[Bell Historians] Early Change Ringing.

[Richard Smith]

Anne Willis wrote:

> I have no idea if these changes are contemporary with the register or if
> someone used the handy blank back pages at a later date.  I am very grateful
> to one of the archivists for drawing my attention to them.

Blimey.  When I said "I could easily believe that Sixty on 
Thirds also dates to the first half of the seventeenth 
century", I had assumed that this would remain a matter of 
conjecture.  I certainly didn't expect to shown firm 
evidence of them being in use by the middle of that century. 
Thank you for mentioning it.

I'm not sure whether you've realised, but the figures in the 
left and middle columns you've quoted from the Wootton 
Bassett registers are exactly Sixty on Thirds, but without 
the inital and final stages of calling the bells into and 
back from queens.  The idea of starting from queens feels 
like a much more recent innovation than actual Sixty on 
Thirds bit of it.

The right-hand column is more curious, though.  To start 
with it looks like it might just be Plain Changes, but if 
you have correctly read rows 11 and 12, this is not the 
case and the piece of ringing runs trivially false.  What is 
curious is the juxtaposition of a sophisticated five-bell 
piece of ringing with what appears to be quite an amature 
piece on four.  Do the two appear appear to be written in 
the same hand?

RAS