Hexham Abbey Guild	The Bells	Ringing Times	Advanced Practices
Diary	Links	Joining the band	Summer trip

Standard ringing times

Other reasons for ringing

Policy on sound control

Clock chimes

Ringing diary

Ringing jargon explained

Ringing chamber & bells

Questions, feedback…

Hexham Abbey, Northumberland.
The Priory and Parish Church of Saint Andrew

Ringing Guide – for non ringers

Non ringers may be interested to know when the bells are going to be ringing, and why, and perhaps who is ringing them. I will publish this information below. Some bell ringing terms may be baffling. Follow the links for explanations.

Standard ringing times

Thursdays: We practice 7.00pm – 9.00pm on a Thursday evening. This is for as many of our band as are available, plus any visitors. You will hear ringing on 6, 8 or 10 bells, with brief silences while the ringers change over. The practice tends to start with simpler things on 6 bells, and progresses to more complex things on 8 or 10 bells.

Sundays: We ring for morning service (9.15 – 9.55) and for Evensong (5.30 – 6.25pm). We try to maintain a high standard of ringing on Sundays. Normally ringers will take it in turns to ring (called general ringing) but occasionally we will ring a continuous piece for Evensong known as a quarter peal, and any of these will be shown below in the ringing diary.

Other reasons for ringing

The bells at Hexham may be rung for all sorts of reasons, apart from the weekly practice and service ringing mentioned above. Some examples are given below:

weddings, and occasionally funerals

additional weekday services – eg: Ascension Day

opening, or rung as a part of, the Abbey Festival

half-muffled for the Cenotaph Service on Remembrance Day

for events of national importance

area ringers’ events, eg: meetings, striking competitions, peals

local ringers’ events, eg: additional practices, quarter peals

ringers visiting from outside the area

The ringers’ events may be partly organised for pleasure, but they are also an essential part of maintaining a band of ringers that ring for services at a high standard. Periods of sustained ringing – peals and quarter peals – are particularly useful for this.

Our policy on sound control

We hope that people in Hexham like to listen to the bells, particularly if the ringing is of a high standard, but understand that one can still have too much of a good thing, particularly at certain times.

To try to avoid the bells becoming a nuisance, rather than a pleasure, we do the following:

teach our learners on bells with clappers fixed (i.e. silently), and take good teaching seriously

hold some silent practices using a simulator

try to ensure that our ringing is of good quality – especially on Sundays

use our sound control (flaps may be closed to reduce the sound of the bells outside) for additional ringing

avoid day-time ringing on weekdays and Saturdays, except for services, weddings, and special occasions

try to “space out” additional ringing, so there is not too much ringing in a week

agree all ringing with the Parish Centre (if you were organising a local event and were concerned that bells might conflict with it, let the Parish Centre know)

avoid organising additional ringing that would conflict with known local events

have a number that people can call to comment on the bells (this can be found in the Slype in the Abbey, or contact can be made via this website)

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Clock Chimes

The Abbey clock is provided and maintained by Hexham town council, and it has mechanical chimes which automatically chime the Abbey bells every quarter of an hour. The heavy chiming hammers have to be lifted clear of the bells before the bells can be rung. Once the bells have been rung “up” into the raised position (mouth upwards), they cannot be chimed by the clock. We would normally ring the bells down after we have finished ringing as it is safer and good practice to do so. We can then put the clock chimes back on. There are exceptions to this. Sometimes it is necessary to leave the bells in the raised position so that they are ready to be rung for another event or service for which there would be insufficient time to ring them up. For example, on a Sunday the bells are normally left “up” between morning ringing and evening ringing, or if the bells are rung on a Friday evening, they may be left up for a wedding the following day. So if the Abbey clock is not chiming, it is likely to be because it has been necessary to leave the bells up.

Ringing Diary

If the ringing you hear is before Sunday morning or evening service, or on a Thursday evening (the “standard ringing times” above), you can assume that the bells are being rung by the Abbey’s own ringers (known as Hexham Abbey Guild). All other ringing, including special events, or additional services, is published below:

Date

Time

Ringers

Event

Saturday 8^th December

10.00am – 2.00pm

Hexham Abbey Guild

Tower open day at Abbey Christmas Fair: a single bell may occasionally be heard

[127 people came up (thanks to all) and we raised £293.50 for the Abbey]

Sunday 16^th December

4.45pm – 6.25pm

Hexham Abbey Guild

“Date touch”: 2007 changes, Grandsire Caters and Triples

Wednesday 19^th December

7.30pm – 9.00pm

Hexham Abbey Guild + ringers from a wide area

Advanced practice

(to be confirmed)

Monday 24^th December

10.15pm – 10.55pm

Hexham Abbey Guild

Ringing for Midnight Eucharist of the Nativity

Tuesday 25^th December

9.15am – 9.55am

Hexham Abbey Guild

Ringing for morning service

Monday, 31^st December

11.15pm – 12.15am

Hexham Abbey Guild

Ringing in the New Year (including chiming 12 strokes for midnight)

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Ringing Jargon Explained

Band	The name for a group of ringers at a church
Changes	May also be called “rows”. In one change all the bells being rung sound once (eg: 21436587 or 24163857)
Change ringing	In change ringing, bells change position with each other every row. Each bell can only change position with a bell ringing before or after it. There are many “methods” which ringers learn, of varying degrees of complexity. The methods are defined by diagrams which show which position a bell rings in each row.
Half-muffled	Bells may be rung half muffled for events – like Remembrance Day – where a solemn sound is required. A leather muffle is firmly fixed to one side of each clapper. The bells sound loudly when swung in one direction, and softly when swung in the other direction. If, say, 8 bells are being rung, the listener hears 8 loud notes followed by 8 muffled notes, sounding a little like an echo.
Meetings	Hexham ringers are members of the Durham and Newcastle Diocesan Association of Church Bellringers – an organisation which links ringers from all towers in the north east. At a meeting, ringers come together from other towers in the Association to ring together and to socialise.
Peal	Defined as 5000 or more “changes” or “rows”. Each ringer therefore pulls the rope 5000+ times. Ringing is continuous and no “rows” should be repeated until “rounds” is returned to at the end. Peals at Hexham take about 3 hours 10 minutes to ring.
Quarter peal	Literally a quarter of a peal – so a piece of continuous change ringing with a minimum length of 1200 changes and no rows repeated. This takes between 45 and 50 minutes at Hexham.
Rows	May also be called “changes”. In one row all the bells being rung sound once (eg: 21436587 or 24163857)
Simulator	A device that can produce the sound of each bell through speakers in the ringing chamber, enabling the bells to be rung with the clappers fixed, and therefore silent outside, while ringers listen to the simulator inside. Particularly used for teaching learners.
Striking	Anyone with a good sense of rhythm and a good ear can judge whether the striking is good or not. Good striking is defined as each bell sounding on the beat, all bells equally spaced from each other. When the striking is bad, bells sound erratically, with gaps, and then groups of bells sounding in rapid succession, or sounding at the same time.
Striking competition	Most of the time, ringing is not competitive. Once or twice a year though, ringers meet at a tower somewhere to see which band can produce the most rhythmic, “evenly-struck” ringing. Hexham has won quite a few competitions over the years.
The ringing chamber and the bells The picture above shows the ringing chamber during our open day on 8th December 2007. We have plenty of space, and we have made it quite comfortable. We do spend a lot of time there. Yes, that is a children’s’ play pen in the corner. If you would like to see the ringing chamber and the bells, our annual open day during the Abbey Christmas Fair is a good opportunity. The three boards up on the left hand wall are peal boards: records of peals which have been rung for special occasions in recent years. The picture below was taken in the bell chamber, again on the open day. The bell in the centre of the picture is in the “raised” or “up” position, ready to be rung. All the other bells are down. The people listening to the talk are a safe distance from this bell – there is plenty of space in the bell chamber at Hexham.
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Questions & Feedback If after reading this you have questions you would like answered, or comments that you would like to make, please send an email to:

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Hexham Abbey Guild	The Bells	Ringing Times	Advanced Practices
Diary	Links	Joining the band	Summer trip

Maintained by Clive Moon
Last modified 12/12/2007