CATHEDRAL BELLS RING

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27055, 2 June 1953, Page 6

CATHEDRAL BELLS RING

TRIBUTE TO THE QUEEN

TWO-HOUR PROGRAMME LAST EVENING

A small and very select group of men gathered in the Christchurch Cathedral at 7 p.m. yesterday to pay their tribute to the Queen on her birthday and on her Coronation. The men, members of the Christchurch Cathedral Bellringers’ Society, added the final touch to the festivity in the city with two hours of ringing. For the first hour they rang a series of set changes on the 10 bells in the Cathedral tower and then the work became more complicated as they progressed into short touches of grandsire doubles and grandsire triples, followed by courses of St. Clements and Bob minor.

Bell ringing is an extremely demanding pastime but it would also appear to be very rewarding, to judge from the enthusiasm of the ringers, ■rhe'number of different changes which may be rung on the peal is incredible, ana even relatively uncomplicated set changes require extreme concentration from the ringers. Each ringer must listen to his own bell and to all the others, he must watch the other ringers to make sure his timing is right, and he must remember where his bell should ring in the order of the change. Included in the society of about 12 members are several Englishmen who have had considerable experience in their home country of change ringing. Many little villages in England have their peal of bells and there are altogether 50,000 ringers in England. In the South Island of New Zealand, there are only two peals of bells; one in the Cathedral and one at St. Paul’s Anglican Church in Papanui. The opportunity for men to take up ringing is therefore very limited and it is considered that under the present arrangements two years would be required before a learner became proficient. The Christchurch Cathedral’s peal of bells is of excellent quality, the English ringers consider. They were made by Taylors of England, a firm of bell founders considered one of the best in the world, and were installed in the tower in 1881.

Today the bells will ring from 9.30 a.m. to 11 a.m. in honour of the Coronation, and although there is no service in the cathedral their ringing will coincide with the service in King Edward Barracks.