About the Bells          Teaching Centre          Bell Ringing Times  Church bells If you live in England, whether in a large city or a small village, you have probably heard the sound of church bells.  Bells have formed part of life in this country since the Middle Ages.  Church bells are the biggest and loudest musical instruments in the world. Their sound can be heard miles away from their towers.  Bells are rung to call people to church, to celebrate happy occasions and commemorate important events. They are also rung simply for the enjoyment of hearing their sound. Most church towers have bells.  A set of bells is called a ‘ring' or a ‘peal'.  Village churches may have a small ring of bells, comprising six or eight bells.  Bigger churches and cathedrals usually have a larger ring.  Worcester Cathedral's remarkable bells Worcester Cathedral has a ring of twelve bells.  These bells are special.  They are the fifth heaviest ringing peal, and they are considered one of the finest rings of bells in the world.  It is a great privilege to be able to ring them. How do bells work? The bells are hung in a frame high in the Cathedral tower.  Each bronze bell has a clapper inside, which swings with the bell.  The bells are each attached to a wooden wheel, which has a rope running round it. The rope drops down into the ringing room below.  The coloured part of the rope is called the ‘sally'. How do you make them ring? Each bell is rung by a different person.  When the ringer pulls on the sally the wheel and the bell rotate by 360°, and the clapper then hits the rim of the bell, making it ring once. When the ringer pulls the rope for a second time, the wheel rotates by 360° and the clapper hits the opposite side of the bell. This action of ‘handstroke' and ‘backstroke' is repeated until the ringing stops. What do the bells play? Although a group of bell ringers is called a ‘band', English church bells do not play recognisable tunes.  The music that they make is created by ringing the bells one at a time in ever-changing sequences. Each bell is numbered.  In a ring the highest bell is number 1 and called the ‘Treble' and the lowest bell is called the ‘Tenor'.  The simplest pattern is to ring the bells in order, highest to lowest (or smallest to biggest).  Like this: Ringing the bells in numerical order is called ‘rounds'.  Ringers practise hard to ensure that a regular pulse is maintained throughout the round.  To make the pattern more interesting, the next time the bells are rung, the order is varied, for example: This is called ‘change ringing' and it developed in the seventeenth century.  There are many different ways of varying the ringing order (or ‘ringing the changes').  Each piece of change ringing is called a ‘method' and each of method is given a name (such as Plain Bob, Stedman, and London Surprise). New methods are being composed by ringers all the time. A method always begins and ends with rounds, and then changes are introduced, using the mathematical sequence or ‘method'. This enables the ringers to know when they should ring their bells.  No two combinations of bells (or ‘changes') are the same. Ringing every possible combination on twelve bells without a break would take over 37 years! However ringers usually ring set pieces called a ‘touch' which comprises 100 to 300 changes. You can progress to quarter peals which comprise over 1250 changes and last about 45 minutes. Some ringers specialise in full peals which last three to four hours! Ringers enjoy the physical exercise, teamwork and intellectual challenges that are involved in making their unique form of music. Could I be a ringer? When do the Cathedral's bells ring? If you would like to know more... Please contact Bernard Taylor who is the Secretary of the Cathedral's Bellringers. mailto:bhtaylor@bloomberg.net Phone 01531 650888 You are welcome to come and watch us ring, and please get in touch. We look forward to meeting you!