Half Muffled Grandsire Triples In The Belfry at St Peters Roman Catholic Church, Leamington Spa

View of a bottle of water on it's side at 2:35
Some turbulence at 4:14

The ringing in this video is sections of a quarter peal of Grandsire Triples, rung for All Souls. Due to the fact that the ladder ran through the pit of the seventh, I had to go up before the bells were rung up and had to stay on the small platform for about 55 minutes! It was in fact an enjoyable experience.... the sway was most impressive and watching bells ringing is never boring.

Cast and installed in 1905 by John Taylor and Co of Loughborough, this 16cwt 8 hang high up in the slender brick tower of St Peter the Apostle, right in the centre of Leamington Spa. Because of the position they are in, the bells are affected a lot by the movement of the tower, making ringing them properly an arduous task requiring effort and skill. One has to pull very hard at every stroke and be prepared for the bell to either make it to the balance or fly towards the stay... if your bell drops, it will affect other bells in the tower. The dynamics of the ring are so unpredictable but essentially, if everyone puts in effort into every stroke, theoretically the changes come out well.

The tower was added to the slightly earlier church in 1878, and a ring of six bells was installed by William Blews of Birmingham. A desire to improve on the Blews bells was probably prompted by the restoration and augmentation of the bells at All Saints Anglican church nearby in 1901... a heavier and much finer set of bells was duly installed in St Peter's tower!

They have been regarded as unringable or have been unobtainable for periods of time in their existence due to fears about the instability of the tower... however, after efforts by Sam Austin a few years ago, the bells are presently rung by an arranged band approximately monthly.

The small bell hung dead above the tenor is an electrically operated Angelus bell, donated by a prominent bell historian to this tower in 2005. It is originally from a monastery in Leicestershire, and was cast in 1852, by John Taylor and Son in 1852. The other bell from the monastery is now a doorbell at Taylors!!


http://www.warksbells.co.uk/leamington_spa_rc.htm

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[ashitaka13400]

Habituellement, je ne suis pas attiré par ce genre de sonneries, mais je dois avouer que celle-ci me plait beaucoup. Elle est même très intéressante !

[irkibby]

@ashitaka13400 Thankyou!

[SuperNicky25]

Sound's great!.

[LeamingtonSteve]

i used to feel sea sick in that tower in the 1980s!

[simonbellringer]

@irkibby Lol, note I put old in inverted commas!! I dont mind really!!! Any idea where the old 3 will go?

[irkibby]

@simonbellringer They're still essentially the same ring, if you want to ring the 4th is is still in the tower with a chiming hammer, and the 3rd is still waiting at Loughborough and will at some point be hung for ringing again. So all is not lost, not that they were a good sound anyway... ringing the back six was just unpleasant because of the two "thud"s on the front of the change.

[simonbellringer]

@irkibby Lol, great to hear that St NIcks will soon be back, them and Allesley are the only towers my brother has (and should ever have!!) over me; he rang the "old" 8 at Allesley before the 3 & 4 were replaced!!!

[irkibby]

@simonbellringer St Nicks will be ringing again in about a months time. The Wednesday practice is at Stoke in Coventry, they're here on my channel somewhere. And I can miss the occasional practice.

[simonbellringer]

@irkibby Yes, I have rung with him a couple of times at Warwick St Marys (not St Nicks as theyre out of action!!) a couple of times, plus a couple of quarters earlier inm the year. Where do you ractice? Because Wednesbury ppractice on a Wednesday and you threatened to come over had we gone, lol!!

[MrUNIXman]

Lovely bells, are they Hasting Stays?