room at St Martin’s is very historic and atmospheric and Stephanie pointed to the peal boards for the very first peals on fourteen and sixteen bells, and which several of those helping today had actually rung in.

Learning the Ropes is about mastering the basic skills of bell-handling and striking, right from the outset, and to reach Level 5 the requirements include being able to do this sufficiently well to have rung quarter peals in two different doubles methods and one minor method inside. The day showed that once these basic skills have been mastered, with good support it is possible to make very rapid progress indeed, all the way to ringing methods on 10 and 12 bells.

At the conclusion Stephanie and the Birmingham ringers were thanked for their hard work, both in organising the event and in ringing throughout the day, to inspire others and help put so much back into ringing.

Participants were presented with certificates and then had their photograph taken with members of the Birmingham band with the National 12 Bell Trophy in front, and left with a goody bag containing a commemorative mug for the day.

Next year it is planned to repeat the Masterclass with those who reach Level 5 this year, so you have just over three months to do this!

Roger Booth

Woolwich passes through the sound barrier

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For at least the last eight years the bells of St Mary Magdalene have been very loud in the ringing room, as workmen had removed some of the sound-proofing between the bells and ringers. However, today a group of eight ringers from Greenwich, Bermondsey and Isle of Dogs rectified the problem, by installing three sheets of chipboard over the holes and laying carpet on top of the ringing room ceiling.

We started at 10.30 and had a quick ring on the bells first, measuring the sound level in the ringing room at about 84 decibels. Two hours and a lot of carrying, lifting, drilling and hammering later we rang the bells again, to be pleasantly surprised that the volume had reduced to about 75 decibels. This might not sound a lot, but as decibels are measured on a logarithmic scale, that is almost half the volume.

Not only that, but this 12cwt ring of eight, restored by Taylor’s in the 1930’s are now quite pleasant to ring and although there is no regular Sunday and practice ringing, we look forward to ringing the bells more frequently and scoring a few quarters on them over the coming weeks – Reverse Canterbury, perhaps!

25 Years ago

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Twenty five years ago the tower of St James’ Bermondsey was in scaffolding. The heavy old ring of 10 bells dating from 1823 had been removed, as they had become derelict and a new ring of 6 bells had just been cast in the Whitechapel Bellfoundry. They were rung for the first time in February 1991. Two more were added to complete the current ring of 8 bells in November 1991.

Over the years we have taught many people to ring on these bells and we plan to hold a reunion of the ringers in November 2016 to mark the 25th anniversary. Over 40 people attended the 20th anniversary reunion 5 years ago.

The old ring of 10 bells were restored and two more were added to make a ring of 12 bells, which were installed in St James’s Cathedral, Toronto, Canada. Three of our ringers travelled to Canada to attend the dedication weekend, including ringing for a special service attended by the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh on 27th June 1997.

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The new bells
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The old bells leave
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The 20th Anniversary

Happy new year!

After the previous evening’s festivities, fifteen ringers turned out to ring in the new year at Noon on the ten bells at St Alfege Greenwich and afterwards the eight bells at St John’s Deptford on new year’s day, one of the ringers ringing for the first time in 30 years!