Tag Archives: Learning the Ropes

Andrew reaches Level 5

By ringing inside to a quarter of Grandsire Doubles at Isle of Dogs, Andrew Booth has become the 28th person to achieve Level 5 of Learning the Ropes and qualifies for a prize under the ART Awards scheme.

The Association of Ringing Teachers is now moving out of its set up phase. Going forward the focus will be less on delivering ITTS courses and is shifting to supporting the 250+ and growing number of members who have gained Accreditation. Thanks to the generosity of various parties, the inaugural ART Awards will be presented at the Annual Conference at Loughborough Bell-foundry on Saturday 12th March 2016.

One of the Awards is for all those who have achieved Learning the Ropes Level 5, who will be invited to a centrally-organised weekend event: The Learning the Ropes Masterclass. This will be run in the second half of 2016 by a team of hand-picked, top flight ringers and will be designed to provide opportunities that are not normally available locally. Travel and accommodation will be arranged/paid for participants based in the mainland UK.

Andrew thanks all those who have helped him reach this milestone over the last couple of years and with twelve of our other ringers at various stages on the pathway, we hope that they too will qualify for similar awards over the next year or two. We look forward to celebrating their success.

http://bb.ringingworld.co.uk/view.php?id=984637

The band after the quarter, Andy, Mike, Morag, Drew, Bridget, Roger.

Roger

Isle of Dogs simulator on BBC Click programme

A few weeks ago a crew from BBC’s click programme came to Christchurch to find out more about how we are using the latest release of the Abel simulator software to teach people to ring. This has moving video images of real ringers, so our new ringers can practice ringing in time with an electronic band of ringers, rather than real ringers.

They tell us that it’s less embarrassing than making mistakes ringing with real people, and we can be much more flexible in fixing up practice sessions, so our new ringers learn more quickly.

The BBC have told us that a radio version of the programme will be broadcast on BBBC World Service on Tuesday 6th January at 19.32. It will be repeated on Wednesday 7th January at 00.32; 04.32 and 13.42 GMT. It can also be downloaded as a podcast afterwards from – http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p002w6r2/episodes/player

The producers have not yet scheduled the Television version of the programme, which will be shown on various BBC channels. We will let you know, once we know.

An article about the software was also published in The Ringing World magazine and is downloadable below from the following link: Ringing World article

Screenshot of Abel

Chris Hughes the author of the Abel software

Jinny Kuffluk, Graham Long and Chris Hughes ringing up ready to be filmed for TV

Ringing the changes at St Mary Magdalen Bermondsey

St Mary Magdalen before 1828 (above) and today (below).

This Saturday, 20th September, the sound of Church bells ringing the changes will be heard again for the first time in over 180 years at St Mary Magdalen Church at the corner of Tower Bridge Road and Abbey Street in Bermondsey. Bellringers from the daughter church of St James’ will erect a mobile belfry in the churchyard at St Mary Magdalen as part of the Bermondsey Street Festival, between 12.00 and 4.00pm.

Parts of the tower at St Mary Magdalen date back to 1290, and there are records of 14 peals being rung on the bells hung in the tower. The first was 10,080 changes of Plain Bob Major rung by the College Youths on 18th May 1728. This was one of the very earliest peals rung anywhere. The first ever peal was rung in Norwich less than 10 years before.

Whilst the bells at St Mary Magdalen played an important role in the development of change-ringing, in 1828 the top half of the tower at St Mary Magdalen was demolished and its bells were melted down.

On Saturday the band from St James’ will be bringing the Charmborough Ring, a mobile bell tower for the day and demonstrating the art of ringing the changes. There will also be the opportunity for members of the public to have a go.

St James has a peal of eight bells and an active team of ringers, although their leader Roger Booth say that they could always do with a few more ringers. The team also mans the ropes at nearby St Mary’s Church in Rotherhithe and is offering would be ringers an intensive series of lessons so that people could learn the basics in a week, and then join in with the rest of the team at their regular weekly practice sessions at St James’ at 7.30pm on Tuesday evenings.

Tueday night band make progress

Members of the Tuesday night band at Bermondsey and Rotherhithe have made significant progress in March and April, quarter peals having been attempted and scored most weeks, either as part of the Tuesday night specials, or Sunday service ringing at Rotherhithe and Isle of Dogs:

Andrew Larsen has rung his first quarter of Kent Treble Bob Minor on the treble.

Joe Tilley has rung his first of Kent Treble Bob Minor inside.

Eva Redei has scored her first of Doubles on the Treble, and followed this up buy ringing the treble to another in two Doubles methods and the treble to another of Plain Bob Doubles

Jonathan Gregson has also rung his first of Plain Bob Doubles inside, and followed this up by ringing his first of Grandsire Doubles inside and Plain Bob Minor on the Treble

Louise Booth has also conducted her first quarter of mixed doubles.

In addition to these firsts, many other ringers have taken the opportunity to ring and several have also practiced their conducting skills; a total of eighteen ringers having participated (Harry Baulcombe, Andrew Booth, Louise Booth, Roger Booth, Luke Camden, Andrew Clark, Simon Fraser, Colin Friend, Jonathan Gregson, Gillian Harris, Richard Hensman, Andrew Larsen, Elizabeth LeMoine, Nolan Marchand, Eva Redei, Trisha Shannon, Joe Tilley and Mike Todd).

Besides the ones that have been scored, we have also lost quarters of Plain Bob Minor and Plain Bob Triples. Perhaps someone is sending us a message, but over the coming months we will make the effort to help more people move on to ringing Minor and Triples, although we will still need to continue ringing quite a lot of doubles, not only to refine our striking, but also enable those who are currently ringing the tenor behind, or hunting the treble, to move on. We also need to cater for those who are coming through the system and who will soon be ready to attempt their first quarter.

In addition to the quarters, Guseppina and Luigi Vincenti have also achieved their ‘Learning the Ropes’ Level 1 and are now working towards Level 2. There are several other people at the same stage, so it looks like that there is still more progress to be made and many more quarters to be rung.