[Bell Historians] Peals on Six Bells

[David Beacham]

In Worcester, we know "Worcester Surprise" is not a surprise method (although it used to be rung here as such) and is properly called Worcester Delight. It is an "irregular" method (i.e. non PB lead ends) and can be rung as "London below and Oxford TB above"

DB


  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Richard Smith 
  To: bellhistorians at yahoogroups.com 
  Sent: Tuesday, November 01, 2011 2:41 PM
  Subject: Re: [Bell Historians] Peals on Six Bells


    
  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


             
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