Central Council of Church Bell Ringers

Annual Report for 2005

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 2005 were as follows:

   Until 30th May	From 30th May
   President
   Dr M J deC Henshaw	Mr D E Sibson
   Vice-President
   Mr D E Sibson	Mr A P Smith
   Hon Secretary
   Mr I H Oram	Mr I H Oram
   Hon Treasurer
   Mr E G H Godfrey	Mr D Harbottle

3. The Council’s bankers are Lloyds TSB, Westminster House Branch, Dean Stanley Street, London, SW1P 3HU. Its Independent Examiners are Mr J D Cheesman and Mr R J Wallis.

4. At the close of the Annual General Meeting on 30th May 2005 the Council’s membership comprised 7 Life Members, 21 Honorary Members and 203 Representative Members representing 66 affiliated societies. Since then 7 Honorary Members retired and 9 who had been elected at that meeting took office; one Honorary Member is now a Representative Member; a vacancy in Representative Members has been filled and there have been two other changes in representation.

   Subject to any further changes, at the start of the 2006 Council meeting there will be 7 Life Members, 22 Honorary Members and 204 Representative Members.

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 matters 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 sixteen committees and by working groups appointed by them. Summaries of their activities during 2005 are given in the committee reports, which appear elsewhere on the Council’s agenda and are being published in the April 2006 issues of The Ringing World.

7. The Accounts for 2005 show Total Funds at the year end of £369,226, of which £196,414 is in Restricted Funds. The income for the year totalled £59,239, compared with £31,486 in 2004. 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 2006, 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 facilitate cash flow;

   (c) to enable the development of new projects and initiatives.

   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.

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 2006

CENTRAL COUNCIL OF CHURCH BELL RINGERS

Registered Charity Number 270036

Statement of Financial Activities for the year ended 31st December 2005

CENTRAL COUNCIL OF CHURCH BELL RINGERS

Registered Charity Number 270036

Balance Sheet as at 31st December 2005

Derek Harbottle
Hon Treasurer April 2006

CENTRAL COUNCIL OF CHURCH BELL RINGERS

Notes to the Accounts for the year ended 31st December 2005

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 Publications Fund to the General Fund.

2. £500 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 £66,947. The revaluation was undertaken by J M Farringdon as at December 2003 when the value was £67,600.The policy is to revalue the Collection every five years. It is being depreciated for accounting purposes at 2% per annum. 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 and CAF Charity Services Gold Account.

7 Ringing Roadshow 2005

8 Committee Expenses - General Fund

These were as follows

9 Grants

The Fred Dukes International Bell Fund awarded three grants totalling £3,395. One grant awarded in 2004 of £400 and one grant awarded in 2005 of £580 were paid during the year.

The Bell Restoration Fund awarded 27 grants totalling £22,220 in 2005. Two grants awarded in 2002 totalling £2,600, eight grants awarded in 2004 totalling £5,700 and one grant awarded in 2005 of £2,820 were paid in 2005.

10 Charitable Commitments

There were unfulfilled charitable commitments at 31st December 2005 in respect of 37 grants awarded but not yet paid by the Bell Restoration Fund of £30,100 and two grants awarded but not yet paid by the Fred Dukes International Bell Fund of £2,815.

11 Publications Fund

Storage and distribution cost of £1,700 was paid to Council members.

12 Payments to Trustees

There were no payments to Trustees.

13 Emoluments of Employees

The Council had no employees during the year.

14 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 5, 2006, pages 420 to 421

Public Relations Committee

The Committee has met three times during the year and set a range of projects to complete during the triennium.

The Council’s main public relations event Ringing Roadshow 2005 took place at Newbury Racecourse on 10th September and was organised by Peter Davies with Stuart Gibson, Cyril Lewington and Jon Chamberlain on behalf of the Public Relations Committee. The Public Relations Committee gratefully acknowledges the immense amount of time and effort generously given to the Newbury Roadshow by the Organising Team. 2,673 people visited the Roadshow, £5 was charged for entrance and a surplus of £4,000 was made. It therefore appears that the level of potential attendees has been gauged and that increasing the entrance fee to £5 was not off-putting. Film was shot of the Newbury Roadshow as a record for the Council library and for use in marketing future Roadshows. The possibility of making a DVD of this is being discussed. After receiving a range of feedback from people who attended (and some who did not explaining why they did not) a decision has been taken to go ahead with organising a future Roadshow, September has been established as the optimum month, and it is hoped that it will take place in 2007 in the middle of the country at a site with good road and rail access, although if more time is needed to achieve a successful outcome it may prove preferable to arrange a September 2008 Roadshow. An announcement about this will be made as soon as definite plans have been agreed.

A new Ringing Publicity Leaflet produced with considerable input from John Loveless nd Richard Offen was launched at the Ringing Roadshow. 50,000 copies were printed. 20,000 were distributed at the Roadshow and a further 18,000 have been sent out free-of-charge since (mostly by post). The leaflet has received much favourable comment. The leaflet Bells in Your Care (designed for use by incumbents and churchwardens to understand their responsibilities about their bell installations) continues to be available on request although stocks are low.

Website. Work has been done alongside the ICT Committee to develop the content of www.cccbr.org.uk including a redesigned front page using the same “housestyle” as the publicity leaflet. This will be launched shortly. It is also planned to launch a series of talks about ringing and photos of ringing in PowerPoint to download from www.cccbr.org.uk ready for use locally in giving talks and presentations about ringing to a range of groups. This will also be in the same style as the publicity leaflet, Learn to Ring. Personal responses to “Are You Interested in Learning to Ring” on http://www.ringingworld.co.uk have been given including a local contact. The database of contacts has been updated.

A Complaints Helpline with email and telephone contacts available on www.cccbr.org.uk and in the diary has been maintained and a list of local complaints advisers has been maintained. There have been seven requests for advice during the year.

The database of society contacts has been updated following a written request to all affiliated societies from the Secretary. The database now includes general secretary, district/branch secretaries, education officer, public relations officer as well as Central Council representatives, although many societies have yet to provide this information. The database aims to be a resource available to Council Officers and Committee Chairmen and is operated under the terms of the Data Protection Act. It is planned to produce a formal system database with a web front end which will allow access for appropriate people to view and update it only.

Ringing for the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II and the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar was supported by posters and certificates prepared by the Committee which were available to download from www.cccbr.org.uk. The Second World War anniversary ringing was supported by the Ministry of Defence and an article in the official handbook about the role of bells as a signal during wartime was written by Prebendary John Scott. The Trafalgar anniversary ringing was linked to the official celebrations coordinated by SeaBritain 2005. Richard Offen, acting as a consultant to the committee, worked closely with SeaBritain 2005 to develop an international ringing festival. 800 towers took part in England, Wales, Scotland, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the USA, the Falkland Islands, South Georgia, the Channel Islands and Malta. Royal Navy ships bells sounded at noon on Trafalgar Day around the world. A whole edition of The Ringing World reported this special ringing. There was good local radio coverage around the UK and a picture clip on two main BBC TV news broadcasts. Successful coverage in the media was also achieved in Australia and New Zealand. Many positive comments have been received from ringers about the lead taken by the committee in promoting ringing for these national celebrations. Ringers have been encouraged to ring at a locally convenient time on 21st April 2006 to celebrate the 80th birthday of HM The Queen, as well as on the Queen’s Official Birthday on 17th June and throughout the period between.

A Public Relations Workshop was held at Moulton in April 2005. This was well attended by ringers from around the country interested in public relations issues. A second workshop is planned for October 2006 and is likely to be held in the north midlands aimed at sharing good practice in achieving publicity for ringing.

Plans to develop contacts with university ringing societies are being formulated, especially with a view to promotional articles for The Ringing World.

A review of achieving greater coverage for ringing by broadcasting and the media generally is currently taking place and closer liaison with ringing public relations officers outside the British Isles is being developed. The Committee is able to offer an advice and support service by phone or email on potential broadcasting and press involvement in ringing.

A proposal to the 2012 London Olympic Committee to include bells and ringing is being drafted.

Work in liaising with other Council committees to discuss public relations issues has taken place, especially with the Education, the ICT and the Publications Committees.

Neil Donovan has been co-opted as a member of the committee with a specific remit of helping with organisation and representation for the North.

Information and Communications Technology Committee

The ICT Committee said goodbye to Andrew Craddock this year upon his election as Master of the Winchester & Portsmouth Guild. We are pleased that he has continued to contribute to our email discussions when they lie in his area of expertise. We welcomed Tina Stoecklin, who provides the Committee with valuable ICT experience, especially in the development and maintenance of websites.

The Council’s website has grown significantly in recent time to its current size of more than 150 pages and documents, including the webpages and publications of eleven of the Council’s committees. This amount of information requires a significant amount of maintenance and updating which is performed mostly by Peter Trotman, with backup from Tina Stoecklin and technical advice from Don Morrison. Peter has redeveloped the website to make it more accessible to people with disabilities. He has also made some enhancements to simplify both its maintenance and future development.

Electronic resources are becoming increasingly important in supporting the Exercise. We are encouraging individuals who have developed such resources to consider how their work can continue to be of value in the event of the individuals’ incapacity.

Consequently we have been taking steps to encourage all of the Council’s committees to transfer their webpages to the CCCBR server. To date this has been achieved for five committees, with the exception of some facilities which depend on complex databases. These include the Felstead Peal Records and the Peal Compositions Collection, which will require database software not available from our current ISP without a significant increase in cost.

Whilst these steps will reduce the risk of loss of the current data (or program files in the case of ringing software), we are also encouraging the current owners to document the processes (and programming tools) by which the resources are maintained.

In addition, the Education and Ringing Trends Committees have recently asked us for on-line applications that will also require server facilities and software not available from our current ISP without more expense. This has led us to reconsider the hosting arrangements for the website. Although our current provider has given us excellent reliability for the past five years, its price has not kept pace with the improvements seen elsewhere. Consequently we have researched the availability and cost of the web server and software facilities which we will need for projects of the complexity described above, and which will provide flexibility for our future needs.

Our current expectation is that we will shortly select a contract with a supplier which will immediately give us a significant increase in web storage space, together with database facilities, and which will in due course allow us to upgrade to a more flexible environment known as a virtual private server (VPS). This will allow us to install the additional software we will need, as and when we are able to digest it. Thanks to competitive pressures and the continuing improvement in price-performance of computer hardware this will probably cost less than we are spending today. However, for safety’s sake, we will continue with our current supplier in parallel for the time being, which will incur additional expense in the interim.

The Central Council website is intended to be the primary source of information for ringers about the Council and its activities. We are aware that this sometimes makes it unfriendly for non-ringers to use, even though we have evidence that many non-ringers access the site for information. Once the website has been successfully transferred to a new server we will work with the PR Committee to create a better gateway for non-ringers. This is a part of an ongoing usability audit of the Council’s website.

We have continued in one of our primary roles in terms of supporting other committees, for instance in terms of making available publicity materials for events such as the 60th anniversary of the end of WWII and the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar.

We have worked for some time with the Peals Analysis Committee with the hosting of the Felstead Peal records on the web. It has been agreed that Andrew Craddock will transfer the Felstead data from Don Morrison’s facilities to a UK-based commercial web server as an interim measure until the CCCBR website is moved to a new server with the necessary database support. Andrew and Bill Hibbert are working together to restart the weekly feeds of peal data from The Ringing World needed to keep the Felstead data current, these having been stopped after the AGM. We are looking into ways quickly to process the resulting backlog. Mike Till has helped deal with a steady flow of queries about the Felstead data throughout the year with the aim of improving the accuracy of the information that it holds.

Don Morrison has already moved the database and access code for the Peal Compositions Collection from his own web server system to a commercial server to improve its availability. We intend that after the CCCBR acquires the Virtual Private Server facilities discussed above this facility will be incorporated into the CCCBR website to provide for future continuity of this resource. For the same reason, Don is documenting the procedures he uses to maintain the Collection.

Methods Committee

The Methods Committee held two meetings during the year, in Kensal Green on 6 March and in Winchester on 2 October (RW p.1050).

The definitive method collections on the Committee’s website (www.methods.org.uk) continue to be updated on a weekly basis. In response to customer feedback, the summary tenors-together falseness that is shown in the printed collection Rung Surprise, Delight, Treble Bob and Alliance methods has been added to the online collections. The online archive was extended to include the Committee’s reports to Council since the Committee was first appointed in 1899.

Our two motions to tidy up the major revision to the Decisions on Methods and Method Extension that had been agreed the previous year were passed at the Council meeting at Harrogate.

A new edition of Rung Surprise, Delight, Treble Bob and Alliance methods containing methods rung to the end of 2004 was available at the Council meeting and we will be preparing a Supplement covering the methods rung during 2005.

We welcomed many visitors to our stand at the Ringing Roadshow in Newbury, where we demonstrated our online method collections, answered questions about methods, and, thanks to the Publications Committee, sold around twenty copies of the Committee’s publications.

A draft of the proposed XML specification for exchanging method information between computer applications was made available for public comment and we are grateful for comments received from Gary Howard and Ben Willetts and further comments from Martin Bright and Richard Smith. There will be a further draft before the specification is finalised. Work has continued on the new edition of the Collection of Doubles Methods.

We were invited by the Ringing World Office to suggest changes to the methods in The Ringing World Diary. In turn, we invited comment from the readers in a letter to the RW (p.1186) and are grateful for comments received from Gerry Bacon, A J Barnfield, Jon Chamberlain, Ian Davies, Angus Gray, Graham Hall, Alec Humphrey, Julia Lysaght and John Thompson. We will be making suggestions for changes in the 2007 Diary and hope to be able to make further suggestions in the future.

As usual, we have answered many enquiries about methods, method names and method extension.

At the Council meeting Andrew Alldrick and Stef Warboys stood down, having served on the Committee for six years and three years respectively. We are grateful for their contributions to the Committee’s work and welcomed Philip Earis and Robin Woolley in their place.

Report of the Steward of the Rolls of Honour

The two books are in good condition and continue to be on display below the ringing room in St. Paul’s Cathedral.

ANDREW STUBBS

Ringing Centres Committee

The Founders Prize competition continues to be organised as before and in 2005 the fifth such prize has been awarded. The new Founders Prize for the Encouragement of Young People had it’s first winner. The Committee’s main task for the future will continue to be increasing the network of ringing centres and new ways are being considered to further this aim. Roger Booth has been working with other ringing centres on a new project called Teaching Best Practice.

Founders Prize for Ringing Centres

The Founders Prize for the ringing centre which made the greatest contribution to the teaching of ringing in 2004 was presented to The Cinque Ports Ringing Centre in Dover. The presentation of the £500 cheque and a bronze plaque was made at the ringing centre by the Master of the Worshipful Company of Founders. The judges in this competition were Christine Baldock, Roger Booth, Alan Frost and Ernie Runciman. The other contenders for the Prize were Aston Clinton, Barrow upon Humber, Gordon Halls Centre at Eckington and The Troyte Centre at Bampton. Winners in the previous five years are not eligible to compete.

Founders Prize for the Encouragement of Young People

The first year of the new competition took place for a £500 prize about the encouragement of young people in ringing. This prize is also provided by the Worshipful Company of Founders. There were six entries - Lincoln D.G. (West Lindsey Branch), Thurlaston, Wethersfield and Finchingfield, Campton, Chester D.G. (East Cheshire Branch) and Winchester Cathedral. Some of these provided some very strong competition but the clear winner was Wethersfield and Finchingfield. The judges were representatives from the CC Education, Ringing Centres and PR Committees, the Vice-President of the Council and Andrew Gillett from the Worshipful Company of Founders. This competition is not specifically to do with ringing centres but for convenience is managed by the Ringing Centres Committee.

Thanks are due to Christine Baldock for managing both competitions.

Increasing the Network

There are still only 40 ringing centres of which 36 are CC Recognised. The original target of 25 centres was passed with the aid of grants from The Worshipful Company of Founders, but since then things have been more or less static. Now enquiries about setting up ringing centres are being made and this is probably due to the improved image of ringing centres created by Ringing World publicity and through the good work of the ringing centres themselves. However despite this interest, only one new ringing centre has actually been set up since the end of the Founders grants, The Yorkshire Dales Ringing Centre at Settle, North Yorkshire and it will shortly apply for CC Recognition.

The Committee has a long term vision of several hundred ringing centres. Our medium term aim is to achieve 100 ringing centres. The 2005 Ringing Roadshow was used to further this aim with displays, literature and a publicity package. The Committee also produced a brochure which will be used by Committee members in encouraging associations, branches and groups to set up ringing centres.

Teaching Best Practice

The Ringing Centres Conference in the Autumn of 2004 discussed ways of expanding the network of ringing centres. There was general agreement that we need to be able to offer something in addition to the current package. There was also agreement that spreading best practice was one of our principal functions. The outcome of this meeting was that we would try and develop an integrated recruitment and training package, not only for use in ringing centres, but also in any tower that wished to use it.

This package would exploit the latest technology, particularly the internet. In the last 18 months a pilot DVD “basic change ringing” has been produced to demonstrate what we have in mind. About 100 copies have been produced and circulated throughout the world for comment. Comments have been posted on our website www.learn2ring.com.

From the comments received it is clear that there is a tremendous need and demand for our recruitment and training package. Whilst it will take several years to produce the complete package, the software needed is now widely available and much more user friendly than it was even five years ago. What we do need is to find more volunteers to help with its development. We are collaborating with several other committees and the project will be discussed at this year’s ringing centres conference at Warwick on 11th November.

In the next year we will be investigating obtaining grants from bodies such as the Lottery, in order to have the final versions of the package made professionally.

Bell Restoration Committee

The Committee met five times in 2005; in February, June, October and November in London and in May during the Council weekend at Harrogate. At the Council meeting nine committee members were re-elected, and one new member elected, bringing the committee, briefly, back to full strength. Peter Bennett did not seek re-election.

During the autumn David Kingman ceased to be a member of Council, and therefore of the Committee. We thank Peter and David for the contribution they made to the work of the BRC during the preceding three years. We hope to fill the vacancy on the committee at the 2006 Council; we would particularly welcome someone with professional fund-raising expertise.

2005 Ringing Roadshow

From the point of view of the Bell Restoration Committee, we had a good day with a lot of visitors and were pleased with our location. David Kelly from the Keltek Trust, was also on hand to offer advice.

Visitors took away over 100 of the committee leaflets. The wooden jigsaw “The Bell Tower at Evesham” was a great attraction and we sold all 51 jigsaws we had with us and took orders for another 20 or so. Our quiz raised a further £114 for the CC Bell Restoration Fund. However, our main aim was not to make money but to engage with people, and we certainly achieved that. So a success for us.

Provision of Information and Advice

During the year we revised the publication Organising a Bell Restoration Project and copies of the new edition will be on sale at the 2006 Council meeting.

Forty-three parishes were in contact with us with regard to fund raising, thirty-eight of them being new enquirers. The latter were sent a fund-raising pack. In addition, third parties made enquiries on behalf of three further parishes. We were also pleased to answer a number of more general queries on subjects ranging from where, in a Parish Holy Communion Service, was the best position for a bell’s dedication to whether or not to establish a separate charity for a bell restoration project.

During 2005 we received twenty-six Funderfinder enquiries and made searches on behalf of fifteen projects. Feedback indicates that something in excess of £10,000 was received in grants by various projects during the year as a result of these searches (this is in addition to funding from bell restoration trusts e.g. ringers’ guilds, Manifold, CCBRF etc.).

Administration of Funds

The Manifold Trust offered five grants totalling £21,000 during the year. The Committee assists the Trust by the provision of administrative support.

Applications were invited for grants from the Central Council BRF. The total amount available for distribution was £19,400, mainly due to two anonymous donations, for which we are very grateful. Thirty-five applications were received; not all the applicants were successful. The following grants were approved: Bampton (Oxon) £300; Bolton by Bowland £300; Bridgerule £500; Buxton (Norfolk) £600; Campton £1,100; Chadlington £900; Cheltenham, St. Mark £1,400; Cherington (Warwicks.) £1,000; Eldersfield £1,400; Hopton £1,400; Johannesburg, All Saints £900; Lillington (Warwicks.) £600; Mold £500; Orton-on-the-Hill £100; Plymouth - Compton Gifford £400; Prestwold £300; Puttenham £1,300; Rosscarbery £1,400; Shaftesbury, St. James £700; Sheffield - Walkley £900; Sutton Cheney £400; Thurgarton £600; Tickenham £600; Weston super Mare, St. John £1,000; Whitwick £500; Winford £300.

As agreed at the Council meetings in 1997 and 1998 the criteria for allocating grants and loans are attached to this report. There are no recommendations for changes.

In accordance with the terms of the Fund, the Fred E. Dukes International Bell Fund offered the following grants: Australia: St. Saviour’s Cathedral, Goulburn, NSW - £580; South Africa: Chapel Tower, St. Andrew’s College, Grahamstown - £540; Canada: Cathedral of Holy Trinity, Quebec - £2,275

Future Work

As well as continuing with our “business as usual” contacts with those who approach us for help, there is other new work planned for the immediate future:

• We are currently reviewing the new rules relating to Gift Aid, Day Membership and Open Days, and a note will shortly be published on the CC website and in The Ringing World.

• We are maintaining a list of any changes affecting the booklet Organising a Bell Restoration Project and updated versions will be published, or annexes substituted as often as is practical.

• The committee has undertaken to provide photographs and text for the 2007 Ringing World Calendar which will feature churches that have been assisted by the committee, or have received Manifold or Central Council BRF grants.

• A set of user-friendly guidance notes on applying for Landfill Tax funding will be drawn up and published on the BRC web pages.

• We intend to make greater efforts to get feedback on how completed projects raised funds. This should ensure that our advice continues to be up to date.

Criteria for allocating CCBRF grants and loans

1.0 Applications will be considered for the following:

1.1 Restoration or augmentation work to existing bell installations, or the provision of new bell installations, in any country in the World where the bells are, or are to be, hung for full circle ringing.

1.2 Costs of structural and other ancillary work integral to the bell installation will be considered when these are in addition to work on the bell installation.

1.3 Loans or guarantees (when funds allow) to the bell restoration funds (BRFs) of societies affiliated to the Central Council, where the trustees may wish to make offers or promises of future grants in excess of the money currently available in their funds.

2.0 Offers of grants, loans or guarantees will normally be made from the Fund only if:

2.1 Support and approval for the project are to be given by the local ringing society, and

2.2 Support and approval for the project are given by the PCC or other appropriate authority, and

2.3 There is in place an existing band of ringers or the project plans include a firm commitment to recruit and train a band, and

2.4 Consideration has been given to the need to include any form of sound control within the project specification.

Priorities

3.0 Priority will normally be given to applications as follows:

3.1 Highest priority applications will be for churches ineligible for grants from the Manifold Trust.

3.2 High priority will be given where there is an existing band of ringers and the bells are in imminent danger of becoming unringable.

3.3 For augmentations priority will be given to projects to restore or provide a ring of 5 or 6 bells.

3.4 Projects with a total cost of less than £5,000 will have low priority.

Administration and Operation

4.0 The Bell Restoration Committee (BRC) will be responsible for administering the Fund. It will normally operate as follows:

4.1 Grants, loans and guarantees will be allocated after advertising in The Ringing World, and elsewhere if appropriate, for applications to be made. Offers will be made and will remain open for two years and then lapse. No payment of a grant will be made until the work has been carried out satisfactorily and the bill presented. The intention is for money in the fund to be used rather than accumulated, but no offers of grants, loans or guarantees will be made if no suitable applications are received.

4.2 As far as possible a balance will be struck so that grants, loans and guarantees are spread geographically and socially, and in proportion to the types of applications received, spread of centres of ringing and any other relevant factors. Also a balance will be struck among grants, loans and guarantees in approximate proportion to the requests received, but with each batch of applications assessed on their own merits.

4.3 Loans or guarantees will be subject to written agreements, with repayments unlikely to be over a greater period than two years, although shorter periods will be encouraged. The BRF’s ability to repay will be assessed before any loans or guarantees are offered. It is not intended that interest will be charged.

4.4 The BRC may consult as necessary before offering any grant, loan or guarantee, including inviting comment from other parties, such as the local society affiliated to the Central Council.

4.5 Appeals against decisions of the Bell Restoration Committee will be determined by the Trustees of the Central Council. Such appeals must be made in writing to the Secretary of the Central Council within 3 months of the initial decision being made and the Trustees will then consider the application afresh.

Publications Committee

Six new publications were produced during the year. They were Rules and Decisions 2004, Getting it Right, Splicing Bell Ropes, 10 Bell Compositions, 12+ Bell Compositions, and Rung Surprise Supplement (to end 2004).

Twelve titles were reprinted: Raising and Lowering, Beginners Grandsire, Beginners Plain Bob, Triples and Major for Beginners, Ringing Circles, Listen to Ringing CD 1, Listen to Ringing CD 2, Service Touches, Conducting Stedman, One Way to Teach Handling, Teaching Beyond Bell Handling, and the DVD.

Bulk discounts were offered in March as usual, but it was decided not to make any special offers at Christmas. Advertisements were again placed in a number of Society reports. Our pricing policy was reviewed during the year and no change was found to be necessary. We attended the Roadshow at Newbury. Selling was brisk all day and we took over £3,000. We offer our grateful thanks to Pat Sewell for transporting stock from Morpeth; and to Pat, Judy Couperthwaite and Sue Jones for helping to run the stand during the day.

Income from sales rose to £15,000, and the stock write-off provision now stands at £2,800. The value of stock remained at £5,600. The fund remained in a very healthy state, with an increased excess of income over expenditure of £3,500. A transfer of £10,000 was made to the General Fund after which, at year end, cash in hand totalled £8,700.

Derek Harbottle left the Committee and we thank him for all his hard work as our Treasurer. We are pleased that he remains closely involved with our financial affairs as CC Treasurer.

Stocklist at December 31st 2005

The Ringing World, April 7, 2006, pages 323 to 325 and 338 to 339

Committee for Redundant Bells

It seems that even redundant churches have now been overtaken by political correctness: it is recommended that in future they should be known as churches closed for public worship. Be that as it may, during 2005 a further nine churches joined the ranks of those declared redundant under the Pastoral Measure 1983, bringing the total since the Pastoral Measure 1968 came into effect to 1665. This was a slight surprise; since the number predicted for 2005 was 22, compared with 31 in 2004, and 34 in 2003. While this is a welcome blip, the Church Commissioners are convinced that redundancies will continue at twenty to thirty a year for the foreseeable future, pointing at some dioceses which are reviewing pastoral provision: Chichester’s major Brighton and Hove review is currently a case in point. Set against this, however, it should be remembered that over the life time of the Pastoral Measure about 550 new churches have been opened.

The Toyne Report, which reviewed the Pastoral Measure among other things, and to which the Committee gave written evidence, has suggested some alterations to Pastoral Measure provisions, including an amendment to facilitate the leasing of part of a church still in use. This is aimed at keeping churches in use which might otherwise become redundant, and should have positive implications for bells. We are less happy about the Report’s recommendation to abolish the Advisory Board for Redundant Churches.

So far there has been no alteration in the Council for the Care of Churches’ advice on the use of bell substitutes, even though the Code of Practice, reprinted in 2002, still states that imitations of bells are strongly deprecated. Time only will tell how many bells will become unnecessarily redundant because of it; and we hope that, even now, wiser counsels may prevail.

We are awaiting the arrival of the Church Commissioners’ latest list of redundancies to begin a fresh round of updating details of redundant churches to the associations.

It was a combination of this work with perceptions of possibilities during the Millennium Bells project that led to the original proposal of a national bell register. Although it was agreed at the 2003 Council meeting that John Baldwin’s work in incorporating bell details into the database underlying Dove would not be a stand alone official Council project, as indicated at the time he has continued to work on it and significant progress has now been made. It should be stressed that this work has been done at no cost whatsoever to the Council, and with the active encouragement of the Council for the Care of Churches whose officials have been kept carefully informed. In turn they have made their lists of bells identified for preservation available so that this information can be shown alongside the other details. At the time of drafting this report, information on 9000 bells is showing, with more being added on an almost daily basis: the coverage is almost at 20% of the total number of rings of 3 or more. The objective of 100% coverage is, however, several years away yet, as this is a vast project.

We are grateful to the Church Commissioners, the Council for the Care of Churches, and the Advisory Board for their help and kindness; and to David Kelly, consultant to the Committee, and the Keltek Trust for their magnificent work in re housing bells which might otherwise be lost.

We were sorry that Philip Watts, Committee Chairman until 2005, and Jason Hughes did not seek re-election at Harrogate, and we thank them for their work for the Committee.

Education Committee

The committee met three times, once at Braunston and twice at Wellesbourne. Giles Blundell and Mike Winterbourne stood down from the committee and Simon Linford, Martin Mansley and Pip Penney were elected at the Council meeting, leaving eleven members for twelve places.

Courses - The committee delivered two courses for local societies (on conducting and on teaching call changes). A planned listening course was postponed until early 2006.

Publications and resources - During 2005, the committee published Getting it right - Guidance for Officers of Ringing Societies. We also sponsored Splicing Bell Ropes Illustrated by Frank Beech. The third volume of The Learning Curve was almost complete at the year end. The committee’s video tape Bellhandling - a Tutor’s Companion was republished in DVD format, with assistance from Philip Mehew. Work on the the new book for beginners made good progress, and should be published during 2006.

Simulator - Loan of the simulator continues, but at a low level. The simulator may be borrowed for evaluation or training courses by contacting Heather Peachey.

Network for Ringing Training (NRT) - The network that we set up in 2001 to focus on the needs of trainers remains active. Membership is over 450 and the discussion list is used by about half of the members, with indexed summaries made available to all members by e-mail (or post for members without e-mail).

Training Young People - In September, we published our final report in The Ringing World, with recommendations for towers, ringing centres and societies. It is available on our website.

Framework for Training Ringers - We announced the new Framework for Training Ringers at the Ringing Roadshow, and invited pilot users to try to apply it in their local context. A dozen people volunteered to take part and provide feedback early in 2006.

Dissemination - We have been working with Publications Committee and Public Relations Committee to find ways to disseminate educational information more effectively to those ringers that it currently doesn’t reach, but who could benefit from it. We wrote a successful series of articles in The Ringing World, to promote The Tower Handbook.

Future plans - We are developing a collection of practical resources to help tower captains run varied, stimulating and effective practices, and a book relating research on learning to the training of ringers. We are developing an innovative approach to mentored development of conductors.

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 and individuals by whatever means is most effective.

Our thanks go to people outside the committee who help with our work.

Peal Compositions Committee

The committee currently holds no face to face meetings, but is in regular electronic contact via email. We are grateful to Roger Bailey and Michael Wilby who agreed to be co-opted after the Council meeting.

The committee continues to produce regular pages of compositions for publication in The Ringing World. Selecting (and, at times, soliciting) suitable compositions has resulted in pages which have covered a wide range of methods and complexity as well as special themes e.g. for the Trafalgar bicentenary. Pages have been published at a healthy rate of approximately one per month.

The committee also continues work on several new print collections. The Stedman Caters and Cinques collection and Handbell collection are progressing well but are highly labour-intensive and completion is still some way off. Work on a new Spliced Minor Collection has been begun with the aim of bringing together old and new material in one volume.

The on-line collection currently contains nearly 4,000 peal compositions, and continues to be frequently consulted by a wide variety of users. It can be visited through the committee’s web page at

https://cccbr.org.uk/pcc
or directly by pointing a browser at
http://www.ringing.org/peals

The Ringing World, April 14, 2006, pages 347 to 348

Ringing Trends Committee

The five members of the new Committee were elected at the Council meeting at Harrogate in 2005 and two meetings of the Committee were held during the year.

The Trends Working Group had undertaken a certain amount of preliminary work during the previous year and the Committee used this as a starting point. It was intended that the main survey would be carried out over a number of years and the questionnaire that would be used was discussed at some length and has been expanded and reworked. The aim of the questionnaire is to find out how many ringers there are throughout the world, whether numbers are increasing or declining and whether there is a definite trend towards an ageing ringing population. Other questions aim to gather accurate information about numbers of people learning to ring and wastage levels. Overall the plan is to provide a definitive picture of the general state of the ringing exercise.

It was agreed that a pilot study would be used to test the questionnaire in the areas where the members of the Committee live. The areas involved are the Essex Association, Guildford Guild, Salisbury Guild and North Staffs Association and questionnaires would be forwarded to the towers in these associations as early as possible in 2006. This is intended to be mainly a paper exercise although questionnaires will be circulated electronically as far as possible. Once the questionnaires have been returned and analysed a final version will be prepared that can then be rolled out to specific areas using a phased four year programme.

An article was published in The Ringing World in September 2005, which explained the aims of the new Committee.

In addition it was decided that a questionnaire for individuals to complete would be handed out at the Ringing Roadshow at Newbury. This was publicised in The Ringing World article.

The questionnaire was similar to that used at the Keele Roadshow with the intention of drawing as many comparisons as possible. The response was good with completed questionnaires continuing to arrive for some weeks after the Roadshow. The findings from this first survey will be published in The Ringing World when the analysis has been completed.

Towers and Belfries Committee

Two of our longer serving members decided not to stand for election at the last triennium elections, and we thank Hugh Pettifer and Phil Watts for the time they have given the Committee during their membership. New blood came in the form of William Jones, Andy Preston and Hugh Routh, and we welcome them. Although a new member of the Committee, William was not a new face. We had come to know him well through the development assistance he had given Harry Windsor previously with the tower monitoring equipment.

The Committee met three times during the past year, twice at Evesham and once in London. Throughout the year members have carried out inspections, provided reports and given advice on bell installations, following a formal request for such from each PCC.

Advice has been given in some cases where no inspection was required. The Committee has to carry Personal Accident insurance to protect its members in case of injury during such inspections, but this insurance is a burden on the Council finances. From February 2006 it has been agreed that in addition to the member’s personal expenses, a charge of £10 per inspection shall be made of behalf of the Council to cover the cost of this insurance.

A number of technical and other matters have been discussed during the year. The most significant technical aspect has been the tower monitoring programme. The new 4-channel equipment was demonstrated at the 2005 Council Meeting and impressed all who saw it there. This equipment was developed and constructed entirely by Towers & Belfries Committee members. Its construction had only been completed hours before the demonstration - but it worked perfectly. For the first time it is now possible to monitor and measure movement in all four walls of a tower concurrently when excited by a moving bell. The data is logged via a laptop computer and the results are produced graphically and numerically. The results are still subject to analysis through human scrutiny and experience in the form of principally Harry Windsor, although William Jones and more-recently Andy Preston are now beginning to assist with this part.

There has been an evaluation period for this new version of the equipment - as there has been for the staff involved with it - but this has been relatively short and convincing results are being obtained. Sometimes the results contain peculiarities that encourage further investigation, as this may lead to discovering some hitherto unknown aspect of tower behaviour under dynamic conditions, but the time expended on this has to be weighed against the need to undertake “bread-and-butter” monitoring surveys on towers where movement is known to be excessive and rehanging work is dependent on our results. Having more people involved with the work and with a second monitoring unit due to be completed soon, we will be better placed in future to undertake both basic monitoring work and some research and development work in parallel.

The Committee’s tower measuring equipment is currently the most advanced equipment available to measure tower movement derived from bells, and because of this demand for investigations is increasing. Surveys have been carried out at five towers and a demonstration of the equipment to Committee members took place at Evesham Bell Tower. Measurement work in a tower normally takes about two hours, but the subsequent analysis still takes some time. It is hoped to demonstrate the equipment in a Leicester tower during the 2006 Council Meeting weekend.

Sound Control, both internal and external, continues to be considered. Recent instances have included increasing sound: externally, following complaints of inaudibility, usually subsequent to a rehang where the new frame is positioned lower in the tower; and internally, to allow ringers greater clarity between bells to aid good striking. Major tower work can alter sound channels and cause, or stop, reverberations. The character of a ring of bells can be changed significantly by such work and the probable effects on audibility should be considered before starting.

The closure of John Pritchard (Ropes) Limited caused generally longer waiting times for delivery of bellropes, and this situation was discussed and is being monitored. Happily, delivery times appear to be shortening.

There has been some discussion on the revision of criteria for listing bells and bellframes for preservation, as proposed by the Council for the Care of Churches. A series of consultations with interested parties has been held with the CCC, at which the T&B Committee was represented. Some minor changes to the Code of Practice may be required. The CCC has now transcribed the Diocesan lists to electronic format to improve their availability.

The section relating to bells in the de minimis lists recommended by the Association of Diocesan Chancellors for unified use in English dioceses was discussed. However, it appears a number of these dioceses are reluctant to adopt them.

The Committee continues a willingness to run courses on belfry maintenance, though only one such was requested in 2005.

The Committee’s stand at the Ringing Roadshow received a number of queries on various technical aspects. The Chairman took part in a “Gardeners’ Question Time” type of seminar on belfry maintenance matters, along with those “hereditary peers” of the bell-trade world, Alan Hughes and Brian White. We were told it went down well!

Although the proposed Tower Stewardship Committee is soon to take Health & Safety matters under its wing, the Towers & Belfries Committee continues to monitor H&S and contribute input to the new committee in the interim. Although the ringing Exercise is a long way behind in meeting H&S requirements, as demonstrated at a seminar given by the T&B Chairman to Council members at the 2005 Meeting, the increasing number of H&S enquiries received indicates that this important subject is beginning to be taken much more seriously. In many cases this is because PCCs are being forced by H&S laws and their insurers to undertake risk assessments and introduce clearly-defined procedures. More than a few ringers will no doubt be shocked and disappointed to find that PCC jurisdiction and responsibility extends throughout the tower and to all actions within.

The Committee’s web-site continues to display useful data and documents. This includes the annually updated Ringable/ Unringable Towers table, which is our contribution to the Ringing Trends Committee’s monitoring work.

The Committee continues to be part of the Central Council liaison group that meets twice-yearly with English Heritage and with the Council for the Care of Churches.

The Ringing World, April 14, 2006, pages 349

Rescue Fund for Redundant Bells

The full name of the charity is:- CENTRAL COUNCIL OF CHURCH BELL RINGERS RESCUE FUND FOR REDUNDANT BELLS

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.

The principal address of the Charity is that of the secretary namely:- 8 LEBANON GARDENS, LONDON SW18 1RG.

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.

The Managing Trustees of the Fund are the members of the Central Council of Church Bell Ringers Committee for Redundant Bells namely:-

The Revd. Dr. J. C. Baldwin
A. R. Aspland
R. J. Cooles
A. J. Frost
J. Newman
The Revd Preb J. G. M. Scott
Mrs P. M. Wilkinson
The Chairman of the Fund is: The Revd. Preb. J. G. M. Scott
The Honorary Secretary is: R. J. Cooles
The Honorary Treasurer is: The 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 Bell Ringers and the Chairman of the Central Council of Church Bell Ringers Bell Restoration Committee namely:

D. E. Sibson
I. H. Oram
D. Harbottle
Mrs. K. Flavell

The Managing Trustees’ report of the Fund’s activities for the year ended 31st December 2005 is as follows:-

There were no calls on the Fund this year.

The Managing Trustees have kept in touch with the Keltek Trust to look for ways of the two Rescue Funds complimenting each other in helping to ensure the appropriate use of redundant bells in bell restoration and installation schemes. No offer of funding that has been made has actually been taken up - either because circumstances have prevented the scheme from going ahead as planned or more happily because fund raising has been more successful than anticipated and funding from this Fund has not been necessary. The Managing Trustees have hoped that making the facility that the Fund can offer more widely known would result in funds being taken up; there are now two potential schemes for using the Fund for acquiring redundant bells to form a ring of bells at a tower that has not had bells previously.

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

The accounts for 2005 are set out separately.

R. J. COOLES
Hon Secretary

Rescue Fund for Redundant Bells

Registered Charity No 278816

Note:
The Council’s main fund is holding the sum of £5000 from the J Kershaw bequest on behalf of the Fund.

J. C. BALDWIN
7th January 2006

Biographies Committee

The Committee met once at Derby in August. At this meeting, we assessed what our aims were for the coming year and each member of the Committee was given a specific job (or jobs!) to do. We sorted through the various files to find out exactly which of the former and present members of the Council have filled in forms and/or supplied photographs. Some of the forms and photos we have are very out of date. It was suggested at the last Council meeting that there should be a page on the Central Council website with a biography form that members could download. This has been done, with help from Peter Trotman. The next step is to put a list of members whose records are out of date, or who have never supplied any information, on the website, to encourage them to download a form and send it in. As a result of comments made by various ringers, the form has had some additions to it in the past year.

Several Committee members have been occupied in putting Tom Lock’s records on to computer. One member has searched through the Council minute books to record which Committees members have served on in the past. Further efforts have been made to persuade those who have not filled in forms and/or supplied photographs to do so. It is very disappointing that some of the people who work so hard on other Committees refuse to supply information to our Committee, making our task that much more difficult.

The deaths of the following two former members have already been reported to the Council:

• David John Buckley, Bath & Wells Association (1981-2004) attended 24 meetings, died 18th April 2005.

• Frank Courtney Price, Oxford Diocesan Guild (1966-1971) attended 5 meetings, died 16th May 2005.

The following seven former members have died since the last meeting:

• Reginald George Powell, Hereford Diocesan Guild (1972-1995) attended 21 meetings, died 6th June 2005.

• Raymond Overy, Sussex County Association (1957-1962) attended 2 meetings, died 13th June 2005.

• Philip Herbert Reynolds, Lincoln Diocesan Guild (1970-1977) attended 8 meetings, died 11th September 2005.

• Trevor Noel John Bailey, Suffolk Guild (1967-1989) attended 19 meetings, died 12th October 2005.

• Edward Martin, Swansea & Brecon Guild (1981-1982) attended no meetings, died 30th October 2005.

• David Ernest Parsons, Guildford Diocesan Guild (1972-1989) attended 18 meetings, died 11th November 2005.

• William Parrott, Surrey County Association (1963-1967) attended 5 meetings, died 19th December 2005.

Library Committee

The Library Committee met three times in 2005, at Thatcham on 13th March, Hereford on 10th July and New Malden on 12th November. This is the first report of the triennium and of the new Committee. At the first meeting Mike Davies was elected as Chairman, following the decision of Bill Butler not to seek re-election to the Committee. Bill is a very hard act to follow, having served for many years as a very active and distinguished Chairman. The Committee sought to recognise this and at their November meeting agreed to offer Bill life membership of the Friends of the Library. We are pleased that he has accepted the offer. John Eisel continues as Library Steward following his election at the last Council meeting. Chris Ridley was re-elected Secretary/Treasurer, Jean Sanderson continues her valuable work in charge of the Friends of the Library, and Paul Johnson as Webmaster is to continue as coordinator for the Bell News enterprise.

The Bell News Project has been the predominant theme in the work of the Committee this year. A major feature of the prodigious amount of work being carried out by Paul Johnson has been working with the index, ensuring correct matching between the index and the text. This is not made any easier by such features in the original issues as consecutive pages sometimes having the same numbers and the use of Roman numerals in the numbering of some pages, bearing in mind that there are 142,439 index references! This work is progressing well and the project is now moving towards its final stages.

Since the last Central Council meeting, and at the time of writing, 41 acquisitions have been made by the Library. These reflect the two essential aspects of the operation of the library: as a collection of historical published artefacts and also as a holder of recently published ringing literature, all accessible to ringers. In this context, members of the Committee contributed to the Newsletter for the Friends of the Central Council Library. The Friends also received a copy of the 13th Essay about James Corrigan and his publications on Surprise methods written by John Eisel.

The Library was well represented at the Ringing Roadshow at a stall looked after by Committee members. There was significant interest in the work of the Library as judged by the large number of enquiries which kept members busy.

The Ringing World, April 14, 2006, page 362

Records Committee

Correction

The first known peal of Erin Cinques rung in hand has proved to be false. The only other performance that has been found so far was a 5003 on August 10th 2004 for the Society of Cambridge Youths. This performance is now the first recognised peal unless a true earlier one can be found.

During the year there has been some correspondence about the types of calls used in record peals. The current remit is to record the longest peals in methods, and under the current decisions there is no differentiation based on the types of calls used. This question arose after the figures for the peal of London Surprise Major rung at Spitalfields were published. After discussions with some of those who ring records, we have concluded that this is not something that should be formalised at this time. With details of both current and previous records available on the website (www.cccbr.org.uk/records) individuals can look and decide for themselves if they feel that the composition for a shorter length is more acceptable.

Administrative Committee

Since the 2005 Council meeting the Committee has met twice in London, in October and March. The arrangements for the 2006 Council meeting were discussed and agreed; the Committee has continued its practice of reviewing the work of Council Committees and received presentations from the Information and Communications Technology and Ringing Centres Committees; among other matters considered were the following:

Telecommunications Equipment in Churches - few proposals for QS4 installations had been notified over the past year. It was understood that the take-up of 3G phones was considerably less than had been anticipated and also that the contractors were finding buildings other than churches for their equipment. It was agreed that there seemed no need to set up a group to monitor developments.

Felstead index cards - the Library Committee had agreed with David Dearnley that the cards would go to alternative storage in New Malden. It was hoped that any other additional storage could similarly be accommodated in members’ homes, to avoid the costs of industrial storage. Several people commented on the care needed for the storage of valuable books, such as constant temperatures, etc.

Ringing Alliances - following the acceptance in principle at the meeting, the Officers had agreed that Geldrop should be invited and the Committee agreed also to invite the Transvaal Society since that Society no longer had sufficient members to remain affiliated.

Tower Stewardship Committee - two members of the working group met with Ecclesiastical Insurance Group (EIG) in October. There was considerable concern about compliance with Health and Safety requirements in churches. It had been agreed that it would be useful for the Council and EIG to work together: as EIG insured 96% of churches, its voice could not be ignored; although the Council did not have the power to force ringers to follow procedures, it could provide a communication route to ringers.

EIG was keen that the Council should produce a tower handbook, written in language which ringers would understand: much was already available in electronic form, but some work on Health & Safety aspects was needed; Child Protection issues had been covered; it was intended that it would be a Council publication with endorsement by EIG. As it was intended that a copy be issued free to all towers, whether or not there was a local band, a capital investment of some £10,000 would be needed; it was hoped that EIG might contribute to the cost.

An update from the working group will be presented at the Council meeting.

Alteration of Rule 22 - at the Harrogate meeting the Committee was asked to look at the Rule, concerning when changes took effect: it was agreed that when the election of the Tower Stewardship Committee was considered at the 2006 meeting, this could be done by altering its membership, as provided by Rule 14 (i), to appoint the committee - for which its working group already existed.

Turning to the separate aspect of creating a new committee, the triennial meeting could do this, whether or not the committee was to be a permanent one; however, Rule 14 restricted the appointment of the committee to the triennial meeting: an alteration to that Rule was therefore suggested and a Motion to this effect appears on the Agenda.

Working group to examine the recording of peals - recently the Peals Analysis Committee had discussed the Felstead database with Bill Hibbert, who had been very helpful, enabling a direct relationship with The Ringing World data. The editorial responsibility for Felstead was with that Committee. A working group was to be convened to clarify the present position and to report back to the Administrative Committee to decide how to move forward.

John Eisel’s work on James Barham’s peal book had identified discrepancies in the recording of early peals: this highlighted the importance of capturing the source of information, be it tower peal-boards, old newspapers, etc. The Committee endorsed an observation that The Ringing World was the fundamental record of peals rung; a suggestion that agreement should be sought between Campanophile and The Ringing World to avoid peals not being transferred did not receive support.

Review of Council finances - as the General Fund had been showing a deficit for several years a working group was set up to review the situation. It was already clear that the affiliation fee was not covering the cost of conducting the business of the Council, resulting in the proposal for an increase to come into effect on 1st January 2007.

Consideration was given to other sources of income: the Council’s investments were kept under review to ensure that cash deposits were placed in higher interest-earning accounts; grants or sponsorship should be sought for one-off items of capital expenditure; donations were being invited for the use of the Towers and Belfries Committee’s measuring equipment and other committees would discuss whether there was any scope for charging the services they provided.

On expenditure the cost of publishing reports etc. in The Ringing World was under review (see below); the annual transfer of interest to the Capital Reserve would be discontinued and the future of the Reserve be examined; committee budgets and expenditure would be monitored more closely.

English Heritage - the meeting on 13th October reported on the considerable upheaval within the organisation, resulting in drastic cuts in numbers of staff. EH would be moving out of its present in office in June to a temporary location in Bunhill Row, EC1; some staff would remain in London but others were being dispersed elsewhere.

On faculty applications the recommendation was still to consult EH at an early stage; however, due to severe constraints on resources, EH might decide that it did not wish to comment on a particular case.

At the meeting on 16th March EH presented a draft of an article on bellframe recording by reflectorless electronic distance measurement; a model specification for much simpler recording was also ready and would be sent to the Towers and Belfries Committee for comment prior to publication in The Ringing World.

The detail of the result of the review by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport on the Ecclesiastical Exemption was to be found on its website: for the present, existing procedures would continue; any changes were being made slowly, the intention being to produce a streamlined, amalgamated system of Heritage Protection Agreements.

Council for the Care of Churches - at both the meetings on 2nd September and 10th March the main item of interest was the progress of the discussions on the criteria for listing bells: Alan Frost had attended two meetings, which had decided that no major changes were necessary, although the name “Listed bells” would change to “Bells identified as of historical value”; in future a reason for listing would be given, with existing entries being updated over time. Reviews of listed bells in two dioceses found that the proposals would have very little effect: certainly there would not be the major changes that had been feared. It would not be necessary to rewrite the Code of Practice. Concerning bellframes, if the church was listed, the frame would be as well, being considered to be part of the structure; but frames could be considered in their own right, such as where an old frame was incorporated into a new church.

Ringing Roadshows - this item was discussed by the Committee since the General Fund provides financial support if needed. The Newbury Roadshow had been very successful - the event was both enjoyable and worthwhile and the organisers were to be congratulated. It was thought that it was mainly readers of The Ringing World who attended, in which case consideration had to be given as to how to contact non-readers. Some societies had advertised the event in their newsletters, so many groups of ringers came, some organising coaches.

The bellfounders and bellhangers were keen to have a 2-day event, due to their high setting-up costs, but other costs such as the hire of the site would double and it was most unlikely that the number attending would increase significantly. Most stallholders were volunteers who could not spare another day. Thought would be given to extending the opening times on a Saturday, to say 9am to 6 or 7pm. Another suggestion was a ticket-only preview on the Friday evening with perhaps a social function that evening, the ticket being more expensive to cover that: many stallholders might appreciate the extra time to look around other stalls. It would not be essential for all stalls to be ready on the Friday evening, but all the large exhibits were there by then; opening on the Friday would make it easier to have an earlier start on the Saturday.

Publishing Reports and Minutes in The Ringing World; the relationship between The Ringing World and the Council - the President and the Chairman of The Ringing World had met to review the points made in a paper distributed to the Committee and agreed that this was a good base on which to move forward. The view of the Board was that the relationship had changed over the years: each was mutually dependent on the other but neither was making the best use of this relationship. The Council could explain itself better to its constituents and that in turn could help marketing of the paper.

To this end it was proposed that from next year a pull-out supplement would be produced, containing all the committee reports, which would be included in a feature issue to promote the work of the Council, that could be sent to affiliated societies and appropriate external bodies. The estimated cost of producing additional copies would be of the order of £300 per 1000 copies; because of the perceived benefits of giving one edition of The Ringing World a wider circulation, the Board proposed waiving the current contribution that the Council made towards printing committee reports etc.

It was asked if a more formal statement of the business relationship could be prepared, with particular reference to the publication of peals.

Maintenance of Dove database - a discussion had taken place to clarify where the responsibility for maintenance lay. There was a vast amount of work in regularly updating “Dove” and this work was currently done by John Baldwin or, in his absence, Tim Jackson. The Officers, as Trustees of “Dove”, had delegated the task to John, and therefore the appropriate solution would be to create a post of Steward of the Dove database: there is a Motion on the Agenda.

The Council and quarter-peal ringing - an article in The Ringing World by Don Morrison had set down ideas aimed at giving Council support to quarter-peal ringing, since it represented a far greater part of the exercise than peal ringing. It was agreed that to try to make decisions on quarter-peal ringing would be counter-productive. There were quarter-peal compositions available already on websites and the compositions in the Doubles and Minor method collections were suitable for quarterpeals: more publicity could be given to such compositions appearing in The Ringing World; this could be developed into an article highlighting what the Council did for ringers generally. Regarding the right of quarter-peal ringers to name new Doubles or Minor methods, this was because extents of Doubles or Minor methods were at one time thought of as “peals”; it was not considered desirable to permit methods at higher stages to be named in quarter-peals as this would require a definition of a quarter-peal which would not be welcomed.

Report of the Stewards of the John Carter Ringing Machine Collection

The training and maintenance sessions held over the last two or three years really proved their worth at the Roadshow last September. An attractive display stand enticed an excited and enquiring stream of visitors to the extent that the Carter Ringing Machine was demonstrated almost continuously for six hours.

It must be stated that the quiet and efficient way in which the retiring Trustees, Alan Bagworth and John Anderson undertook their duties over many years was very largely responsible for this success.

No outside requests have been received for demonstrations, and reorganisation at the Bellfoundry has precluded demonstrations there. Normal demonstrations will be resumed in the late summer, subject of course to interest.

The Ringing World, April 21, 2006, pages 374 to 376

Peals Analysis Committee

We have recorded a total of 4912 peals rung in 2005 and published in The Ringing World, of which 4348 were on tower bells and 564 on handbells. The revised total for 2004 was 5061 - making a net reduction of 149. The reduction was due to a fall of 179 in the number handbell peals, although the handbell total is more in keeping with the norm after the exceptional number of handbell peals rung in 2004. There were 30 more tower bell peals in 2005 compared with 2004. Full details are included in the methods table that accompanies this report. The Oxford Diocesan Guild remains the leading society with 397 peals, followed by the Yorkshire Association with 309. Please see the separate table for details of peals rung for individual societies.

The Committee met once, in February at St. Mary’s Platt, to finalise records for 2005, to agree the format of the report and to discuss the ongoing arrangements for recording records of peals in the light of the developments of the “peals.co.uk” database by The Ringing World. We have developed a most encouraging and productive collaboration with Bill Hibbert of The Ringing World Ltd and we are most grateful for his work in collating, editing and correcting the current peal data for The Ringing World and peals.co.uk, with which we cross check our data. We thank also those Society Peal secretaries who have helped by comparing their figures with our own.

We do note, with some concern given our aim to produce an accurate and inclusive analysis of peals rung, that a number of peals are not being submitted for publication in The Ringing World, although they may be published elsewhere. While there is clearly no requirement on ringers to publish their performances in The Ringing World, we consider it regrettable that some peals (including some of significant note) are not submitted for general publication and would exhort bands and their conductors to do so. At the time of submission of this report, however, we are glad that most of the peals that we had not been able to include in the Analysis for this reason have now (we believe) been submitted for publication.

We should also like to pay wholehearted tribute to Andrew Craddock for the work that he has done over nearly fifteen years in peal record keeping. He helped to develop The Ringing World’s processes for peal publishing and was a key member of the team behind the development of the Felstead peals database. He has been an immense support to the work of this committee and continues to assist in the maintenance of the Felstead database.

Peals not complying with the Decisions on Peal Ringing

In accordance with the amendment to the Council’s Decisions made in 2002 we have identified those performances published in The Ringing World as peals but that do not comply with Decision D (Parts A-D) relating to peal ringing. There were no such peals in 2005.

We thank the Chairman of the Methods Committee for assisting us in identifying these peals.

A letter from the Chairman of the Methods Committee appears elsewhere commenting on corrections necessary for peals of Doubles to conform to reporting rules. All have been included in the Analysis.

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 20 or more times. An “Other” category is included for completeness.

Towers

The following 69 towers had 10 or more peals in 2005: (64 in 2004)

First pealers and firsts as conductor

There were 185 first pealers in 2005 (275 in 2004) and 19 firsts as conductor (37 in 2004). We congratulate all those involved in these performances, particularly where several firsts were included in one peal. These are, however, the lowest numbers of first pealers and firsts as conductor for a number of years.

Corrections to the 2004 Analysis

There are a number of alterations to the 2004 Analysis as detailed below, some caused by late submission and others by peals not being accepted by Societies. To meet our deadlines, we have to report on the data as received by The Ringing World by the end of February. Any changes notified later are included in the following year.

Corrections relate to tower bells except where specified.

The amended methods analysis for 2004 is shown in the 2005 methods table, which forms part of this report.

Revised totals for 2004 are: tower bells 4318, handbells 743, total 5061.

Details of the adjustments are available from the Chairman.

The Felstead Project

In May 2005 The Ringing World - following legal advice to The Ringing World Board - had to stop sending raw peal data to Andrew Craddock, who previously had been adding the new peals into the Felstead database. Consequently, the database and hence the web site has not been updated since that date. Recently, The Ringing World has been able to resume sending limited peal data but it is in a different format which has required the rewriting of the processing software. Additionally, there are plans to move the Felstead web site on to the main CCCBR server. When these two tasks have been completed, hopefully before the CC meeting, Felstead will be brought up to date and outstanding corrections made to existing data. Thanks are due to Don Morrison who has been hosting the site and who has done a lot of work in making it readily accessible to users. Since Canon Felstead’s death, his card index has been given a home and looked after well by David Dearnley. We extend our very grateful thanks to David for this work and can report that with the assistance of the Library Committee a new home has now been found and we understand that the cards are due to be moved shortly.

The Ringing World, April 28, 2006, pages 398 to 400