St Barnabas, Pimlico

[Alan Taylor]

A short update on the tryout/carol service ringing. 18 invited ringers
attended.

All of the bells had been rung singularly during the weeks and months of
work. But not together. So, we proceeded with some caution in the following
way.

For the 1st touch each ringer, with the exception of the treble, tried their
bell to make sure all was well and that they could control the bell. The
treble is without a slider. 

Then the treble was rung up. The bells were then added one by one with
pauses between to make sure all was well, until the front six were in
rounds. Then plain hunt on six was completed. As all was still very much
well, the back bells, one by one, joined in. When all ten were going,
without any problem, plain hunt on ten was performed. And as that proved to
be fine, the first touch of Grandsire Caters was rung.

Over the hour of ringing the touches improved, as the ringers got used to
the bells and the bells got used to being rung full circle again.

Those living around the church had been leafleted to alert them of the first
ringing of the bells since 1965. A good deal of those leafleted, turned up
to listen and indeed approve. The church was full for the carol service.

There are a number of clips on You Tube of the ringing. I should like to
make the point, that in one clip, Edward Mould seems to be having a fight
with the treble. As I said before, the treble is without any means of
setting and Edward had only just taken over the bell from Michael Sprackling
and the clip shows him first ringing the bell from a holding it on the
balance for a few minuets. After a few blows, he was soon in place.

As for the future, the bells are indeed very loud outside and until we can
get sound control in place, ringing will be very restricted. The bells are
by no means easy to ring and also cursed by not having the usual stays and
sliders. The mechanisms do not have a breaking point like a conventional
stay and slider system. This means potential very serious damage if a bell
is hit hard against the present mechanism, which means in reality that the
bells can only be rung by ringers of experience and good handling skills.
Our long term plans are to get the bells re-hung.

Alan Taylor