Whether you’re mathematically, musically or community minded, or simply in awe of the idea that people would travel across the world to come to ring bells in Grahamstown, there were many ways to appreciate the bell-ringing marathon at the Cathedral of St Michael and St George last Saturday afternoon.
Whether you’re mathematically, musically or community minded, or simply in awe of the idea that people would travel across the world to come to ring bells in Grahamstown, there were many ways to appreciate the bell-ringing marathon at the Cathedral of St Michael and St George last Saturday afternoon.
The occasion was the visit by a group of 10 ringers to Grahamstown, to execute a very special method – the bellringing term for a predetermined sequence.
They caused a stir on the CBD streets and beyond as they rang continuously for three hours and 25 minutes to successfully complete the Cambridge Surprise Royal.
Cathedral Verger Timothy Stephen was kept busy welcoming curious members of the public inside and explaining to passers by what all the hullabaloo was about.
‘What on earth is going on?’ was also the question on everyone’s fingertips as the band even rang the changes for Grahamstown’s social media last Saturday – usually preoccupied with dumping, stray animals and sources of helpful advice.
Cambridge Surprise Royal is a long established method first run to a full peal on 26 October 1822 in Wakefield, Yorkshire, in England. In Grahamstown, last weekend, it represented only the 9th full peal to be rung on the Cathedral bells since they were hung there in 1879.
Access to the belltower was restricted during the peal – “because of the huge levels of concentration it takes”, Ian Roulstone, the husband of one of the ringers and a Professor of Mathematics at the University of Surrey explained from outside the locked door to the belltower.
Roulstone and his wife, Claire Roulstone, both ring at St Paul’s Cathedral in London. Ian has been ringing since 1972.
“Ringers do like to get out and about,” Ian explained.
The 10-person band had rung the bells in Johannesburg, at St Mary’s In Greyville, Durban and were on their way to St George’s Cathedral in Cape Town, with the Cathedral of St Mary and All Saints in Harare as their final destination before returning home from a two-and-a-half-week round trip that also included Australia.
If they were successful that afternoon, Ian said as the Cambridge Surprise Royal started off above him, they would have rung 5 040 different changes in a predetermined sequence.
“They will never repeat a sequence,” he said.
Things could have gone very wrong – and that would have been the end of the attempt.
“Obviously it’s a mechanical device and ringing the bell 5 000 times – just occasionally things can go wrong which is a shame,” Roulstone said.
“But of course having travelled all this way to enjoy the Grahamstown bells, the band wouldn’t want to attempt something they weren’t confident in ringing – and ringing properly.
“There’s nothing worse than bellringing done poorly and we wouldn’t want to inflict that on the residents of Grahamstown!”
Three hours and 25 minutes later, the band having successfully completed the full method, Claire Roulstone stood wiping perspiration from her brow in the belltower.
“I’m a bit tired as you can seem and quite thirsty,” she said.
Claire rang the Cathedral’s heaviest bell, the tenor – which weighs just over 2500-weight. In metric terms that’s just over a ton, and according the Cathedral’s website, exactly 1 302kg.
Bellringing and walking were enough to keep her fit, she said as she took a long swig of water.
Alan Regin, steeple keeper at Christchurch Spitalfields, London, and bell ringer at St Martin in the Fields Westminster, also speaking from the belltower afterwards, said they’d made very few mistakes during the Cambridge Surprise Royal.
“Nothing about bellringing is difficult – but you do need to be able to concentrate. We’ve been concentrating up here for three hours and twenty five minutes.
“We made very few mistakes today. You can make small trips and then be put right – but if there’d been a major one we would have stopped and that would have been the end of it.
“We’re glad we achieved what we came to do.”
What was the mood up there during the attempt? Grocott’s Mail asked.
“One of the great things about bellringing is camaraderie. It’s a great team endeavour. It’s funny – it’s a real team game – but you are ten individuals ringing together,” Regin said.
“Some people are looking down at the floor. Some people are looking at the different ropes. But it does take a lot of concentration to achieve what we’ve just achieved.”
Concentrate now!
Grocott’s Mail caught Roulstone in conversation first with Dean Andrew Hunter and then with Cathedral Music Intern Tshekiso ‘Kepa’ Kepadisa.
You can hear and see his explanation of what they were doing here:
What follows is a summary.
Ringers have to memorise the permutations they’re going to ring ahead of time.
One ringer is designated conductor, who will issue instructions that might vary the permutations.
“That becomes necessary if you want to do a full peal, which is what they’re attempting here today,” Roulstone said.
The extraordinary feat is that a peal involves not only technique and endurance, but that each ringer must memorise the entire sequence of permutations.
If they were successful on Saturday, Ian said as they started off, they would have rung 5 040 different changes in a predetermined sequence.
“They will never repeat a sequence.
Exponential
“Change ringing is based more on mathematical permutations than on music. The number of bells you have affects the number of changes you can ring,” Roulstone said.
“On five bells you can ring 120 possible combinations (5x4x3x2x1)
“On six bells it’s 720. On seven, it’s 5 040 and on eight bells it’s 40 320.”
If you ring the changes continuously, the maximum number of changes on five bells takes about five minutes. The maximum number of changes on eight bells takes nearly 20 hours, Roulstone said..
“I think someone worked out once that to do all the changes on 12 bells would take about 31 years of continuous ringing.”
The bells start in descending order – On to 10.
One is the smallest bell – the treble and 10 is the heaviest, the tenor.
The first change that they rang was 2-1-4-3-6-5-8-7-10-9, Roulstone explained. Then they rang 1-2-4-5-3-7-6… with the 9th ringing last.
“And so it will go on – but you’ll never get a row that’s ever repeated.”
That’s only possible when you’re ringing seven or more bells.
“When we ringing on six bells, as we did in Johannesburg last week, they’re allowed to do exactly seven repetitions.”
All the way to Grahamstown?
In South Africa, the Cathedral has one of the larger rings, Roulstone said. They’re heavier in weight than the Cathedral in Harare and about the same weight as the Cathedral in Cape Town.
There are 10 bells. The lightest bell weighs 288kg; the heaviest 1 302kg.
The tune Grahamstown residents are most likely to hear is called 'Plain Hunt on Three Bells' with a Cover because you can do it with four ringers.
According to the Cathedral's website, the first ring of bells to be installed in Africa was hung in the Grahamstown Cathedral tower in 1879. The bells, an octave cast by John Warner and Sons in London, were supplied complete with fittings and with a frame of English oak.
“It’s certainly a ring of bells that people want to come to.”
Bell-ringing is definitely an emphatically English tradition, with 5 000 churches in England, Scotland and Wales where bells are rung, with ringing bells that range in number from six or eight in most parish churches, Roulstone said.
“Eight bells gives the full octave.”
Birmingham parish church holds the record with 16 and most cathedrals have 10 or 12.
“Even though a bell can be quite heavy – the heaviest one in Grahamstown is 2500-weight (one and a quarter tons) – by the time it’s swinging full circle, it’s really more about technique and control than brute strength.”
English church bells are mounted differently in church towers to most. Whereas very large church bells in Russia and Asia are stationary and are struck inside our outside with a hammer-like device, church bells in England hang vertically from an axle and are pulled by a rope to make them swing.
Change ringing – the practice of ringing in different sequences or methods – began in the 17th century and was first described by Fabian Stedman.
Additional source: A Loose Canon: Essays on History, Modernity and Tradition By Brian J. Coman
* You can hear and see Ian Roulstone’s explanation of what the band were doing at the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fv6fL9O1l5w
* For more about the Cathedral bells in Grahamstown and the people who still ring them, watch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mZdLCln8CA
* A different ring, the Cambridge Surprise Maximus on the 12 bells of the Cathedral Church of St Michael, Coventry
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9h8BujG_uE
