[Bell Historians] Peals on Six Bells

[Richard Smith]

Chris Pickford wrote:

> Quite a number of five- and six-bell peals were rung in 
> the C18th - try looking at Morris "History and Art" and/or 
> at Cyril Wratten's collection of newspaper reports in John 
> Eisel's excellent 2010 edition entitled "Order and 
> Disorder in the Eighteenth Century: Newspaper extracts 
> about Church Bells and Bellringing"

The earliest 5040+ of minor recorded in the Felstead 
database was at St Mary's, Whitechapel, on 16 April 1737. 
Morris [p.363, footnote 1] states:

     At S. Mary's, Whitechapel, April 16, 1737, 5040 Minor
   was rung consisting of "seven compleat Surprise six-bell
   peals, viz., 720 of Oxford Tripple Bob, Cambridge
   Surprise, Morning Exercise, Bristol Surprise, Worcester
   Surprise and York Surprise, containing 5,040 changes in 3
   hours 15 minutes.  By a Society of Compileers."

     The 'performers' were James Tichbourne, James Stuart,
   James Forsee, Edward Newton, Thomas Smallshaw and William
   Barrett (who called the bobs).  The treble and second men
   were Eastern Scholars; third, fourth and Fifth London
   Youths, and tenor a College Youth.

     Snowdon, in giving this extract in Bell News, 1882, p.
   162, states he may have made an error in copying only six
   methods!

Oxford TB, Cambridge S, and Morning Exercise are almost 
certainly the method that still bear these names, as 
evidenced by their inclusion in Campanalogia Improved [p. 
90-4, 115 and 111, respectively, in Monk's 1766 edition]. I 
would speculate that York Surprise might the method now know 
as York Delight; in any case, I'm sure it's not the modern 
York Surprise with it's wrong-place underwork.  What Bristol 
and Worcester are, I know not.

I have misplaced my Bell News DVD so cannot look this 
reference up to see what the source was (if, indeed, Snowdon 
gives one).  Morris quotes other early performances, such as 
7 Minor in 1749 at Brandeston, Suffolk, which was recorded 
on a peal board [p.363-4] which informs us that the seven 
extents were ring "without intermission", removing any doubt 
we might have that the ringers might have stopped for 
refreshment between extents.

As Chris says and Morris also acknowledges, there may be 
earlier performances that have gone unrecorded, or whose 
record lies undiscovered in some obscure regional newspaper.

The tradition of ringing multiple extents, back to back, is 
a fair bit older.  The ASCY peal book contains extracts from 
a c.1738 manuscript which states [c.f. Bill Cook's ASCY 
history, 1st Ed., p.20-1; or 2nd Ed., p.14]:

   The first great performance we have any account of was at
   St. Mary Overy's on the six largest bells as follows -
   November 18th, 1684, the College Youths rang three 720's,
   being the first time that ever so much was rung without
   standing; the peals were Oxford Treble Bob, College Single
   and Oxford Single - the whole number of changes were
   2,160.

Even though I'm relying on a 21st century edition of a 20th 
century book quoting a 19th century peal book drawing on an 
18th century manuscript describing an 17th century event, 
the account seems plausible enough and is consistent with 
other things we know about ringing at the time.  For 
example, the 1668 Tintinnalogia states that "the greatest 
Peal thatever was Rang on 8 Bells, is 1680" [p.132].

We know that by the time the trend for ringing peals of 
5,000 or more changes took off in the 1720s, minor was out 
of fashion in London, as evidenced by a rather poor verse 
penned by William Laughton (an active London ringer in the 
1720s through 1740s),

   Because there's peals of twelve in town
   Shall five or six bells ne'er be rung?
   I think 'tis a very stupid thing
   Of men that take delight to ring,
                       To rail at variety.

Indeed, I can't find any record of an ASCY six-bell peal 
rung before 1851, though the College Youths may not be 
typical of ringing in general.  So we should not be too 
surprised if it took some years before a peal of minor was 
rung.  Was the Whitechapel peal in 1737 first?  I doubt 
we'll ever know, though Snowdon's quote does not claim it as 
such.  It's entirely possible that the band themselves 
didn't know.

RAS