        An introduction to bell ringing.

Church bells hung for change ringing are mounted on a headstock supported
in bearings. A rope wrapped around a wheel attached to the headstock allows
the ringer to swing the bell. 

Before change ringing can begin the bells must be rung up.  The ringer
pulls on the rope in time with the natural swing of the bell, increasing its
amplitude until eventually the bell rises to and just passes the mouth up
position. A piece of wood called a stay pushes a slider to one side or
the other, allowing the bell to rest in the Up position. Once the bell has
been rung up, each successive pull of the rope turns the bell a full circle
and the clapper hits it, turning it in one direction on the first pull and
in the opposite direction with the next. These two pulls of the rope are
called handstroke and backstroke respectively, the two together being
known as a whole pull. See the diagrams in the Draw file Docs.Strokes.
Notice that the clapper rests against the rim on the opposite side of the
bell at the top of the two strokes.

The bell ropes are usually arranged in a circle in the ringing chamber so
that each ringer can easily see all the others and notice how their arms
move.

The person with the highest note (Treble) bell starts the ringing by calling
Look To to get all the ringers to hold their ropes in preparation, then
Trebles Going and finally Trebles Gone when the bell has passed the 
balance point and begun to fall. Stand is called to stop the ringing; the
ringers all allow their bells to pass the balance point and rest gently on
the stay.

Rounds is the name given to ringing the bells in order from the highest
to the lowest note, and is how all ringing begins and usually ends.

For six bells this is written out as the line of numbers 1 2 3 4 5 6 .


                 An Introduction to Call Changes

Church bells have been rung in England for almost 1000 years to call
parishioners to church. Originally churches had just one bell, probably rung
by the priest who conducted the service. In time more bells were bought and
rung. About 400 years ago the idea of changing the order of the bells was
suggested, with a conductor calling the changes to tell the ringers which
bells to swap. Later, methods were developed where the order of the bells
changes according to a pattern memorised by the ringers. Call Changes are
often the first thing a beginner learns after rounds; they are still rung
in most church towers from time to time.

Bells are normally tuned to a major scale; some sequences sound more
pleasing than others. The more popular ones have names, a few of these are
suggested in the file TryThese.

Bells are heavy, often very heavy; a ringer can only make a small alteration
to the swing of a bell when it is in motion. However, because the bell can
be held stationary at the balance, it is possible for the bells to change
their striking order but each bell can only move by one position in the
order.

The convention for Call Changes is that the instruction to change is called
by one of the ringers, often known as the Caller, near the beginning of a
handstroke; during that stroke and the next backstroke the other ringers
prepare for the new order which happens when the next handstroke is rung. 

