[Bell Historians] Number of ringers

[Richard Johnston]

> In article <5ccfff6dacjohn at jaharrison.me.uk>,
>    John Harrison via Bell-historians
> <bell-historians at lists.ringingworld.co.uk> wrote:
> > In the RW report of the Sonning Deanery AGM in 1930 the chairman is
> > quoted as saying:   'The number of ringers in the country was 46,083 ...
> 
> Answering my own question in case anyone it interested.  
> 
> This very precise figure almost certainly came from the Church Year Book,
> which counted ringers as anyone who pulls or chimes a church bell, whether
> the church has one bell or many.  
> 
> This source was mentioned in the 1932 CC meeting where the need for a
> census of ringers (in the proper sense) was discussed.  Coleridge's 
> figure would thus be a gross over estimate  of 'ringers'.    
> 
> That might also explain why Exeter was ahead of Oxford and Bath & Wells,
> whereas now it is a long way behind them.
> 
> -- 
> John Harrison

John's concluding paragraph isn't soundly based.  

Comparing memberships of ringing organisations for Devon with Bath & Wells either in 1930 or today 
is not to compare like with like.

Devon:

The church figure for Devon in 1930 will include people who only chime for a service, but at that 
time a Diocesan estimate of the number of ringers would be by far the most reliable estimate of the 
number of genuine full-circle ringers in the roughly 370 Devon towers with bells.  

That's because most Devon ringers were not involved in any organisation beyond their own tower, but 
many, probably most, towers then still had an active local band.  

The Guild of Devonshire Ringers was then a rigidly methods only Guild, and only a small proportion 
of bands - mostly in towns - were affiliated.  That's because right from the start in 1874, the 
leadership of the GDR was openly hostile and unwelcoming to the existing (highly independently 
minded!) village ringers.  The idea that ringing should be method ringing controlled by Clergy 
toffs did not go down well with bands whose ringers came from families who'd rung the bells for 
centuries "their way".  Thus the Rector of Plymtree took his very active band to an early GDR 
meeting, but the band never joined.  For the first 25 years or so only a relative handful of towers 
were affiliated, in 1900, just 17.  By 1930 there were 53.  

The Devon Association, founded in 1926 was founded initially for the purpose of improving the 
ringing of rounds, and was for bands interested in competition, which many bands weren't - moreover 
DA membership is of a tower, not individual ringers, and still is, so the number of ringers 
represented can only be guessed at.  

Hence most towers were unaffiliated, and the total number of ringers can't be even approximately 
represented from GDR figures.

Today the GDR still only covers a small proportion of the total towers.  Far more towers are now 
silent, as the village based local traditions of bell ringing done by local families died out.  

But again, the number of ringers still can't be reliably estimated from GDR and DA figures.

Bath & Wells 

The Bath & Wells had far better coverage of towers in 1930, and today has remarkable coverage, in 
part because it encourages churches to affiliate (even if there are no ringers) to receive advice 
and support from the Association in bell related matters.  Hence the ringer data for B&W area at 
both dates is probably as complete as it can be anywhere.

Richard Johnston