All Saints Church, Renhold, Bedfordshire, England
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Change Ringing and Peal Records.

 

English church bells are hung so that they can be rung in sequence, one after another. The ringers can vary the sequence by getting a pair of bells to change places – so we might have:

1 2 3 4 5 6                             the familiar Rounds; 2 and 3 change places, and we have

1 3 2 4 5 6                             4 and 5 change places, and we have

1 3 2 5 4 6                             2 and 5 change places, and we have the sequence

1 3 5 2 4 6                             called Queen’s because it is said to have been a favourite of Queen Elizabeth I.

 

5 bells can be rung in 120 different sequences, which ringers call changes; 6 bells give 720 possible changes. It would take a long time to explore all of them with one pair of bells changing place each time. Since about 1600, ringers have been discovering methods, which are short sets of instructions for the ringers to follow in order to reach many different sequences one after another. A method for five bells is called Doubles (because usually two pairs of bells are changing places each time); a method for six bells is called Minor.

 

One method which is often rung at All Saints’ Renhold is called All Saints’ Doubles. If the bells are examined closely it can be seen that all the bells except 1, the treble (which simply keeps going from first place to 5^th place and back again, called plain hunting) and 6, the tenor (whose job is just to go Bong! in 6^th place each time) take it in turns to follow the same pattern.

 

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213456

231546

325146

352416

534216

543126

451326

415236

145236

145326

415326

451236

542136

524316

253416

235146

321546

312456

132456

132546

312546

321456

234156

243516

425316

452136

541236

514326

154326

154236

514236

541326

453126

435216

342516

324156

231456

213546

123546

123456

 

To hear what All Saints’ Doubles sounds like, click here

 

All Saints’ Doubles is quite a simple method. More difficult methods, with more instructions for the ringers to remember, are being devised from time to time. One of the newest methods was devised by a band from the Peterborough Diocesan Guild and was rung for the first time by them at All Saints’ Renhold in July 2001. It is officially called Renhold Alliance Minor in honour of the village and its church, and starts off like this:

 

 

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214365

241635

426153

462513

462531

426513

245631

425361

243516

234561

234516

243156

421365

412635

146253

164523

615432

651342

563124

536214

536241

563214

652341

562431

654213

645231

645213

654123

561432

516342

153624

135264

 

One can see that what the treble bell is doing is much more complicated than in All Saints Doubles and that the tenor bell is moving about rather than ringing at the back each time – because all six bells are changing places the method is called Minor.

 

To hear what Renhold Alliance Minor sounds like, click here

 

If a band rings at least 1250 changes continuously this is called a quarter-peal. 5000+ changes is called a peal. So far as we know, eight full peals have been rung on the Renhold bells, in 1920, 1955, 1984, 1995 (twice), 1996, 1997 and 2001

.

All the ringers have to guide them in their ringing is the instructions for the particular method they are ringing. Sometimes to make it even more of a challenge part of the 5000 total is rung using one method and part using another. The band who rang in 1997 managed to remember fourteen different methods!

 

Ten quarter-peals have been recorded on the Renhold bells. In addition, at noon on 1st January 2000 the ringers of All Saints’ Renhold rang to commemorate the new Millennium and two thousand years of Christianity:

Gill Barrell

Sheila Day

David Gilbert

Phil Harlow

Eric Headleand

Sue Hickman

Eddie Keightley

Georgina Smith

Julia Smith

Ted Smith

 

 

Peals:

 

March 20, 1920

2 hours 58 minutes

The first peal on the bells

 

5040 Doubles:‡ 30 six-score of Grandsire and 12 six-score of Bob Doubles

1              Stanley G Harlow*

2                     Thomas Bartram†              

3                     Herbert L Harlow (conductor)

4                     Richard Kendall  

5                     Edward White       Tenor

‡ At this time Renhold only had five bells

* First peal

† First peal with a Bob bell

First peal of Doubles by 4^th and 5^th. The village was the birthplace of the conductor and where he first learnt to ring.

 

Philip Harlow, the current Tower Captain of Renhold ringers, is the great-nephew of Stanley and Herbert Harlow

 

29 March, 1955

2 hours 45 minutes

 

5040 Doubles: one Morris’s 240, ten different extents of Grandsire and 30 extents of Plain Bob

1                     Alex Simpson*

2                     Roger Lennard

3                     Norman Hull*

4                     Peter J Shipton*

5              Bryan Pattison (conductor)

* First peal of doubles

 

September 22, 1984

2 hours 50 minutes

 

5040 Minor: Bourne Surprise; 2 extents each of Oxford Treble Bob, Norwich Surprise and Cambridge Surprise)

1              Rosemary Pickford

2              Anthony H Smith (conductor)

3              Lynda M Lazzerini

4              Brian Harris

5              Martyn J Marriott

6              Christopher J Pickford

 

August 12 1995 (for V J Day)

2 hours 50 minutes

To commemorate the 50^th anniversary of the end of World War II

Rung for the 50th Anniversary of V.J. Day and as a tribute to all those who were  prisoners of war in the hands of the Japanese

 

5040 Plain Bob Minor

1              Richard Entwistle

2              Roger Framp

3              Eric Headleand

4              Michael A Neale

5              Roy W Spencer (conductor)

6              Clifford W Izzard

 

11th November 1995

2 hours 50 minutes

In memory of Mrs Margaret Polhill a good friend and supporter of the village and also on the 50th anniversary to remember those who suffered and died in World War II

 

5040 Surprise Minor (York, Wells, Surfleet, London, Beverley, Norwich and Cambridge)

1              Stephanie J Warboys

2              Charlotte M Smith

3              Rosalind J Keech

4              David A Potter

5              Andrew M Keech

6              John S Warboys (conductor)

 

13th July 1996

2 hours 43 minutes

In support of the Garden Festival held today

 

5040 Doubles (8 extents each of Grandsire, St Martin’s and St Simon’s and 18 extents of Plain Bob)

1              Richard Entwistle

2              Lorraine Andrews (conductor)*

3              Shelagh Melville

4              Anthony H Smith

5              Richard A Hare

6              John R Remble

*              First peal of Doubles.

 

February 22, 1997

2 hours 45 minutes

For the 100th anniversary of the inauguration of the Women’s Institute

 

5040 Spliced Surprise Minor: 14 methods – (1) London, Wells; (2) Berwick, Hexham; (3) York, Durham; (4) Primrose, Norfolk; (5) Beverley, Surfleet; (6) Westminster, Allendale; (7) Cambridge, Ipswich

1              Bernard J Stone

2              Sally A Mason

3              Nicola J Crichton

4              Richard C L Brown

5              Peter G C Ellis (conductor)

6              Colin M Turner

 

 

21st July 2001

2 hours 50 minutes

 

5040 Spliced Renhold Alliance Minor and Little Bob Minor rung by a band from the Peterborough Diocesan Guild. (The first time Renhold Alliance Minor was rung to a peal)

1                     Helen R Churchman

2                     Victoria Sansom

3                     Michael D Fiander

4                     Nicholas A Churchman

5                     Denis G Pearson

6              Paul M Mason (conductor)

 

 

 

 

 

Quarter-peals