St. Peter's Church, Harborne |
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HANDBELL RINGING at St Peter's
The Handbells are back!
We have a thriving Handbell Ringers group who meet every other Monday night in the Garden Room.
Practising for a summer performance:
Winter Tea Party 2009 and after the Carol Service.
Maggie Davies and Margaret Keeling paid a visit to the Whitechapel Church Bell Foundry and brought more music back for the group to play.
At rehearsals the re-formed Handbell Ringing group compete with our 'big brothers' in the church tower during their bell practice on a Monday night and thought it would be interesting to present a brief history
of how the 'little bells' came into being.
of how the 'little bells' came into being.
Handbells were described in China before 1600 BC and spread through the far and middle east, possibly associated with Buddhism. They arrived in Europe in about 800 AD used as cattle bells or on tradesmen's horse-drawn wagons. Their appearance in England coincided with a rise in popularity of change ringing tower bells - ringing the bells in different numerical order in each row. It proved easier for groups to practise ringing using handbells, not least because they could do it in convivial surroundings such as the local public house! The playing of melodies on handbells became popular when whole sets of them could be tuned more accurately. They were introduced to the United States in the mid 19th century and apparently PT Barnum, he of circus fame, took a handbell group from England to tour around in the US, after which a Mrs. Shurman from New England started the craze over there. Today most handbell groups
in the UK are associated with churches, schools and other community groups.
in the UK are associated with churches, schools and other community groups.
Early manufacture of handbells by casting them in metal using clay and wattle moulds was very labour-intensive and costly, but two brothers from Wiltshire discovered that using sand moulds was cheaper. So
at one time there were plenty of foundries in the UK although today, only two of the oldest remain. The Whitechapel Foundry in London has been making bells for over 500 years and produced the Big Ben and Liberty bells. John Taylor's of Loughborough made 'Great Paul', the largest bell at St. Paul's Cathedral. Today handbells of different sizes are cast in bronze and put together as a set by matching the casting for tonal balance. The tuning process can be done with electronic instruments that register pitch to one hundredth of a semitone. The handbell has a leather handle and cap with a clapper action that can be made to strike the bell by forward or backward motion, the spring and felt buffers allowing a 'strike' without repetition. The largest set of bells available runs through 5 octaves, almost the span of a piano, numbered in ascending order. The lowest and largest bell is a bass G coming in at a hefty 19 Ibs while the number 1 bell is a
top C, three above middle C, and only 7% ozs. They don't come cheap as the prices for a full 5 octave
set is £18000 and even a single bell costs £200 - 2000. Experienced ringers can manage up to 4 bells in each hand and produce strikes by moving in different directions but this is obviously only for the elite (or the very strong). By allowing the sound to reverberate or by damping the bell or shaking it different sounds can be produced.
So, what about the handbells of St. Peter's? Brenda Durbin and Thelma Burley located information from
a Parish magazine of February 1943, saying that a set of handbells had been donated to the church by a Mrs Tilley. They belonged to her husband who was a bell ringer and churchwarden from 1898 to 1918. They had been looked after as they came in a wooden box with each bell in a homemade cotton bag labeled with the bell number. After re-locating them in 2004, the bells were repaired and retuned at John Taylor in Loughborough and a brand new case for them was acquired, thanks to the generosity of an anonymous donor. Taylors were able to tell us that we have a diatonic 12 bell ring in B flat with the lowest tenor bell weighing approximately 12 Ibs. The treble is an F weighing about 10 oz. Although these numbers are according to the grand 5 octave classification, when ringing 12 bells it is customary to call the bottom bell number 12 and the top number 1. Apparently most of the bells were actually made at the Loughborough foundry although two came from different places - one from William Slews in Birmingham and the other from James Shaw in Bradford.
So next time the St. Peter's 'Ringlets' group performs in public you will know a little more about how they make music.
Maggie Davies