Central Council of Church Bell Ringers

Annual Report for 2001

1. The Central Council of Church Bell Ringers (“the Council”) was founded in 1891 and is a registered charity, no. 270036. Its address is that of its Honorary Secretary for the time being, namely The Cottage, School Hill, Warnham, Horsham, West Sussex, RH12 3QN. The constitution and conduct of the Council is governed by its Rules.

2. The Council’s Trustees during 2001 were as follows:

   President	Mr J A Anderson
   Vice-President	Dr M J deC Henshaw
   Hon Secretary	Mr I H Oram
   Hon Treasurer	Mr E G H Godfrey

3. The Council’s bankers are Lloyds TSB, Westminster House Branch, Dean Stanley Street, London, SW1P 3HU. Its Independent Examiners are Mr S J Coleman and Mr A G Smith.

4. At the close of the Annual General Meeting on 28th May 2001 the Council’s membership comprised 10 Life Members, 18 Honorary Members and 203 Representative Members representing 67 affiliated societies. At the end of the year under Rule 4(iii)(a) the Manchester University Guild ceased to be affiliated. A report on membership for the new triennium is set out in the appendix to this report.

5. The Object of the Council is to promote and foster the ringing of bells for Christian prayer, worship and celebration and in furtherance thereof:

   (i) To promote awareness of and educate the general public in the ringing of church bells and the art of change ringing;

   (ii) To make available advice, assistance and information to church authorities, ringers and ringing societies and to promote good practice on all matters concerned with bells and bell ringing;

   (iii) To encourage development of the art of ringing through innovation;

   (iv) To bring together ringers to discuss maters of common interest and to represent ringers both nationally and internationally;

   (v) To encourage high standards of performance in ringing;

   (vi) To recommend technical standards in change ringing and maintain such records as may be necessary to uphold these standards;

   (vii) To assist in the provision, restoration, maintenance and transfer of church bells.

6. The work of the Council in pursuing this object is for the most part carried out by its fifteen committees and by working groups appointed by them. Summaries of their activities during 2001 are given in the committee reports, which appear elsewhere on the Council’s agenda and are being published in the April 2002 issues of The Ringing World.

7. The Accounts for 2001 show Total Funds at the year end of £354,641, of which £181,071 is in Restricted Funds. The income for the year totalled £61,197, compared with £60,730 in 2000. The Trustees have the power to invest money and adopt such measures as seem to them necessary in the interest of the Council. They do not have any power to borrow money.

8. It is confirmed that the Council’s Assets, together with the expected income for 2002, are available and are likely to be adequate to fulfil the object of the Council in that year.

9. Reserves are held in the General Fund and are available for use:

   (a) to be invested so that income earned can be used for Committee expenses;

   (b) to ease cash flow;

   (c) to develop new projects.

   The Capital Reserve was set up by the Council to provide financial assistance in launching a ringing newspaper should The Ringing World cease to be published. The reserve is increased annually by transfers, in line with inflation, from the General Fund.

10. Funds are invested in low risk investments and bank accounts. The need for regular income from investments is considered important to support the work of the Council.

11. No significant fund-raising activity has been carried out during the year.

12. Grants from the Fred Dukes International Bell Fund are made in accordance with the terms of Mr Dukes’ legacy. Grants from the Council’s Bell Restoration Fund are made in proportion to the types of applications received and in accordance with priorities agreed by the Council and reviewed annually.

13. The Council had no employees during the year. All of its work is carried out on a voluntary basis.

I H ORAM
Honorary Secretary

April 2002

Appendix

Membership of the Council 2002-2004

Arising from the triennial elections of Representative Members by the affiliated societies, three societies have each increased their representation by one, namely the Australia and New Zealand Association, the Durham and Newcastle Diocesan Association and the Peterborough Diocesan Guild. Subject to any further changes, at the start of the 2002 Council meeting there will be 10 Life Members, 17 Honorary Members and 205 Representative Members representing 66 affiliated societies.

Of the 205 Representative Members, 161 (79%) were members of the previous Council (of whom one was an Honorary Member and two are representing different societies) and 44 are new members (of whom eight have been members at some time in the past).

Two members have died since the last meeting and 41 other members of the previous Council are not returning; special mention should be made of six who have been members for 15 or more years: Mr D Bleby (Australia and New Zealand Association) elected 1987; Miss J E Boden (Derby Diocesan Association) 1986; Mr N E Booth (Scottish Association) 1978; Mr G A Halls (Derby Diocesan Association) 1960; Mr J R Mayne (Middlesex County Association, Honorary, Hertford County Association) 1957; and Mr B A Richards (Southwell Diocesan Guild) 1978. Thanks are due to these, and all others not returning, for their services to the Council and for the contributions they have made as members of committees or in debate at Council meetings.

The Ringing World, May 10, 2002, page 469

CENTRAL COUNCIL OF CHURCH BELL RINGERS

Registered Charity Number 270036

Statement of Financial Activities for the year ended 31st December 2001

CENTRAL COUNCIL OF CHURCH BELL RINGERS

Registered Charity Number 270036

Balance Sheet as at 31st December 2001

ERIC GODFREY, Hon Treasurer March 2002

Notes to the Accounts for the year ended 31st December 2001

1. Accounting Policies

   The accounts have been drawn up in accordance with the “Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice” known as the Charities SORP 2000, issued by the Charity Commissioners for England and Wales.

2. Fundamental Accounting Concepts

   The accounts have been drawn up in accordance with the going concern, accruals, consistency and prudence concepts as stated in Appendix 2 of the SORP.

3. Funds

   The General Fund is unrestricted. The Education Courses Fund, Publications Fund and Capital Fund are designated funds. The other funds have been set up and maintained for restricted purposes.

4. Transfers between Funds

   1. £10,000 has been transferred from the Publication Fund to the Bell Restoration Fund.

   2. £5,109 has been transferred from the General Fund to the Bell Restoration Fund.

   3. £345 has been transferred from the General Fund to the Capital Fund in line with inflation.

   4. £250 has been transferred from the General Fund to Friends of the Library Fund

5. Tangible Assets and Intangible Assets

   The major tangible assets of the Council are the Investments in National Savings Income Bonds, The Fred Dukes International Bell Fund, which is invested in a CAF Gold Account and the Library Collection. The Library Collection is valued at a replacement cost of £51,235. The revaluation was under take by J M Farringdon in December 1998 when the value was £54,000. To this sum has been added purchases less disposals since of £458. The Library Collection is being depreciated for accounting purposes at 2% per annum by the reducing balance method. Depreciation for the year 2001 is £1,036 giving depreciation to date of £3,223. The policy is to revalue the Collection every five years. An asset register is maintained for other tangible assets. The policy is to treat assets of an individual cost of up to £1,000 as fully depreciated in the year of purchase. The major intangible asset of the Council is the copyright of Dove’s Guide.

6. Interest Receivable

   This arises from investments in National Savings Income Bonds, Central Board of Finance of the Church of England Deposit Fund, CAF Charity Services Gold Account and bank deposit and current accounts.

7. Committee Expenses - General Fund

   These were as follows

   	2001	2000
   	£	£
   Administrative	513	258
   Bell Restoration Funds	525	560
   Biographies	24	0
   Education	936	529
   Information & Communications	293	293
   Peals Analysis	15	14
   Public Relations	1073	627
   Ringing Centres	380	30
   Towers & Belfries	340	96
   Total	4099	2407

8. Grants

   Grants were made by the Worshipful Company of Founders through CCCBR of a total of £6,564 to seven Ringing Centres for equipment. A further £3,937 was paid by the Worshipful Company of Founders for training of instructors from Ringing Centres. The Fred Dukes International Bell Fund awarded seven grants totalling £4,875 of which six grants totalling £3,375 were paid during the year. The Bell Restoration Fund awarded 13 grants totalling £10,500 of which two grants totalling £1,200 were paid.

9. Charitable Commitments

   There were unfulfilled charitable commitments at 31st December 2001 in respect of grants awarded but not yet paid by The Fred Dukes International Bell Fund of £1,500 and by the Bell Restoration Fund of £9,300.

10. Publications Fund

    Storage and distribution cost of £1,650 was paid to Council members.

11. Payments to Trustees

    There were no payments to Trustees.

12. Emoluments of Employees

    The Council had no employees during the year.

13. Central Council of Church Bell Ringers (Millennium Grants) Limited

    The company was formed in January 1997 to receive and distribute grants to bell projects from the Millennium Commission. Copies of the Annual Report are available from the Secretary.

The Ringing World, May 10, 2002, page 475

Methods Committee

The Committee held two meetings during the year, in Chilworth on 24 February and in Winchester on 7 October.

We had another good site for our stand at The Ringing Roadshow in Keele and welcomed many visitors during the day. We demonstrated our web-enabled method collections and a draft “Four-way table of Minor methods” on A0 size paper, including all the methods from “Treble Dodging Minor Methods”, was on display and of particular interest to Minor method enthusiasts.

The definitive method collections on the Committee’s website (www.methods.clara.net) continue to be updated on a weekly basis. We are grateful to William J Hall for his continuing help during the year in maintaining the accuracy of the collections.

A Supplement to “Rung Surprise, Delight, Treble Bob and Alliance methods” covering the methods rung during 2000 was available at the Council meeting and we will be preparing a new edition of “Rung Surprise, Delight, Treble Bob and Alliance methods” containing methods rung to the end of 2001. With more ringers with computers now having access to the Internet there is no longer a demand for the “Collection of methods on diskette” and so this is being withdrawn.

At its meeting in Liverpool the Council debated a motion from the St Martin’s Guild to recognise methods in which none of the working bells does all the work of the method. The meeting agreed that this type of method deserved to be codified, and the motion was referred to the Methods Committee.

The Committee discussed this and related matters at their October meeting and agreed to propose three motions at the Council meeting in Norwich. Our draft proposals were presented to the Administrative Committee a fortnight later and published on our website the following week. We received many constructive comments that helped us to improve the proposals and a work-in-progress article appeared in The Ringing World of 22 February 2002 (p.185) providing an opportunity for further comment. Our work has been the subject of intense scrutiny and we believe that our final proposals accommodate a broad range of opinion.

Almost all the enquiries we now receive about method-related matters arrive by e-mail but we are still pleased to receive communications by post or telephone.

Lastly, Julian Morgan ceases to be a member of Council at the end of the triennium, having served on the Methods Committee for 6 years. He has done much to establish the modern electronic format of the collections and we would like to record our appreciation of his work on behalf of the Committee.

Public Relations Committee

Ringing Roadshow

The third Roadshow took place at Keele University on March 31st 2001. Like its predecessors it proved a very popular and successful event, with, this time, around 2500 attending. An enormous amount of hard work was put into organising the day by Wendy Daw and her supporting cast, who had also the notable advantage of effective liaison with the University provided by Phil Gay. We are extremely grateful to all of them.

The next instalment of this now biennial event is to be at the Lincolnshire Showground, on Saturday, July 26th 2003, where Robin and Judith Rogers have nobly undertaken to head the organising team.

PR Displays

The year has again been reasonably busy with the displays appearing in nearly twenty locations. Among these were Westminster Abbey, St Albans Abbey, and St Cuthbert’s, Edinburgh. Two sets were simultaneously in use for London Open Churches Day.

The display boards are available for borrowing, and can be booked from Harold Rogers, 0208 560 3921, or Janet Edwards, 01376 563447. It may be worth noting the displays are particularly popular during the summer months.

The future format and use of the portable displays are currently under consideration.

The recruitment pamphlet is being reprinted, and should be available at Norwich.

Complaints Working Group

The year has been a fairly quiet one with activity mostly confined to giving advice over sound management measures and dealing with general enquiries about local resolution measures in potential complaint cases.

Last year some details of the facilitating process for bell noise complaints were posted on a national website for Environmental Health Officers. This resulted in considerable interest and many requests for copies of the Complaint Guidelines from EHOs covering areas that were believed to be free from known complaints.

Returns for 2001 have identified a few continuing cases where the local EHO has been involved, including the Midge Mather case at Compton Bassett, Wilts, which has reared its head again as reported recently in The Ringing World.

Nick Davies, who has led the Group since its inception, leaves the Central Council this year after much hard work. A new convener will be needed.

Central Council Newsletters

Two further Newsletters have been published, in spring and autumn, dealing respectively with Education and Training and the work of the Towers and Belfries and Ringing Centres Committees. Another is due this spring. Frank Lewis is maintaining contact with society webmasters to further the electronic circulation of the newsletters, while David Thorne undertook the tedious task of packing and posting paper copies.

The Queen’s Golden Jubilee

Following so hard on the heels of the Millennium, the Jubilee would seem to call for a different approach. Her Majesty’s expressed wish that people should celebrate as they wished in their communities seems a key. The Committee has therefore tried to encourage as much local ringing as possible, with as much local publicity as possible, particularly over the central weekend at the beginning of June. The focal point is the National Service of Thanksgiving on June 4th 2002; and the hope is that ringers nationwide will surround that focus with the sound of bells.

Janet Edwards, 01376 563447, is kindly acting as the Committee’s co-ordinator for all things Jubilee.

Committee membership

We warmly congratulate Clare Rodliffe on the birth of her son; but were very sorry to lose her from the Committee in May. We welcome Judith Rogers who has joined the Committee as a co-opted member.

During the year David Thorne made it clear that he wished to stand down as Committee chairman. He has steered the Committee skilfully through the maelstrom of the Millennium and all its works, and is fully entitled to a pause after so much hard work. We miss him greatly as chairman - but were grateful that he remained a member of the Committee.

Report of the Stewards of the John Carter Ringing Machine

The machine was displayed at the Road Show at the University of Keele in March. It attracted much interest and we were able to successfully ring Little Bob Maximus. Our thanks are due to Barry Ward for transporting the machine from the Birmingham Museum of Science and Industry and for his help at the show. We were also able to display one of the Peter Cummins simulators at the show.

The Birmingham “Millennium Point Think Tank” opened in September 2001 and many of the principal exhibits were transferred from the old Museum site in Newhall Street. Unfortunately it has not been possible for the machine to be housed in this new complex as the display area is much smaller.

The stewards have now arranged, subject to contract, for the relocation of the machine and the simulators, which were bequeathed to the Council by Peter Cummins, to the Bellfoundry Museum at Loughborough.

The Ringing World, April 5, 2002, page 337

Education Committee

2001 has been an eventful year for the Education Committee, with the launch of the Network for Ringing Training (NRT) at the Road Show, the Open Meeting at Liverpool, and delivery of six courses. Mike Winterbourne and Heather Peachey were elected to the committee at the CC meeting in May, to replace Ron Warford and Ralph Moreton. The Committee held three formal meetings, all at Sharnford.

Courses

The committee was involved in delivering courses for St Luke’s, Atlanta, St Martin’s Guild, Yorkshire Association, Ely Diocesan Association, Bedfordshire Association and Peterborough Diocesan Guild. Four were MTM courses (Management, Teaching and Maintenance) and two were Listening Seminars. The course in the USA was the first overseas MTM course.

Publications

No new books were produced during the year, but the successful cassette tapes “Listen to Ringing” and “Listen to Ringing - Live” have both been released on CD in response to requests from users. The “Training Directory” was again produced by Gail Cater, jointly on behalf the Education and Ringing Centres Committees. It is supplied free of charge to education officers (where known) and society and branch secretaries. It is on the committee website, and available to all via the Publications Committee. The thirtieth edition of “The Learning Curve” appeared in The Ringing World in December.

Simulators

Requests for loan of the simulators continue, but at a lower level now that simulators are becoming more common. The simulators may be borrowed by contacting Michael Mulvey.

Duke of Edinburgh’s Award

We continue to receive requests for advice on the Bellringing module. The letter to The Ringing World in December stimulated another wave of enquiries. Updated information is on the committee website.

Communication

In response to requests from potential users, we set up an e-mail list to enable society and branch newsletter editors to share material for publication, thus facilitating a wider audience for good articles and ensuring that newsletter readers have access to a richer set of information. 35 newsletter editors had subscribed by the year end, with 11 articles offered for use. RingingEducationNet, the e-mail list we set up in spring 2000, which has now become a learner’s helpline remains active with nearly 200 subscribers, and we are also developing a similar service as part of NRT for the training community (see below). We were pleased to be able to describe our work as the main focus of the Spring CC Newsletter.

Network for Ringing Training

As reported last year, we decided to work towards a launch at the Spring 2001 RoadShow of a network to support and promote the interests of the training community. The tight timetable presented challenges but we successfully launched a communication network for both e-mail and postal subscribers, coupled with a database that enables subscribers to find and make direct contact with other people of like interest near them. Over 270 trainers had subscribed by the end of 2001. We published the first NRT Newsletter in the summer and we are currently planning an NRT conference to be held in autumn 2002.

Future plans and vision

The committee’s vision is to take forward the state of the art in ringing education and to help spread best practice to member societies by whatever means is most effective. Our ongoing programme of work for 2002 includes four major areas:

• Delivering MTM and other courses in response to requests from societies and ringing centres. Demand was slightly lower last year, but has picked up since. Some societies have made repeated use of our services while others never have. We need to identify where societies most need support and if necessary adapt to provide it. We are also exploring by questionnaire the different training available to and valued by ringers with more basic needs, focussing initially on people who have applied to national courses. How we respond will depend on the result of the questionnaire.

• Producing new or replacement educational publications where needed. Work in hand includes: a compendium of the first 30 articles from The Learning Curve, a new Beginners Handbook, a new book Guidelines for Officers, minor revision and republication of Doubles & Minor for Beginners and Triples & Major for Beginners.

• Planning and running the NRT conference. This is an important event and we are aiming for a varied programme of interest to tower captains as well as society training officers.

• Exploiting the NRT more widely. What we have so far achieved is an embryo communication network. This is working well, but we need to use it to help build a training community, to stimulate more trainer focussed activity at local level, and to develop more ways in which trainers can share and extend their capability. This is a major challenge.

Our thanks go to Carol Franklin for her hospitality in hosting the committee meetings at Sharnford, and to the people outside the committee, notably Alison Barnett and Peter Wenham, who provide continuing support in the running of NRT.

Five members of the committee have indicated that they will not be seeking re-election for the next triennium.

One of these is Gail Cater who has for several years provide the link with the Ringing Centres Committee as our nominated member of that committee. We thank all departing members for their work during their period of service with us.

Library Committee

We held two meetings during 2001, one at Ullingswick and one at Thatcham. However, like other Council committees, most of the work is not carried out at these meetings but by members working individually on their allocated projects.

We also met at the very successful Ringing Road Show at Keele, publicised the work of the committee and enrolled new members in the Friends of the Central Council Library.

The Library has been enriched by the donation of some valuable research material from the Cyril Wratten Collection, and we are very grateful for this.

In our report last year we advised members to buy the CDs of The Trollope Manuscript and the two periodicals, Campanology and The Bellringer. We only have a few copies of The Trollope Manuscript left now and we have decided not to produce any more of either at the present time.

The projected CD on The Bell News has been held up, but we have now obtained the required permission to go ahead and are awaiting final estimates before we proceed. We hope to have more news on this later this year. We are holding our other CD projects until this is under way.

We do have good news on two other projects. First, our ringers’ badge collection is now virtually complete apart from a few early examples. Secondly, our Librarian has, after a tremendous amount of hard work, entered into the database all the printed material contained in the Library.

The hard copy printout of this takes up nearly 200 pages and should be published by the Council meeting. Following this limited run of hard copies an electronic version is being considered.

It also gives us great satisfaction to report that we now have finished binding all the runs of society reports that we have.

We would like to write that we now have complete sets, but unfortunately we still have some gaps and can not finish the job off. Could members seek out the missing copies? The Librarian regularly publishes a list of those required.

In our last report we mentioned the need for a learned journal comprising scholarly research on bells and ringing, suggesting that the type of articles we envisaged would include in-depth material which would make them generally unsuitable for publication in The Ringing World. We have received favourable comments from a number of people and propose to go ahead on this. A short list of well-known authors has been prepared and they will be approached in the near future to write appropriate papers.

The Ringing World, April 5, 2002, page 349

Towers & Belfries Committee

The Committee met on three occasions during the year. Having served as Chairman for six years, Adrian Dempster handed over the reins of this office to Chris Povey in February. We thank Adrian for all the time, effort and professionalism he has put into the post in that time.

Individual Committee members have provided inspections of, and advice on towers, bells and maintenance to PCCs and incumbents in various parts of the country. The Committee played a major role in the twice-yearly Central Council/English Heritage liaison meetings.

Harry Windsor’s work on monitoring and evaluating tower movement continues to be of great importance to all parties in bell restoration. It is producing very interesting original data, particularly as it is being obtained from towers where bellhandling problems are significant and known to be structurally-derived. This work is now sufficiently advanced for Harry to give a seminar for those interested in these developments. At this stage, we are targeting in particular the bell trade and DAC Advisors, although others may be accommodated if room allows. The seminar is to be held at Brailes, Warwickshire, on the 28th and 29th of June, where the theory can be experienced for real! It will be advertised in The Ringing World in due course. This seminar promises a fascinating few hours.

As reported last year and as an adjunct to the tower movement study, electronic equipment to monitor movements in all four walls in real time is under development. This is a successor to the single-wall monitoring unit currently being used. The Committee has agreed that the construction of a prototype four-wall unit should be funded, from which unit, it is hoped, more commercial units may be developed and marketed.

A maintenance seminar organised by John Scott in Wells was a particularly successful day. Not only was it gloriously sunny, but it attracted a large number of very nice people, all of whom really wanted to know about bell maintenance. The T&B contingent believe they managed to answer all the extremely interesting, deeply searching questions that were asked by this most stimulating group. John is planning to repeat the seminar in 2002 in the Taunton area.

Mobile phone antennae in towers continue to make the news in many forms. The early concerns were for more information about the effects of radiation. An information sheet entitled “Radio transmitters installed in Church Towers” has been produced by the Committee and provides information on this particular aspect. It is intended to be updated and expanded as more information becomes available on this rather fast-moving subject. An information sheet on lightning conductors, entitled “Lightning Conductors and bell frames in Church Towers” has also been produced. Both sheets are free and can be obtained from the Chairman (SAE please), although both may appear on the Council’s website in due course. Other publications in preparation include a four-page folded information card entitled “A Bells Project from First Principles” and an update of the booklet “Tower Changes”.

Two members have been involved with a perplexing situation in the West Midlands, where a structural engineer, employed professionally by the PCC, has questioned the need to build-in the ends of bellframe grillages, a regular and well-tried practice in the industry for the last 100 years. The reason given for altering the practice, the “racking” effects of differential thermal expansion between steel and masonry leading to movement of infill between inner and outer walls, is, the Committee believes, essentially incorrect, as the published coefficients of expansion of these two materials are virtually the same. Temperature monitoring of a steel bellframe and the adjacent masonry in two towers by Committee members support our view conclusively. Although this engineer has recently died and his theory may not gain favour elsewhere, the Committee wishes to be informed of any similar theory that may arise, in order that its basis may be investigated.

The Committee is becoming aware of the use of new materials in the bell trade, some of which it believes are much shorter-lasting than the traditional materials. It urges recipients of quotations to look carefully at what is being offered and to judge (with specialist advice, if required) whether any reduction in item “life” is likely to occur against that expected from the traditional items; and if so, what the true cost of the item is likely to be over a given period. Although the Committee is receptive to new ideas and materials, it believes their introduction should be allied clearly to advantages in overall cost and/or performance.

Ringing Centres Committee

During the year Gail Cater took over from Phil Gay as Chairman of the Committee. It was Phil’s ideas and efforts which got the Founders Company scheme off the ground. Now, having guided the scheme through its early stages he has stepped down from the chair and will take on increased responsibility, with Roger, for planning courses.

The main work of the Committee has again been the administration of grants from the Worshipful Company of Founders. Five grants were approved during the year bringing the total to 13. The amount of money allocated was £11,650 bringing the total at the end of 2001 to £24,550. Eric Godfrey has looked after the purse strings and Stephanie Pattenden has taken over management of the application procedure from Louise Bland.

Approximately 60% of the £50,000 available for grants is given to Ringing Centres to spend on teaching equipment. The other 40% is being spent on training courses which cover ringing centre management, teaching skills and use of equipment especially simulators, dumb bells and video.

Roger Booth organised weekend courses at the Docklands Ringing Centre during May and November. Future courses will be refined using feedback from students on recent courses, and will make use of ringing centres around the country.

The Founders continue to take a keen interest in Ringing Centres. Their annual prize, a cheque for £500, was awarded to the Docklands Ringing Centre for their work in 2000. The cheque was presented at the Founders Hall during the May 2001 training course.

We are now moving closer to having a network of ringing centres throughout the country. In order to support them and encourage the sharing of information, Roger Booth has set up an email support group. The Committee also continues to support towers while they are applying for Central Council recognition and/or for a Founders Company grant, and afterwards as well.

The Central Council Training Directory is a joint publication between the Ringing Centres and the Education Committees. The eighth edition was again produced by Gail Cater who is a member of both committees.

Greater information has been made available about ringing centres during the year, largely through The Ringing World. This increased publicity has resulted in an increase in the number of enquiries about becoming a ringing centre, some of which will come to fruition in 2002. Further publicity was engendered by the Committee’s participation in the 2001 Ringing Roadshow.

A Committee email discussion group has been set up by Andrew Wilby to improve and speed up communication between members of the Committee.

Preliminary steps have been taken to establish a Committee website which will link with the Central Council website, and progress is being made. We thank Tina Stoecklin and Peter Trotman for agreeing to assist us in this.

Publications Committee

Three new publications were produced during the year. They were A Collection of Compositions in Popular Major Methods, Collection of Universal Compositions for treble-dodging Major Methods, and Rung Surprise Supplement to end 2000.

Eighteen publications were reprinted: Towards Better Striking, Raising and Lowering, Ringing Jargon Made Easy, Ringing Circles, Listen to Ringing cassettes (CDs) 1 and 2, Beginners Guide to Change Ringing on Handbells, Tower Handbook, Learning Methods, Standard 8 Surprise Major, Understanding Place Notation, Will You Call a Touch Please Bob, Service Touches, Conducting Stedman, Simulators & Teaching, Recruiting Leaflets, Sound Management, and Church Towers and Bells.

Special discounts were offered in March and at Christmas. There was no obvious overall sales trend, although sales of the four History volumes increased significantly because of a special offer on the set. As expected, sales of the three new titles were relatively low, owing to their specialist content. Good business was done at the Roadshow.

Two new advertising and marketing initiatives were tried during the year. Advertisements were placed in a number of Society annual reports, and a pull-out insert was placed in The Ringing World. We doubt that the first of these was cost-effective, although we will place advertisements in reports during 2002 if invited to do so. The second was very successful and we intend to continue to use this method annually.

The Ringing World Ltd has invited us to sell publications through their new e-commerce facility. We intend to take advantage of this offer in 2002.

Barbara Wheeler’s house move was completed without interruption of service. Once again we offer our thanks to all those who helped to store books during this period.

The accounts show that our financial situation remains healthy. The success of recent large projects caused our cash surplus to rise beyond the level needed to sustain the business.

We have therefore, after consultation with the Hon Treasurer, been pleased to transfer £10,000 from the Publications Fund to the Central Council Bell Fund.

Richard Wallis, our Treasurer, has decided not to seek re-election to the Committee. The other members wish to record their thanks to Richard for his outstanding work, which has gone far beyond the Treasurer’s duties, during his time in office.

The Ringing World, April 12, 2002, pages 372 to 373

Committee for Redundant Bells

Sixteen churches, exactly the same number as in 2000, were declared redundant in 2001. This brings the overall total, since the Pastoral Measure 1968 came into force, to 1637. Over 33 years in operation, the Pastoral Measures have reduced the number of Church of England churches to some 16,225: a loss of just under 10%. Among them around 200 rings of four or more bells have been affected to a greater or lesser degree.

The Church Commissioners, effectively the arbiters of destiny in these matters, think that the number declared redundant each year will remain fairly constant for the foreseeable future, with an annual maximum of 30 churches. As is well known, though, there are currently major church financial concerns; and one possibility that the Commissioners pessimistically identify is that congregations who have hung on for years, seeing their church as the vital centre of their community, will become so dispirited by the financial climate that they finally abandon the struggle. Should this happen - so far the signs, hopefully, seem only small - it could mean a rush of rural churches to redundancy: such churches frequently have rings of bells.

Encouragingly, the proportion of redundant churches finding alternative uses has gradually increased from around 50% to, now, 57% - the remainder, in equal measure, are either preserved by the Churches Conservation Trust or demolished. The Committee’s review of the bells of redundant churches this year has focussed particularly on the “alternative use” churches. This has depended on the kindness of the Church Commissioners, who maintain the definitive schedule of redundant churches, and has been slightly delayed because their complete list was not available until late in the year: the review is consequently still in progress. The hope is that the review can take in, too, churches in other denominations and areas than the Church of England. We are very grateful to the many association officers who have helped. This exercise led on naturally to the suggestion that Committee members might help with the proposed National Bell Register: a pilot project has now begun.

The Committee has received some ten enquiries for bells this year, including one seeking a ring of bells, seven for singles, and two for use overseas. Once again the Keltek Trust continued its valuable work in the rehousing of bells.

The Archbishops’ Council has set up a review of the Pastoral Measure. The Committee is considering whether to contribute.

Our gratitude for the help and interest of the Church Commissioners and the Advisory Board for Redundant Churches is not the less real for being regularly expressed; and the reports on churches referred to the Council for the Care of Churches, which they kindly send us, are invaluable. We also record our gratitude to Michael O’Callaghan, who did not seek re-election to the Council at Liverpool, for much hard work over the years, not least as one of the main architects of the Rescue Fund for Redundant Bells.

Information & Communications Technology Committee

The ongoing activities of the committee continue mainly to consist of the maintenance of the Software Catalogue and the Council’s website, and participation, jointly with the Peals Analysis committee, in the Felstead Project.

In addition to routine updates and additions to the Software Catalogue, we have been working to improve our procedures to ensure that software reviews are both objective and informative. The Council’s website continues to grow: apart from additions to existing material, a new section on Bell Projects has been added. This includes pages formerly hosted for the Bell Restoration Funds committee by the Keltek Trust. The new section also represents the first step in the transformation of the site to a series of topic-oriented sections which are intended to make the information more accessible to users and particularly, it is hoped, to non-ringers.

Now that the Felstead records have been transferred from the original card files to a computer system we are working with the Publications committee to publish the records in CD-ROM format.

Additional activity this year has included advice to The Ringing World on computer hardware and software for their new office facilities.

The Ringing World, April 19, 2002, page 394

Bell Restoration Funds Committee

We begin our report by expressing the greatest thanks to three members who are not seeking re-election at this year’s Council meeting. Nigel Booth has been a member of the Committee since 1978 and has been an active and enthusiastic contributor to its work in that time. It is principally his ideas for the future that the Committee is now embarking upon. Beverley Winter has been a member since 1993 and Kate Cameron since 1999 and both have made valuable contributions to its work. We will miss them all from our future deliberations and thank them warmly for their many contributions.

The Committee met three times during the year; in February in Surrey, during the Central Council Meeting weekend in May in Liverpool and in London in September. Much of the work during the year has focused on the steps we need to take to follow up the fundamental review of services summarised in last year’s report, and also picking up the challenge from Council to find new sources of funding for bell restoration.

Providing a Better Service to Ringers

In last year’s report we identified four areas where we believed the Central Council should be providing a service. This year we have tuned the work of the Committee to ensure that we are concentrating on those areas, and moved some way to developing links with other Committees and organisations who also have a key role. This includes inviting representatives of the Keltek Trust and the Rescue Fund to our meetings to encourage sharing of ideas and knowledge. At the end of the year we took the opportunity to revise our Terms of Reference to reflect our new priorities more closely. These changes, and a change of name to Bell Restoration Committee, will be the subject of a motion to Council. We also looked at the additional skills the Committee required to take our work forward and identified a need to develop expertise in fundraising on a national basis and tax and investment advice for charities. It is hoped to encourage Council members with appropriate interests to put themselves forward for election to the Committee for the new triennium.

Finding New Sources of Funding

The general feeling that emerged at the Council meeting at Liverpool was that members wished us to investigate new sources of funds. We also know from communications with societies that the tapping of such sources should not interfere with what already goes on, often very successfully, at a local level. In formulating our thoughts we are grateful for the assistance of Richard Offen and Stella Bianco who, with their considerable expertise, helped us greatly to clarify the issues. Our conclusions are that there is no hope of substantially increasing the amount of money available to bell restoration unless we either had exceptional luck or we systematically and professionally set out to raise the profile of bell ringing and bell restoration both to ringers in general and to non-ringers. In this respect this was a long haul project.

We therefore believe that a wide ranging debate is needed on a number of issues including the need for research; the need to make this a project about ringers as well as bells i.e. bells must be both ringable and rung; the need to involve not just other Council committees e.g. PRAG and the Education Committee, but also the need for the Council to raise its profile; the need for professional advice; the need for the Council to have a well-known figure-head or patron.

We intend to begin this debate at the Council meeting in June and hope for an enthusiastic contribution to our planning process. We hope members will read the attached note outlining some of the options for the future.

In addition to the work outlined above the Committee continued to provide its core services to bell restoration:

Provision of Information and Advice

For the second year running the number of new parishes contacting the Committee for advice has fallen (1999 - 60, 2000 - 50, 2001 - 44). It is not clear whether this is a true reflection of a downturn in activity although there are some other signs that this may be the case. On the other hand our information pack for parishes is now available in downloadable form from the CC web site, and it may be that people are finding answers to their questions without making direct contact. John Barnes attended two dedication services and made one parish visit, where he and a local society representative helped to move a project forward. Committee members turned out in force to man the stand at the Roadshow at Keele and did brisk business - including selling a number of jigsaws in aid of the CCBRF. The revised and updated booklet Organising a Bell Restoration Project was passed to the Publications Committee at the end of the year. We drew a line under the last Triennial Survey of Bell Restoration Funds when 38 out of 47 societies had replied, and a series of short articles illustrating useful points from the survey is being prepared for publication in The Ringing World.

Administration of Funds

The Manifold Trust offered 13 grants totalling £48,000 during the year (2000 - 10 grants totalling £32,500). This reflects the Trust’s decision, taken last year, to increase its level of giving, particularly to small parishes. The Committee assists the Trust by the provision of administrative support.

Applications were invited for grants from the Central Council BRF. Twenty three applications were received and the following grants approved: Staverton £900, Newton-le-Willows £1,100, Staines (St Mary) £800, Doulting £800, Rousham £600, Motcombe £1,000, Hillandale £400, Donyatt £900, Great Shelford £800, St Mellons £600, Milton £1,500, Cheltenham (St Christopher) £400, Shenington £700. Towards the end of the year we were delighted to receive an anonymous bequest of £10,000; this was followed by a transfer of £5,000 being the surplus on the General Fund and a further £10,000 from the Publications Committee. Applications for these amounts together with monies donated and raised by others, not least by the sale of Stella Bianco’s jigsaws, will be invited in the early part of 2002. As agreed at the Central Council meetings in 1997 and 1998 the criteria for allocating grants and loans are attached to this report. There are no recommendations for changes.

The Fred E. Dukes International Bell Fund offered the following grants, decided in accordance with the terms of the Fund, to Australia: Castlereagh (Methodist Chapel) £500, Randwick (St Jude) £1,500, Singleton (All Saints) £200, Sidney (St James) £1,500, Hobart (St David’s Cathedral) £750; and to South Africa: Hillandale £425.

Future Work

While we have spent much of our time looking forward it was fitting that a review of the Committee’s work over 25 years was published in The Ringing World. We believe that we have set the groundwork to have as great an influence for the next 25 years as we had over the last.

We hope that anyone who is in sympathy with our objectives and believes that they can contribute to the debate and to the future tasks will contact any committee member to discuss the issues and to consider becoming a member of the Committee.

The Future of Fund Raising

1. This note explains some ideas of what the Council might do in future to raise funds for bells and ringing. Please find time to read this before the meeting - you might find it answers many of the questions you might want to ask during the debate.

   Background

2. The BRFC was established over 25 years ago, primarily to encourage Council affiliated societies (“societies”) to set up their own Bell Restoration Funds (BRFs) and to help and advise them on the best ways to operate them. Most societies now have BRFs and need little help from the BRFC in their management.

3. A few years ago Council supported the idea of developing its own BRF, although concern was voiced that it should not compete with societies’ own BRFs for money. Part of the aim of this development was to try to encourage greater use of legacies as very little money comes into BRFs through that route at the moment. One legacy of £10,000 has since been received and we recognise that development of income from legacies will take time. We continue to encourage people to leave money to the Central Council BRF in their wills.

4. One of the advantages of the Council’s BRF as a recipient of legacies that was acknowledged at the time was its ability to manage the mis-match that currently exists between available money for bell restoration and need. Some societies have quite a lot of money available with little restoration work needed, others have great need and little money. As we cannot judge in advance where the greatest need will be when we die, perhaps at some time well in the future, how can we tell where to leave any money we might like to for bell restoration? The Council’s BRF is ideal for this as it can target funding towards the greatest need.

   Recent Work

5. Many Council committees have recently been examining exactly what they do and what they should be doing in the future and identifying the need to change focus a little. The BRFC is no exception to this. We wrote to all societies and asked them what they thought we should be doing to help them. While only a small number responded (22) there was an overwhelming feeling (15) that we should be raising money and identifying sources of funds. We have given considerable thought to this, wondering just how proactive the Council should be in this area, and remaining conscious of the need not to compete with societies for funds. There are a lot of things that could be done, many of which are quite resource-intensive or demand professional skills. We would like a debate at the Council meeting about how members think we should progress this work.

   Options

6. The Council is a charity, but unlike many other charities does not spend a lot of time or effort on fund raising. This is not wrong, it is just the way the Council has always been. It has not previously identified fund raising as a mainstream activity. Should it do so now? What might this involve?

7. Charities that spend a lot of effort on fund raising usually employ professional fund-raisers. These might be direct employees who are paid by results, or they might be fund raising organisations who retain a fixed percentage of money they raise, or simply raise money for a fixed contractual fee. Both methods are quite ethical and in common use by charities, especially larger charities. We do not think it is appropriate for the Council to employ a fundraiser directly - the Council does not have any paid employees at the moment. The use of an external fund raiser who retained a percentage of any funds raised would be quite possible and carry no risk - if they do not raise any money they get nothing and no one has lost anything. They would be need to be carefully managed, and briefed so as not to compete with societies for funds, but would be able to approach large industrial and commercial organisations who make charitable donations and could be a meaningful source of income.

8. What do members think? Should we employ fundraisers?

9. The mis-match referred to above between area of need and available money does not refer only to funding for restoration work. It also applies to the need for ringers. There is little point in aiming to restore all the unringable peals of bells around the world if there is no one there to ring them. There needs to be a focus on raising money for training ringers and encouraging younger people to come into ringing. This would probably mean development of the Ringing Centres programme as well as PR work to make people more aware of the attractions of learning to ring. This is work that would involve far more Council members than just the BRFC. There would need to be a co-ordinated effort across most areas of the Council’s work, but in particular involving the BRFC, the Training Committee, the Ringing Centres Committee and the PR Committee at the very least. There would probably need to be a working party set up, including the relevant committee chairmen.

10. What do members think? Is there a will to work in this way?

11. The Council has never had a Patron. Most leading charities have a Patron, who lends weight to help the charity raise money. Should the Council have a Patron? What sort of person should it be? Possibilities might include (in no particular order):

    • A senior churchman, such as the Archbishop of Canterbury. This would lend us credibility within the Church, might enable us to hold fund-raising functions at e.g. Lambeth Palace and might open some doors for us within the Church and give us useful contacts. On the other hand such senior churchmen are probably Patron of many charities and are perhaps unable to do much more than lend their name.

    • Royalty. An attractive option for the obvious cachet it would carry and the money it would attract. We would be unlikely to be able to attract a Major Royal, and even minor royals carry with them a minefield of protocol and security precautions, which, we have been told, can lead some charities to question the benefit of such high-profile patrons, who can also sometimes be something of a liability, we understand. Royals are also often patrons of many charities, but they are heavyweight catches and can be worth significant income to their charities.

    • An influential business person, perhaps someone many of us will not have heard of. Such a person would be likely to have contacts in high places in the business world and help us gain access, to funding and wealthy contacts who might be interested in supporting our work and our fund raising. Contacts with e.g. the City livery companies would enable us to hold functions at livery halls attended by people who would be prepared to support our cause. Do we know anyone like this already who might be suitable and even be a ringer?

    • A “pop idol” or sports personality who would appeal to the younger generation and help with our efforts to get the young interested in ringing as well as the fund raising side of our work. Such a person would also have wealthy friends who might be persuaded to support our cause. How long a shelf life would this person have?

12. What do members think? Is the idea of a Patron attractive? If not, why not? What sort of person might we think about? Would more than one be a good idea, to cover more than one category of patron?

13. We need better data than we currently have about the need for money. Whenever we approach any organisation, such as the Heritage Lottery Fund, to request funding we are asked for statistics. We can provide many of course - how many churches there are in the UK with bells and how many ringers there are. But we have more trouble with questions like how many unringables there are. Where are the greatest shortages of ringers? How much money would be needed to put ringers and bells in place where there are currently none? Collecting this data is resource-intensive in itself. We might need money to undertake such a task, and it would not be right to embark on such work without being fairly confident that Council would support the next step of using the data to attract more funding.

14. And we need to think Worldwide, reflecting the worldwide nature of the Council. We talk to the UK Government in an effort to obtain funding for UK bells and ringers. Should we be doing more in other countries or are there ways we can or should support societies outside the UK in different ways from the way we support UK societies and ringers? The Council’s BRF can make (and has made) grants outside the UK, and there is also the Fred Dukes Fund for grants outside the British Isles, but so far the amounts these funds can give has been small.

15. What do representatives of societies outside the UK think the Council should be doing for them in terms of fund raising?

    Conclusion

16. It is clear that there is a good potential for significantly increasing the money available for bell restoration on a national scale. The Central Council, through the Manifold Trust scheme and the Ringing in the Millennium project have demonstrated that such schemes are viable and can be managed within the Council’s resources.

17. There is no doubt that there are funding sources that remain relatively untapped and could yield quite substantial sums if handled in a systematic and professional manner. Many of these sources would not respond to approach by guilds, associations or individual projects, thus avoiding the potential criticism that Central Council fundraising might cut across the efforts of others.

18. The BRFC is thinking about all the things in this paper and now needs to know what members think. The desired change to our terms of reference reflects our new focus on identifying sources of funds and other resources. It does not mean we will stop doing the work we have always done to help parishes with individual projects, nor does it mean agreement with all the idea put forward in this paper. We want to use the 2002 Council meeting to discuss all these ideas to take away a clearer understanding of what it is Council wants us to do in this area, and we look forward to a useful debate at the meeting to help shape our work over the next few years.

Administrative Committee

Since the 2001 Council meeting the Committee has met twice in London, in October and March. The arrangements for the 2002 Council meeting were discussed and agreed; the Committee has continued its practice of reviewing the work of Council Committees and received presentations from the Peals Analysis and Peal Compositions Committees; among other matters considered were the following:

1. Incorporation of the Council - This matter has not progressed, as there has been no response from the Charity Commission. However, further thought is to be given to the appropriateness of the change.

2. Working group on ringing trends - Work has continued; one clear trend that has emerged is the smaller number of younger ringers compared with older ringers, which could have serious implications for the long-term future of ringing.

3. Listed Places of Worship Grants Scheme - The interim scheme has assured funding until March 2003, when there will be a review of permitted reduced VAT rates by the European Commission. It allows parishes to reclaim part of the VAT charged on works of repair and maintenance to the fabric of protected buildings; unfortunately the scheme does not extend to fixtures and fittings, such as bells and organs. The Officers are keeping in contact with English Heritage and the Council for the Care of Churches about the future of this scheme.

4. Ringing in the Millennium - Post-completion monitoring continues, with all 150 projects being circulated with a questionnaire and 10% being visited each year by members of the working party.

5. Radio Aerials in Churches - Contact has been maintained with the Council for the Care of Churches; it is expected that the national agreement with a preferred contractor will be in place by Easter; this will include a Parish Project Handbook incorporating all the guidance notes previously submitted by the Council.

6. National Bells Register - A pilot scheme in Hampshire is under way; it is hoped to design a database that will be simple to operate. The bulk of the work is being carried out by John Baldwin supported by Jane Wilkinson.

7. Registration of whole Societies as Charities - The Bell Restoration Funds Committee has discussed this matter and has set out the advantages and disadvantages in a separate paper (attached). Individual circumstances will determine whether registration is appropriate.

8. Fund Raising - The Bell Restoration Funds Committee has been giving this matter consideration, arising from a survey of societies which shows that they want help in raising money and identifying other sources of funding. The Committee will be presenting a paper to the 2002 Council meeting; it is felt that, in addition to the promotion of fund-raising, attention needs to be given to the training of ringers; it will be a function of the Administrative Committee to co-ordinate input from several Committees to the best effect.

9. Welcome Meeting - The idea of such a meeting arose from the Consultation Process. The object of the meeting is to describe the workings and structure of the Council, encourage new members to become involved with the work of the Council at an early stage, meet the Officers and Committee Chairmen and to identify the skills needed for the work of the Council.

10. Letter from the Independent Examiners - The Independent Examiners had attached to their report on the 2000 Accounts a Management Letter, drawing attention to various aspects of financial control. The Officers have given considerable thought to the contents of the letter and already initiated some changes in procedures. The Treasurer will be presenting a detailed statement on the matter to the Council meeting.

11. Committee elections - This was discussed again, as requested by the 2001 Council meeting. Several members made the point that the time taken (about 2 hours) out of the whole triennium is not really unreasonable; others felt that it is not wholly the time factor that concerns members, rather the possible unsatisfactory outcome: many existing members of Committees are proposed for re-election without Council members knowing whether or not they are doing a good job. No changes are proposed.

12. Committee structure - The Working Group had not reconvened but have kept in contact; no further action is proposed at the present time.

13. Heritage Lottery Fund - A meeting has been held on 12th February with the Fund’s Deputy Director of Policy. There appears to be potential for support from the Fund in several areas; at the time of writing this report we await to hear further from the Fund’s officers and hope to provide more details to the Council meeting.

14. English Heritage - Regular contact has continued, with meetings on 3rd October and 6th March. No problem cases have been referred. In addition to discussing items noted above (Heritage Lottery Fund, Listed Places of Worship Grants, radio aerials) meetings have considered:

    • Heritage Strategy Review: the Government has produced “A Force for our Future” - this document says much about using heritage as a learning resource, encouraging free access to heritage sites, etc; churches are scarcely mentioned, although there is to be a review of the Ecclesiastical Exemption;

    • Conservation Statement: arising from the changes in faculty procedure, especially the requirement for Statements of Significance and Need, the Towers & Belfries booklet “Tower Changes” is being revised, in conjunction with English Heritage;

    • Installation of ringers’ galleries: English Heritage continue to have difficult cases to resolve; their view is that cutting a new doorway through the stair fabric should be avoided if at all possible;

    • Incomplete specifications at faculty application stage: problems frequently arise due to inadequate information being available. Preliminary investigations before work starts will save much trouble. English Heritage has been invited to write to The Ringing World to set out minimum requirements.

Biographies Committee

The following six past and present members of the Council died in the year 2001:

• HARDING, Norman Victor. Norwich Diocesan Association 1954-1978, died 26 January 2001, attended 22 meetings.

• WARBURTON, Richard Charles, St. Davids Diocesan Guild 1961-1966 and 1969-1972, died 9 April 2001, attended 8 meetings.

  (these two have already been reported to the Council)

• MORRIS, Roger Brian, Shropshire Association 1963-1965, died 15 June 2001, attended 3 meetings.

• PARKER, Geoffrey Robert, Lincoln Diocesan Guild 1993-2001, died 4 September 2001, attended 9 meetings.

• BRANSON, Katharine Mildred Harold, Scottish Association 1972-1974, died November 2001, attended 2 meetings.

• CROSS, Marie Rosine, Universities Association 1945- 1968, died 18 November 2001, attended 22 meetings.

Also in the year 2002:

• ST. JOHN SMITH, Roger Douglas, Lancashire Association, 1954-1962 and Derbyshire Association 1969-1974, died 29 January 2002, attended 9 meetings.

• MEADOWS, Rodney Brian, Oxford University Society 1951-1959 and Ancient Society of College Youths 1969-1974, died 15 March 2002, attended 13 meetings.

During the year, the Committee have held two meetings.

We are still aiming to catch up on former members of the Council; many of them did not return biography sheets at the time, and of those who did most are by now out of date, and there are a great many of whom we have either no photograph at all or at best an inadequate one. Often, they have dropped out of ringing and the Council does not hear of their deaths, and we shall be very grateful for such news from anyone who knew them - even if we get several notes about them, perhaps long afterwards.

In 2002, at the beginning of a new triennium, there are quite a number of new members, and we shall be approaching them at the Welcome meeting, cameras at the ready. We ask all such new members please to help us with our task by filling in their biography sheets and handing them to us on the day or posting them to the Chairman.

Since last year we have lost Grahame Groves, who has ceased to be a Council member; we are very grateful to him for his valuable work during his time on the Committee.

Report of the Steward of the Rolls of Honour

The Rolls of Honour continue to be in good condition and the pages in both books are turned regularly. As I have retired from full membership of the St Paul’s Cathedral Guild, my visits to St Paul’s have become less frequent and I am indebted to Jim Philips, past Steward of the Rolls, for his assistance with my duties.

At the 2001 Council Meeting there was discussion over the 20 or so members of the Kent County Association who died in service during the First World War and whose names are not included in the Council’s Roll of Honour. Since then I have received a similar list from the Winchester and Portsmouth Diocesan Guild.

It would be feasible to have made a small addendum booklet, which could be loosely inserted into the main book, in which these additional names could be written in comparable style and room left for other names which may come to light in the future. I estimate the cost of this to be between £300 and £500. Alternatively, Council may feel that the existing book should be considered closed. I would welcome a proposal on this matter at the Meeting.

ANDREW STUBBS

The Ringing World, April 19, 2002, pages 395 to 397, correction April 26, 2002, page 407

Records Committee

Peal Compositions Committee

The committee currently holds no face to face meetings, but is in regular electronic contact via email.

2001 was a good year for the publication of collections, two becoming available in the middle of the year: the long awaited Collection of Universal Compositions, and the new and much expanded Collection of Compositions in Popular Major Methods. The new Ten and Twelve Bell Collection is making good progress, having had the initial draft proof read and corrected.

The committee’s electronic collection and related materials remain accessible on the World Wide Web. While these materials are hosted at multiple sites in multiple countries, all can be accessed via

http://www.ringing.org/pcc

The electronic peal composition collection is currently being re-implemented to better support its growth. The new version is nearly complete and should be online, replacing the old version at the above URL, by the end of March. It already contains over 500 compositions, and should continue to grow rapidly over the rest of the year.

2001 was a disappointing year for peal publication in The Ringing World, primarily because of some unexpected demands on the time of some of this Committee’s members. The total of only 58 peal compositions published was the lowest since 1990. Fortunately these problems have been resolved, and we are on track for doing much better in 2002. We are grateful to the staff of The Ringing World, who are always extremely helpful and supportive of our efforts.

Peals Analysis Committee

We have recorded a total of 5017 peals rung in 2001, of which 4526 were on tower bells and 491 on handbells. Apart from 1998 and 1999 when the total was below 4900 this is the lowest total since 1991 with 5006. There was a decrease of 276 compared with the revised total for 2000, which had increased activity for millennium year and celebration of the 100th birthday of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. The change occurs primarily with decreases on tower bells for Doubles, Minor, Triples and Major, and on handbells for Major and Minor. Full details are included in the methods table which accompanies this report. The Oxford Diocesan Guild have retained their customary position as the leading society with 410 peals, with the Cumberlands retaining second place and Lancashire Association still in third. Yorkshire Association has replaced Hertford County Association in fourth with Bath and Wells retaining fifth. See separate table for details.

The Committee met once during the year to finalise records for 2001 and to agree the format of the report. We are grateful for the continuing work done by Andrew Craddock collating, editing and correcting the current peal data extracted from the Ringing World input system, which is being used to check our figures. We also thank William Hall, working as a technical advisor to the Information and Communication Technology Committee, for his work in checking peal data and those other peal secretaries who have compared figures.

Peals not complying with the Decisions on Peal Ringing

There are 3 performances on higher numbers which contained methods which do not meet the requirements for methods (see RW p654 Birmingham St Martin and pps. 843 and 1211 Birmingham Cathedral). In anticipation of Council passing the Methods Committee motion to change Decision (D) E, elsewhere during this years meeting, these peals have been included in the analysis. If that motion is lost then Council will have to decide whether or not they should be included.

Three peals were also published which were rung on ceramic bells. (see RW p851 Ainderby Steeple, p953 Romanby Green and p32/2002 Red Light Ring) In the past, such peals have not been recognized, but again it was felt by a majority of the Committee that they should be included. There are no formal decisions to the contrary.

The number of peals requiring later correction reduced this year with improved pre-publication vetting in place. There were 20 (40 in 2000) peals which appeared twice, 6 (16) peals originally submitted as NON Association, subsequently attributed to an affiliated society and 8 (23) peals with others changes in attribution.

Methods and change on year

The accompanying table incorporates a summary of the more popular methods with an analysis of the year on year change in the numbers of peals rung on each number of bells. “Single Surprise” means the total rung in single Surprise methods other than those listed specifically. There are no methods in this category rung more than 15 times, and it will be seen that Cornwall Surprise Major has been listed separately this year for the first time. An “Other” category is included for completeness.

Towers

The following 67 towers had 10 or more peals in 2001: (70 in 2000)

All of the top 13 towers (with more than 25 peals last year) are still in the top 13 (with more than 28 peals this year) with East Huntspill (Little Orchard Tower) being the highest new entrant with only 3 peals in 2000.

First pealers and firsts as conductor

There were 255 first pealers in 2001 (349 in 2000 - adjusted) and 35 first as conductor (38 in 2000). We congratulate all those who have contributed to these statistics, particularly where several firsts were included in one peal. This continues the trends of the late nineties after the “Millennium Surge” of 2000.

The leading societies

The following societies rang 150 or more peals:

Derby and Southwell have been removed from the list this year and The Ancient Society has been added. The Chester Diocesan Guild replaces the Hertford County Association as the leading society for handbell peals. with more than two thirds of their peals being rung in hand. The top eight societies above rang 39% of the tower bell peals, but 40% of the handbell peals, a closer ratio than the 35:49 from last year. Perhaps more meaningful, the top 8 tower bell ringing societies rang 44% of the peals, whilst the top 8 societies that rang handbell peals rang 75% of them. A total of 15 societies rang more than 100 peals in 2001 (18 in 2000).

Corrections to the 2000 Analysis

There are several alterations to the 2000 analysis as detailed below, primarily caused by late submission. To meet our deadlines, we have to report on the data as received by The Ringing World at the end of February. Any changes notified later are included in the following year. Corrections relate to tower bells except where specified

Revised totals for 2000 are: tower bells 4740, handbells 553, total 5293.

Details of the adjustments are available from the Chairman.

The Felstead Project (joint with the Information & Communication Technology Committee)

The project over the last year has been concerned primarily with correcting the database as errors have been reported.

It is expected that by the time we meet in Norwich a CD of all Tower Bell peal data to the end of 2001 will have been distributed to all those who assisted by inputting or checking the Felstead data for 1,000 or more peals.

The Ringing World, April 26, 2002, pages 418 to 421, correction September 6, 2002, page 928

Rescue Fund for Redundant Bells

1. The full name of the Charity is Central Council of Church Bellringers Rescue Fund for Redundant Bells.

2. The Charity is not incorporated. The Constitution derives from rules adopted on the 29th May 1979 and registered with the Charity Commission on the 22nd October 1979. The Charity’s registration number is 278816.

3. The principal address of the Charity/Secretary namely: 8 Lebanon Gardens, London SW18 IRG

4. The principal object of the Fund is to advance the Christian religion by the rescue of redundant bells for the purpose of their being rehoused elsewhere for ringing in churches.

5. The Managers of the Fund are the members of the Central Council of Church Bellringers Committee for Redundant Bells namely:

   Revd Dr J. C. Baldwin
   R. G. Booth
   R. J. Cooles
   A. J. Frost
   D. J. Kelly
   J. Kershaw
   G. W. Massey
   Revd Preb J. G. M. Scott
   P. A. G. Watts
   Mrs P. M. Wilkinson

   The Chairman of the Fund is: Revd Preb J. G. M. Scott

   The Honorary Secretary is: R. J. Cooles

   The Honorary Treasurer is: Revd Dr J. C. Baldwin

   The Custodian Trustees of the Fund are the President, the Honorary Secretary and Honorary Treasurer of the Central Council of Church Bellringers and the Chairman of the Central Council of Church Bellringers Bell Restoration Funds Committee namely:

   J. A. Anderson
   I. H. Oram
   E. G. H. Godfrey
   Mrs K. Flavell

The Committee’s Report of the Fund’s activities for the year is as follows:

There were no calls on the Fund this year although two enquiries were made as to the availability of funds in case of need.

The ringers at Escrick have continued to make payments on account of storage and insurance charges incurred by the Fund for the ex-Birmingham Bells. This is appreciated.

The Management Committee has been considering ways of broadening the scope of the Fund to assist in the re-use of bell casting and schemes of bell restoration

New promises of loans to be taken up if required are always welcome.

The accounts for 2001 are set out separately.

R. J. COOLES,
Hon. Secretary

RESCUE FUND FOR REDUNDANT BELLS

Registered Charity No 278816

J C BALDWIN
7 January 2002

The Ringing World, May 3, 2002, page 445

The Ringing World -
Chairman’s Report 2001

In last year’s Report, I described the year 2000 as probably the most difficult period experienced by The Ringing World in living memory. Whilst 2001 was by no means without its problems, it will go down in history as the year when the most fundamental decisions ever for change were taken.

The paper has been printed in the Guildford area by Seven Corners Press Ltd (previously known as Woodbridge Press Ltd) ever since its inception in 1911. The processes used to produce the paper were designed to make maximum use of the facilities available from the printers, thus requiring the minimum of technical printing staff in The Ringing World’s employment. This approach has served us well over the years but technological developments, particularly in the area of computerised desktop publishing, have led us for some time to believe that there are better ways of making optimum use of this technology to produce a more vibrant, up to date paper.

Thus it was that decisions were taken during 2001 for the Company to take on all aspects of the pre-printing production process, leaving our printers to handle the print run and mailing of the paper only. An additional benefit of moving to this way of operating is that, whilst it will incur one-off expenditure during 2002, we will be in the position of lowering our cost base significantly from 2003 onwards.

One of the first requirements was to increase our staff compliment by the recruitment of a compositor to undertake the pre-printing work formerly undertaken by our printers. The appointment of Chris Caryer to this post was announced in the paper in March 2002 and we welcome him to the team. Additional staff gives rise to the need for additional office space (and there were other reasons for wanting to move out of the far from satisfactory premises in Penmark House). Office rents in Guildford soon identified themselves as beyond our reach; hence the move to Andover, where we took possession of the top floor of Eagleside House in December.

The final piece of the jigsaw, which should be in place by the time of the 2002 Annual General Meeting, is the move to a new firm of printers. Seven Corners were unable to offer us the total package we were seeking and we are entering into a new contract with Visa Press Ltd who are based near Basingstoke. Visa Press is the firm of print brokers and managers who have managed the production of The Ringing World Diary since 1998; they have given us a vast amount of help and advice in setting up our new systems and processes and they will manage the printing and mailing of the paper, initially using a firm in Swindon.

Such sweeping changes as we have introduced do not come without some regrets. To leave the Guildford area after some ninety years, and to part company with Seven Corners Press who have looked after us so well, leaves a tinge of sadness. Of more significance is the loss of our two Administrative Assistants, Pam Giddins and Gareth Dancer, who quite understandably did not wish to re-locate to Andover. I thank them for their major contribution to the smooth running of the office and wish them well in their new careers. In welcoming the new administrative team in Andover, Elizabeth Lewis and Linda Sinyard, I wish them a long and happy association with the paper.

I am sorry that Andrew Craddock and Simon Meyer chose to resign from the Board rather than go along with some of the detailed decisions made. Andrew has put in a great deal of time and effort on a range of our computer systems, for which I thank him most warmly on behalf of the Company. The good news is that he is continuing some of his work for us for the time being.

Simon was the newest of the team of Directors and in the early part of 2001 helped us focus our thoughts on the changes I have outlined. I am disappointed that he chose to circulate his letter of resignation to Company Members despite having been advised by Council Officers and others that the appropriate forum for putting forward his views is the Annual General Meeting. He had also been told that by publishing the letter he may have infringed the law on defamation, but more significantly that he may be in breach of his fiduciary duty and also his duty to act in good faith as a former director.

The Directors strenuously deny the accusations against them. Most of the matters Simon raised had been raised at Board meetings where the majority of directors considered that the direction of the Company should be different from the one he urged. The Board’s initial reaction to seeing Simon’s letter in print was to publish a detailed response to his accusations. On further consideration, and having taken advice, we have decided that the advice given to Simon should apply equally to ourselves and we will say no more on the subject until the AGM.

We were most fortunate in obtaining the services of two eminent members of Council to fill the vacancies left by Andrew and Simon. Chris Rogers had been Council and Company Secretary for eight years and has vast experience of the workings of Company. Michael Henshaw, Council President elect, has involved himself in our affairs during his Vice-Presidency and has been a valuable contributor to our discussions and decisions.

The Report of the Review Team set up by the President of the Central Council was published at the end of the year in the form of a Newsletter. This Newsletter contained the Board’s response to the Report and a summary of plans and actions resulting from the Review’s recommendations is being circulated. I would like to take this opportunity of reiterating my thanks to the Review Team for their hard work.

The financial outcome for the year was better than for 2000, but still shows a small loss. This is accounted for mainly by sales of the paper being lower than budget, the Diary not selling out and the fall in interest rates during the year, partly offset by savings in printing costs. Circulation was referred to in the recent Newsletter, comparative figures over the last four years being:

Average sales during December

Non-renewals are regularly followed up and the reasons analysed, but no one reason appears to predominate. Steps are being taken to counteract the fall in circulation including resumption of Association mailshots the appointment of local “agents” and the intended availability of subscription payment by credit card through our website once the formal terms and conditions for e-trading have been finalised. As you will know, our new website has been launched and is subject to ongoing development. We are grateful to a number of ringers for their technical assistance on this project.

For many years, the paper has benefited from the Bellfounders Gift Page, whereby the cost of printing this page has been met by Whitechapel Bell Foundry Ltd and John Taylor Bellfounders Ltd. This arrangement formally ceased at the end of 2001 and is in course of being replaced by a new sponsorship deal with the two firms.

Our two senior employees, Paul Trend and Robert Lewis, continue to put in sterling service for the good of the paper. A large part of the additional work involved with the move of premises has fallen on Paul’s shoulders and he has undertaken this extra load willingly and effectively, as well as tending to his day by day tasks essential for the production of the paper. Robert continues to provide us with a quality paper and is totally dedicated to producing the best he can. To both of them, and to the many others who contribute in so many different ways to the continuing success of the paper, I offer my grateful thanks on behalf of my co-Directors, Company Members and our readers.

Maureen Frost, who has been on the Board since 1995, will not be eligible for re-election to the Board at the AGM as she has stood down from her membership of the Central Council. Maureen’s journalism background has enabled her to bring new ideas to the paper and we will miss her contribution to the Company’s affairs. Thank you Maureen, and best wishes for the future. Michael Henshaw also made it clear when he accepted the invitation to join the Board that he did not feel able to continue as a Director if he became Council President.

A note is being circulated setting out the skills, areas of expertise and level of commitment required of directors to assist Company Members in putting forward and considering candidates for election as directors.

The Ringing World, May 24, 2002, page 539