[Bell Historians] Development of change ringing

[David Andrews]

At 14:32 15/12/2010, John Camp wrote:
>Did the idea that bells could theoretically be rung in changes result in
>the development of the wheel (three-quarter and then full) or was it the
>development of the wheel which gave rise to the notion of
>change-ringing?

Interesting question!  I see that John C Eisel also raises it in his article "Developments in Bell Hanging" (in "Change Ringing: the History of an English Art", vol 1, 1987, page 26):

"Is is not known if it was experimentation with change ringing that led to the developments in the control of a bell outlined above [i.e. half -> 3/4 -> full wheel, etc], or whether the control came first and change ringing developed later."

It seems entirely plausible to me that those late-16th century ringers, wanting to ring something more interesting than rounds and simple call changes with their half-wheels, drove the development of the full wheel. The question is, what evidence might support this hypothesis? A list of changes in a mid-16th century manuscript?

David