Bell-ringing wasn’t ‘special’ (From Craven Herald)

Bell-ringing wasn’t ‘special’

9:31am Thursday 5th January 2012 in Readers' Letters

Sir – In your front page article on December 22 about Roger Ingham, you write, “...and on Saturday a special ‘double-header’ was rung in his honour during a wedding at Holy Trinity Parish Church, Skipton.”

If this were true, then we would like to have known! We did indeed ring for a wedding, but if we rang anything more “special”, then I am afraid it was special only in the ears of some listeners. Nobody had mentioned anything to us and, whatever the merits of Roger Ingham’s case, we were blissfully unaware of it at the time.

We are, when asked, delighted to undertake “special” ringing to mark a special event. This, most usually, takes the form of a quarter peal which is a set piece that takes some 50 minutes to ring.

More major events merit the three hours of a full peal. Last year, we rang a peal to celebrate the Royal Wedding – later this year, we hope to do the same for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.

Recently we have rung a quarter peal to mark the birth of twins – and soon we hope to celebrate both a 90th birthday and a 57th wedding anniversary.

However, we will not be doing any celebration with a “double header”.

That is because not one of us has a clue what “ringing a special double header” might involve. Together, we must clock up several hundred years of ringing experience, but, while trained enthusiasts might be familiar with the term, not one of us has ever heard this phrase applied to ringing. Perhaps the source of your story would be able to enlighten us.

Bell ringing is an ancient and skilled English art. While most people hear it, few have the chance to see how it is done. If any of your readers would like to watch the Skipton ringers in action, they would be most welcome to make their way up the spiral staircase on a Tuesday evening. We’ll be pleased to see you as would, I am sure, the ringers of all the other towers across Craven.

Chris Wright Tower Captain, Holy Trinity Church, Skipton