[r-t] Fulbourn Surprise Minor

Tue Jun 7 00:11:28 UTC 2016

Philip Earis wrote:

> I'm in the realms of wild speculation here, but there is something that makes 
> me wonder (hope?) if what was rung was something like what we now call 
> Dixon's Bob Minor.

Something along those lines is certainly possible.  The 
tablet at Maxey indicates that they considered Mr Dixon's 
Peal to be a variation of Plain Bob.

The fact that Dawson's peal includes two singles suggests a 
regular system of calls, rather than simply an attempt to 
get as many calls as possible.  Had a late 18th century 
composer set out to do the latter, I'm fairly sure the 
result would have been a bobs-only composition and not so 
hard that it was only scored "after a great number of 
unsuccessful attempts by professors of the art in various 
parts of the kingdom".  The same applies if it was 
essentially Single Court.  (I'm not sure Single Court 
existed per se, but its fourths place variant Single College 
[then called College Single] did.)

> The wording "after a great number of unsuccessful attempts" made me think of 
> the peal board in Maxey (40 miles north of Cambridge) that refers to a 
> performance 74 years later, on December 11th, 1863:
>
> "Mr Dixon's Peal of Bob Minor Variations was rung for the first time in this 
> Belfry after being composed for 34 years in a masterly style" (see 
> http://www.cantabgold.net/users/pje24/article.html)
>
> The names "Dawson" and "Dixon" are not so different either, but this may be a 
> bit desperate to will a link!

I think that's a bit desparate.  Dawson and Dixon are quite 
distinct names, and the tablet at Maxey places the creation 
of Dixons in about 1829, but Dawson's composition was rung 
in 1789.

> However, presumably it is fair to assume "bobs" might refer to any time when 
> the bells in 5-6 dodged (ie whenever bells 1, 2 or 4 are leading in Dixon's)? 
> If so, then an extent would contain 180 (bobs+singles). Having 24 omits 
> (plausible number of q-sets?) would get us down to the 156 mentioned in the 
> description.

I think it very likely that had something similar to Dixon's 
been rung in 1789, a "bob" would have referred only to the 
14 place notations, and not also to the 12 place notations. 
Have would give you 120 "bobs" from the plain courses, 
leaving 36 to for Q-sets to join the courses.  That seems 
quite a lot to me.

> Does anyone have any knowledge of the history of Dixon's Bob Minor pre-dating 
> the Maxey pealboard?

No, but I can answer a question that's been bugging me for 
some time: how do we know that the method you revived in 
2001 was the method rung in 1863?

As is often the case, the answer can be found in The Ringing 
World.  "On 29 July [1981] Charles Black of West Deeping 
achieved his ambition to ring a quarter with his grandson 
Alan.  [...] The last occasion on which two members of the 
Black family from separate generations rang a peal together 
was on December 11, 1863 when Charlie's grandfather and 
great-grandfather rang in a peal of Dixon's Variation of 
P.B. Minor at Maxey in Cambridgeshire."  [RW 1981/740]

The Editor asked whether someone could supply the details of 
Dixon's Variation, and the next month [p.826] Charles Black 
replied quoting details of Dixon's Variation given to him by 
"the late Arthur J Holmes, the father of the one-and-only 
Bill of Edenham".  Black talked about ringing in the early 
1920s, and based on an interesting article about the Holmes 
family on the cover of the 31 May 1985 RW [p.469-70] Bill 
was born in 1912.  Arthur J Holmes must be Arthur Inch 
Holmes (probably the J is a typo in the RW), who was born in 
1877 in Edenham to a ringing family, and rang over a hundred 
peals.  Edenham is about 10 miles from Maxey, and it's 
likely Arthur Holmes rang with the Maxey ringers who rang in 
the 1863 peal.  Black quotes Holmes as follows:

"A Bob everytime the 2nd and 4th lead and Plain Bob at the 
Treble leads.  A Bob everytime the Tenor dodges behind 
without the 5th at Treble leads and a single everytime the 
5th and Tenor are behind at Treble leads.  This only 
produces 616 charges [sic] and J Hollis introduced 2 extra 
singles in each half (2 Blocks of 52 changes) to make the 
720.  (By the way the Conductor only made the calls at the 
Treble leads and not when 2nd and 4th were leading.)"

This is interesting as I've never seen the original 
composition before.  I'd always assumed it to be lost.  The 
basic 616 is fairly obvious:

   616 Dixon's Bob Minor, comp. Mr Dixon.

     123456          156432      +   145632
     134625        - 152463          163425
     156342          134652        - 125463
     163254      + - 154326        - 135426
     142635          163542          164235
   s 124356      * - 123564        - 135264
   - 124563          156243          ------
     146235        s 134256        s 143256
     162543          162534
     135624      *   126345       Repeat once

The two missing blocks of 52 changes are each called 
p,b,p,b.  One can be singled in at any of the lead marked 
with a +, the other at any of the leads marked with *; 
there's no requirment that they done in opposite halves of 
the composition, that was simply Hollis's preference. 
Holmes doesn't indicate whether Holllis singled in his 
extra blocks at a bobbed lead or a plain lead, which gives 
rise to the two possible compositions set out below.  Sadly 
the two part structure is broken in both.

   720 Dixon's Bob Minor,    |      720 Dixon's Bob Minor,
   comp. J Hollis (no. 1)    |      comp. J Hollis (no. 2)
                             |
     123456        143256    |      123456        143256
     ------        ------    |      ------        ------
     134625        132645    |      134625        132645
     156342        156324    |      156342        156324
     163254        163452    |      163254        163452
     142635        124635    |      142635        124635
   s 124356      s 142356    |    s 124356      s 142356
   - 124563      - 142563    |    - 124563      - 142563
     146235        126435    |      146235        126435
     162543        164523    |      162543        164523
     135624        135642    |      135624        135642
     156432        156234    |      156432        156234
   - 152463      - 154263    |    - 152463      - 154263
     134652        132654    |      134652        132654
   - 154326      s 125346    |    - 154326      - 152346
     163542        146532    |      163542        163524
   s 132564      - 145326    |    - 123564      - 143562
     123645        126534    |      156243        156423
   - 134562      s 152346    |    s 134256      s 132456
     143625        163524    |      162534        164532
   s 123564      - 143562    |    s 123645        146325
     156243        156423    |    - 134562      s 126534
   s 134256      s 132456    |      143625      - 125346
     162534        164532    |    - 132564        146532
     126345        146325    |    s 126345      - 145326
     145632        125634    |      145632      s 125634
     163425        163245    |      163425        163245
   - 125463      - 145263    |    - 125463      - 145263
   - 135426      - 135246    |    - 135426      - 135246
     164235        162435    |      164235        162435
   - 135264      - 135462    |    - 135264      - 135462
   s 143256      s 123456    |    s 143256      s 123456
     ------        ------    |      ------        ------

RAS