[Bell Historians] More bells?

[davidhird_uk]

The opposite happened at Stockton when they went to 12. The band 
shrank dramatically.

At Newcastle we added a sharp treble to give a light 10 as an ageing 
band meant we also struggled sometimes to ring the back 10 or 8. The 
norm now is to ring the light 10 an a Sunday morning and the 12 or 
back 10 for evensong due to the different age profiles of our morning 
and evening bands.

David

--- In bellhistorians at yahoogroups.com, "Martin Davies" 
<martindavies at ...> wrote:
>
> >>I'm sure you are right that prestige has a lot to do with 
> augmentations to twelve. I too am sceptical about how many twelves 
> have Sunday service bands that actually ring changes on twelve 
> regularly.<<
> 
> Hope this is still classified as Bell History.......
> 
> As we are on the brink of a 10 to 12(+1) augmentation at Ripon I 
> thought our reasons for doing this may be useful. Our band isn't 
> particulaly competent at ringing changes on 10 (we are a Plain Bob 
9/ 
> Stedman 7 type of band) but good quality call changes on 10 are the 
> norm on sunday. We have over 20 members, many of them youngsters or 
> learners. The main reasons for going ahead with our augmentation 
are:
> 
> 1) The installation is more flexible for teaching purposes. The 
light 
> 8 will make a huge difference to our band especially in progressing 
> from 6 bell to 8 bell ringing
> 2) In holiday periods we often meet with plenty of ringers but not 
> enough back bells ringers, again the light 8 will be very useful
> 3) We have the numbers and the band should be able to deliver good 
> quality call changes on 12 for sunday service from the outset
> 4) We considered an augmentation by 2 addition bells as at Grantham 
> or Writtle to give us the light 8 and maintain the 10 intact. We 
> decided 12 represented a better long term view.
> 5) Other changes to the installation (such as rope guides,twiddle 
> pins) are included in the project to make the bells easier to ring. 
> This will help exisiting ringers progress more rapidly and increase 
> retention of new ringers
> 6) To include ringing room refurbishment in the augmentation plans -
 
> obvious benefits and provided an added motivation to all the 
ringers 
> to become involved and support the project
> 7) It was clear from the enthusiasm and pledges generated when the 
> project was initially discussed that the project fundraising would 
> come to a successful conlusion. There was a real "now or never" 
> mentality
> 8) There is no doubt that a 12 bell facility in our area will be 
well 
> used 
> 9) The long term vision is to establish 12 bell change ringing  at 
> Ripon. This will never happen without an augmentation
> 
> In terms of funding the Flat 6th has paid for itself many times 
over. 
> It has allowed us to put out a considered message about "training 
and 
> retention of ringers" to the funding bodies which has produced good 
> results.
> 
> And I agree fully with Marks comments about new bells producing new 
> ringers. The past 3 years of fundraising has pulled the band 
together 
> and we have increased in numbers from 12 to over 20. Some of the 
new 
> ringers have moved to the area ,some we have taught, and one has 
> returned to ringing. Retention figure are much higher than before 
and 
> I am convinced this is a direct result of the augmentation plans.
> 
> Martin
>