Central Council of Church Bell Ringers

Annual Report for 2010

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 11 Bullfields, Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire, CM21 9DB. The constitution and conduct of the Council is governed by its Rules.

2. The Council’s Trustees during 2010 were as follows:

   President	Mr A P Smith
   Vice-President	Mrs K Flavell
   Hon Secretary	Mrs M Bone
   Hon Treasurer	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 31st May 2010 the Council’s membership comprised 6 Life Members, 18 Honorary Members and 199 Representative Members representing 66 affiliated societies. At this meeting Rule 6 on Honorary Members was amended: this category of membership was renamed Additional Member and an advance nomination procedure was introduced. Rule 13(ii) was added such that any Steward who is not already a Life or Representative Member shall become an Ex-officio Member. Since then 6 Additional Members have retired and 3 who had been elected at that meeting took office; there are 7 ex-officio Members. Details of the changes to the Representative Membership are set out in the Appendix below. Subject to any further changes, at the start of the 2011 Council meeting there will be 6 Life Members, 11 Additional Members, 193 Representative Members and 7 ex-officio Members. There are 7 other vacancies.

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 2010 are given in the committee reports, which appear elsewhere on the Council’s agenda and are being published in the 29th April 2011 issue of The Ringing World.

7. The public benefits from the following areas of activity of the Council: the promotion of public worship by the ringing of church bells, the preservation of the tradition and heritage of change ringing, the encouragement and promotion of high standards of ringing and providing financial and specialist knowledge in the support of belfry repairs and maintenance.

8. The Accounts for 2010 show Total Funds at the year-end of £392,508 of which £213,407 is in Restricted Funds. The income for the year totalled £56,619, compared with £20,009 in 2009. The 2010 figures include a legacy for the Bell Restoration Fund and sales of new publications and CDs in the Publications Fund and Library Fund. The General Fund expenditure includes the agreed funding of £10,000 to The Ringing Foundation Limited. 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.

9. It is confirmed that the Council’s assets, together with the expected income for 2011, are available and are likely to be adequate to fulfil the object of the Council in that year.

10. Reserves policy:

    (i) General Fund - the balance on the General Fund is invested to produce income which, together with member societies affiliation fees, provides sufficient funds to support the work and activities of the Council. The balance also facilitates cash flow and enables the development of new projects and initiatives.

    (ii) Education Courses - the balance provides cash flow to enable the Education Committee to run various training courses; in general the costs are recouped from attendees.

    (iii) Bell Restoration Fund - the balance is fully allocated to bell restoration projects and paid on satisfactory completion of the work. Grants are made in proportion to the types of applications received and in accordance with priorities agreed by the Council and reviewed annually.

    (iv) F Dukes International Bell Fund - Grants from the Fred Dukes International Bell Fund are made in accordance with the terms of Mr Dukes’ legacy. Grants are awarded from the interest on the legacy and reviewed annually.

    (v) Publications Fund - the balance represents the stock of publications held and a cash balance to facilitate the production of new titles and the reprinting of existing publications.

    (vi) Library Fund - the balance represents the value of the library which is maintained for use by council members and affiliated societies.

11. 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.

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

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

MRS M BONE
Honorary Secretary

April 2011

Appendix

Membership of the Council 2011 - 2014

Arising from the triennial elections of Representative Members by the affiliated societies, the Middlesex County Association & London Diocesan Guild has increased its representation by one, while the Dorset County Association has two fewer members and the Zimbabwe Guild is no longer affiliated. Of the 193 Representative Members, 143 (74%) were members of the previous Council (of whom three are representing a different society) and 50 are new members (of whom nine have been members at some time in the past).

57 Representative Members of the previous Council are not returning. Special mention should be made of those who had been members for more than 15 years: Alison Caton (Ladies Guild) elected 1996; Mike Davies (Ely Diocesan Association) elected 1987; Adrian Dempster (East Derbys & West Notts Association) elected 1975; Neil Donovan (Yorkshire Association) elected 1987; Peter Dyson (Chester Diocesan Guild) elected 1979; Robin Grant (Surrey Association, East Grinstead & District Guild) elected 1981, served until 1990 and re-elected 1996; Derek Jones (Peterborough Diocesan Guild) elected 1984; Keith Lewin (Bedfordshire Association) elected 1979; Julian Parker (Llandaff & Monmouth Diocesan Guild) elected 1996; Barry Peachey (National Police Guild) elected 1981; Anne Pettifor (Lancashire Association) elected 1994; Dinah Rhymer (Yorkshire Association) elected 1996; Donald Roberts (Guild of Devonshire Ringers, Honorary Member) elected 1972, served until 1984 and re-elected 1986; Adrian Semken (Essex Association) elected 1996; David Sparling (Essex Association) elected 1996; James Taylor (Gloucester & Bristol Diocesan Guild, Honorary Member, Bath & Wells Diocesan Association) elected 1966, served until 1993 and re-elected 1994; Leslie Townsend (Lincoln Diocesan Guild) elected 1984; Brian Watson (Middlesex County Association and London Diocesan Guild, Hertford County Association) elected 1972, served until 1978 and re-elected 1981; Jane Webster (South African Guild) elected 1995. Thanks are due to these, and all others not returning, for their services to the Council.

CENTRAL COUNCIL OF CHURCH BELL RINGERS

Registered Charity Number 270036

Statement of Financial Activities for the year ended 31st December 2010

CENTRAL COUNCIL OF CHURCH BELL RINGERS

Registered Charity Number 270036

Balance Sheet as at 31st December 2010

Derek Harbottle
Hon Treasurer April 2011

Central Council of Church Bell Ringers

Notes to the Accounts for the year ended 31st December 2010

1 Basis of accounting

The accounts have been prepared under the historic cost convention and in accordance with applicable accounting standards and the Statement of Recommended Practice on Accounting by Charities.

2 Accounting Policies

The accounts have been drawn up in accordance with the going concern, accruals, consistency and prudence concepts.

2.1 Incoming resources

Interest is accounted for when receivable.

Donations, grants and legacies are accounted for as soon as the Council is notified of the legal entitlement and the amount due.

2.2 Resources expended

Expenditure is included on an accruals basis.

Grants are accounted for when paid over.

3 Consistency

The accounts are prepared on a consistent basis with the exception of the valuation of the Library Collection.

The revaluation due in 2008, was undertaken in 2009 and the revaluation is included in the accounts for 2009, see note 6 below.

4 Funds

The General Fund is unrestricted and includes designated funds raised and held for a particular purpose.

The Education Courses Fund and Publications Fund are unrestricted designated funds.

The Bell Restoration Fund, the Fred Dukes International Bell Fund and the Library Fund are maintained for restricted purposes.

5 Transfers between Funds

There were no transfers between funds in the current year.

6 Tangible Assets and Intangible Assets

The major tangible assets of the Council are the Investments in National Savings Income Bonds and the Library Collection. The Library Collection is valued at a replacement cost of £105,200. The revaluation was undertaken by J M Farringdon at March 2009. 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 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.

7 Interest receivable

The interest was received from

8 Donations received

A legacy of £15,285 was received in 2010 and in accordance with the donor’s wishes, this amount was designated to the Bell Restoration Fund.

Donations were received in respect of the proposed new volume of the Roll of Honour. This is included in the General Fund as a designated item and, together with the related gift aid, amounts to £2,584.

9 Committee Expenses - General Fund

These were as follows

10 Grants

The Fred Dukes International Bell Fund awarded two grants totalling £3,000. One grant was paid during the year and one grant, originally awarded in 2006, was withdrawn.

The Bell Restoration Fund awarded twenty eight grants in 2010. Nine grants were paid in the year, including the last two grants awarded in 2004 and 2005.

11 Charitable Commitments

There were unfulfilled charitable commitments at 31st December 2010 in respect of three grants totalling £6,022 awarded but not yet paid by the Fred Dukes International Bell Fund, and twenty one grants totalling £22,000 awarded but not yet paid by the Bell Restoration Fund.

12 Publications Fund

Storage and distribution cost of £2,100 was paid to Council members.

13 Payments to Trustees

There were no payments to Trustees.

14 Emoluments of Employees

The Council had no employees during the year.

The Ringing World, April 29, 2011, pages 438 to 441

Administrative Committee

Since the 2010 Council meeting the Committee has met twice in London, in October and March. The arrangements for the 2011 Council meeting were discussed and agreed; the Committee has continued its practice of reviewing the work of Council Committees and received presentations from the Bell Restoration Committee in October and the Biographies Committee in March. In March Committee chairmen advised which members would be retiring under the provisions of rule 14 (i) and the committee sizes needed for next year. Lots were drawn for those elected members of the Administrative Committee to retire this year.

The Committee considered the following item from the 2010 Council meeting:

Ringing Trends - an extensive discussion on the recruitment of young ringers took place in October with contributions from representatives of the Education and Ringing Trends committees and The Ringing Foundation. Andrew Wilby, assisted by a number of others, prepared a strategy paper for further discussion at the March meeting; this was accompanied by a summary of The Ringing Foundation’s business plan. A national conference will be held at Wellesbourne/Kineton on 12 November, organised by the Education Committee, to develop an action plan for a Healthy Future for Ringing. The Vice-President will actively coordinate the work of relevant committees, especially Education, Ringing Centres and Public Relations.

Other matters reported on included:

Guidance for Central Council Committees - this was revised by the Vice-President, approved by the Committee at its October meeting and subsequently placed on the website.

Council Finances - low interest rates continue to affect the Council’s finances. After examination of the draft 2010 accounts, and comparison with previous years, the Committee identified a persistent structural deficit and therefore recommended that the affiliation fee be increased to £25 per representative. A motion appears on the agenda.

Ringing Alliances - the Committee recommends that a formal alliance be established with the Zimbabwe Guild, which now has too few members to remain an affiliated society. This proposal has already been welcomed by the Zimbabwe Guild.

Church Buildings Council (formerly Council for the Care of Churches) & English Heritage -- a meeting was held on 11 October 2010, attended also by the Committee for Redundant Bells. Matters discussed included training in bell frame recording, the next DAC bell advisers conference at Southwell Minster on 8 June, changes to the VAT recovery scheme, and changes in the conditions for recipients of English Heritage grants. The next meeting is planned for 11 April 2011.

Compositions Committee

The Compositions Committee held a face to face meeting at Derby in May 2010 to set the agenda for the coming year, and is in regular electronic contact by email. We should like to welcome Paul Seaman to the committee.

The Stedman collection now consists of around 270 Stedman and Erin compositions (Caters and above) and this has been submitted to the Publications Committee. A foreword has been provided by David House.

We are still waiting for details of the Handbell Collection to be provided for publication.

Reviews of peal and quarter peal compositions regularly appear in The Ringing World; 66 peals and 21 quarter peals were published in The Ringing World. In addition, the Compositions Committee collated and published a number of 2011 date touches in The Ringing World.

The Compositions Committee should like to encourage all composers to submit their quarters and peals for review and publication in The Ringing World and the Council collection. This is to broaden the scope of the collection and to ensure that there are compositions that appeal to everybody.

The Compositions Committee submitted suggested amendments to the 2011 Diary and a number of these have been incorporated to modernise the collection and cater for current tastes. We welcome suggestions as to how to take the diary compositions forward in the future.

The on-line collection of compositions on the Central Council Website continues to be updated on a regular basis and currently stands at over 15,000 compositions.

Finally, to reiterate, we very much welcome submissions of new peal and quarter peal compositions and these should be sent to compositions@cccbr.org.uk

Education Committee

Since the 2010 Council meeting the Committee met on three occasions, at Wellesbourne in Warwickshire.

We were particularly busy with the Bell Control module of our Teaching the Teachers course this year, with day courses at Bletchingley (requested by some Surrey ringers), Thorverton and Silverton (for The Guild of Devonshire Ringers), Eckington and Chesterfield (an Education Committee event) and Wraxhall and Portishead (for The Bath and Wells Diocesan Association). In total there were 28 students.

In February 2011 there was a weekend course at Atlanta and Marietta (for The North American Guild). In a very intensive weekend we covered the Bell Control module, an abbreviated Raising and Lowering in Peal module, and a collection of useful ideas entitled “From one whole pull to Bell Control”. There were 12 students and a number of observers and local helpers. We also achieved three quarter peals, which gave people extra experience.

Responding to the Ringing Foundation’s “Brief for Creating Modern Training Structure for Change Ringing”, in 2009 the Committee commissioned a pilot run of the Integrated Teacher Training Scheme (ITTS). The last of the three trials was in June 2010 and, with some minor changes, a series of five further tests was conducted in October and November. In all, 65 students attended, with 33 mentors to oversee subsequent teaching practice.

Four more tutors, including three from this committee, will now continue with the testing process for ITTS Module 1, Teaching Bell Handling. Only one pilot Module 2 course has taken place to date, covering Teaching Elementary Change Ringing. A central on-line resource (Moodle) exists to monitor progress and provide course material.

To go alongside the continuing development of its courses, the Committee is producing a detailed Teaching Manual. It will embrace all the techniques for taking a non-ringer up to the stage when they are ready to learn method ringing, including such skills as raising and lowering in peal. The object is to document the step-by-step teaching sequence that is evolving from the courses, with the aim of preventing learners from developing less-than-ideal habits.

In April we began making regular first-issue-of-the-month contributions to The Ringing World. We would like to thank the Editor for facilitating this. They have so far been mostly “Learning: what helps, what hinders” articles. A wider variety of articles is planned as these come to an end. We are grateful to Denis Pearson for providing the cartoons.

Conduct 5040, our email-based initiative for individually mentoring aspiring conductors, continues to work well. The email group Network for Ringing Training has become more active in the past year.

Sales of The New Ringer’s Book have topped 1000 since it was unveiled at Derby in 2010. A new publication on striking competitions is complete, but work is in hand to include with it a CD of an actual competition and discussion of the judging. Work is progressing on an update to Simulators and Teaching. A software review to go with it is being considered. A publication on organising young ringers’ groups is being planned, initially based on experience gained with “Kids Ring Out”.

A conference for those interested in teaching ringing is planned for 12th November 2011. Based at the Wellesbourne Parish Centre in Warwickshire, it will include sessions at the nearby Kineton Ringing Centre.

The committee will continue to work on the production of wall charts comparing good and poor practice in teaching bell handling, round the table games to aid learning methods, material for teaching handbell ringing, and a collection of source copies of current educational publications.

Our thanks go to Phil Gay, John Harrison, Frank Lewis and Jan Wyatt who, although not currently on the Committee, have all helped with its work this year.

Sadly, in 2011, John Atkinson, Simon Linford and John Mabe retire from the Committee. We would like to thank them all for their contributions.

Information and Communications Technology Committee

During 2010 we have continued to maintain and grow the CCCBR website, while starting to plan for migration to a Content Management System during the new triennium, as summarised below:

Achievements

• A new webpage was added to the Biographies Committee’s section of the website linking to scanned images of their collection of 564 Biographical Records of past Council members.

On-going work

• Routine updates and new content additions to the website, especially changes to membership data for the coming new triennium.

• Continuing to add photos and personal information to the Rolls of Honour section of the website.

• Design and planning for eventual migration of the website to the Drupal content management system.

• Maintaining the Software Catalogue.

Future plans

• Reduce the Council’s heavy reliance on two key individuals: the Server Administrator and the Webmaster, by recruiting and/or developing additional volunteers.

• Obtain and develop additional skills and resources, in particular for server administration and for conversion of the website to Drupal.

Acknowledgements

We are grateful for the contributions of:

• Richard Allton, Claire Bell, Paul Johnston, and Stuart Piper (volunteer) for their work on the website sections of the Peal Records, Education, Library, and Biographies Committees respectively;

• Aidan Hopkins (volunteer) as Server Administrator and Peter Trotman as Webmaster; and

• Andrew Craddock, Don Morrison and Tina Stoecklin, former members of this committee, for their continuing advice and support.

Library Committee

In 2008, John Eisel gave three years’ notice of his wish to retire as Library Steward and we are grateful to Alan Glover for agreeing to stand for election as the new Steward with effect from the Hereford Central Council meeting. We will miss John hugely after 19 years, as Steward, and on the Committee, but he assures us he will available should we need his help. We must remember that he took over following the death of W. (Bill) Cook and all the complexities that entailed. This time we will have the luxury of a planned handover and moving the Library a shorter distance from Hereford to Worthen on the Shropshire border.

The success of Paul Johnson’s work to produce the new DVD of the early Ringing Worlds 1911-1940 is shown in the large number we have sold. Our thanks go to Chris Ridley for his review in The Ringing World. A positive spin-off from the advertising has been more sales of the Bell News DVD, the two ringing periodicals CD, Trollope Manuscript CD and Library Catalogues, thus keeping the ringing fraternity alert to the work of the Library.

As a result of Cyril Wratten’s many years spent compiling his research into 18C newspaper extracts, the Exercise can now benefit from a new publication: “Order & Disorder in the Eighteenth Century: Newspaper Extracts about Church Bells and Bell Ringing”. This has taken John Eisel five years to complete, edit and prepare for publication (with illustrations). We thank Chris Pickford for his review in The Ringing World. The publication was sold out by Christmas - another success!

The Obituary Index from 1881-2000 is now accessible on the Library website via www.cccbr.org.uk and will be updated to 2007, in due course. Subsequent years are available via a link to The Ringing World website at www.ringingworld.co.uk

A lively “Book Day for Ringing Booklovers” was held on 27 February 2010 at Thatcham Memorial Hall and attracted 33 people, including seven Guild/Association/Society librarians. Whilst “the book” will not be totally superseded by technology, there’s no doubt “change” is much in evidence. Thank you to: John Eisel, Chris Ridley (ASCY Librarian), Roger Barnes (Church Green Books), Malcolm Loveday (Guildford Guild Librarian Committee), John Harrison (Biographies Committee) and Ian Self for their presentations and John Baldwin (Sharpe Trust), David Gay, Alan Glover, Alison Hodge (W&DCR), Chris McKay (Author of “Big Ben”) and Paul Johnson for running sales tables etc. We plan to hold another outreach event in 2013. We were pleased to welcome Alison Hodge (Worcs & Districts Librarian) onto the Committee at the May Council meeting, following her attendance at the Book Day. The committee met in February and October and will be looking for a new member in May. The terms of reference were reviewed and agreed without amendment.

John Eisel has written over 60 articles for The Ringing World in the last 11 years and the plan is to publish them in a single volume when he retires as Steward. John is already working on the enormous task of keying-in Cyril Wratten’s 19C newspaper extracts covering the thirty year period 1800-1829. We recognise the need to convert 78s, LPs, audio and video cassettes to DVD in the near future. We are pleased with the response to our plea for help made in The Ringing World, but if anyone else could assist, please let us know. Plans to sell the duplicate set of Ringing Worlds have been put “on hold”, as we consider the possibility of producing a second DVD of the next thirty years 1941-1970. We also intend to liaise more with Guild/Association/ Society librarians.

We are grateful for the accessions received during the year. As well as being an archive, annual reports are a very valuable source of information and are used as much as any other section of the library. The library stock is in very good condition, and the programme of binding annual reports is as up to date as it can be. Twenty-nine loans were made in 2010.

Technology enables queries to be answered easily, as often material can be scanned into the computer and sent as an attachment.

The Library Steward’s annual Essay (No.18 in the series) on “Publications of the Central Council, prior to the First World War” accompanied the 2011 Newsletter to the Friends of the Library.

We record our thanks to the Friends for their continuing support, as without them the Library could not tackle the projects mentioned above. Ian Self is the Friends’ co-ordinator and Hon Treasurer for the library and welcomes subscriptions from new Friends and renewals.

Methods Committee

The Methods Committee held one face-to-face meeting, in London on 30 October, and have corresponded via an on-line mailing list during the remainder of the year.

Work continued on The Ringing World Diary. We have provided new diagrams and a new selection of quarter peals and touches of Grandsire Triples and Stedman Triples which appeared in the 2011 Diary, along with some new touches of Grandsire Doubles. We would like to thank Roger Bailey for helping the committee by typesetting these pages. We are now planning to complete the revision of the remaining methods pages (Doubles, Caters and Cinques), after which we anticipate there being only occasional changes in the selection of less-standard methods that are included.

We have continued to answer a regular stream of enquiries about method names, CC Decisions and other matters received on the committee’s email address: methods@cccbr.org.uk. Much of our work program has been taken up considering changes to the Decisions following requests made at the 2010 Council meeting, but we have also continued work on two publications: the Doubles collection and the four-way table of Minor methods. We are considering a number of possible enhancements to the committee’s website including technical articles, to help answer common questions and to stimulate a wider interest in methods and related technical topics.

Once again, we are very grateful to Tony Smith for continuing to update the on-line method collections at www.methods.org.uk. These provide an invaluable resource for ringers and Tony updates them on a weekly basis.

Peals Records Committee

During the last year we have continued our three main duties of the Peals Analysis, the recording of record length peals and peals in new methods together with maintenance of the Felstead database. We have met briefly at the Derby meeting, held conference calls, and one face to face meeting. Graham Duke was co-opted as he found himself returned to the Council, and could therefore carry on with the work.

The Peals Analysis

We have recorded a total of 4,937 peals rung in 2010 and published in The Ringing World up to 4th March, of which 4,200 were on tower bells and 737 on handbells. The revised total for 2009 was 5,064 - making a net reduction of 127. Full details are included in the methods table that accompanies this report. The Oxford Diocesan Guild has once again become the leading society with 377 peals (an increase from 324 in 2009). The Chester Diocesan Guild rang the most handbell peals with 93. Eighteen societies rang 100 or more peals in 2010 compared with 15 in 2009. Please see the separate table for details of peals rung for individual societies.

At this point we believe that there are at least 15 performances from 2010 that have not yet been published in The Ringing World. We would encourage the bands to ensure that these are published soon, so that they can be included in next year’s adjustment for 2010.

Record Peals

Although there were a number of peals of over 10,000 changes in 2010, there were only three record peals, which are detailed in the Records table below.

Peals not complying with the Decisions on Peal Ringing

We have identified the following performances published in The Ringing World as peals that do not comply with Decision D (Parts A-D) relating to peal ringing. These have not been included in the totals below:

21 April: Hurstpierpoint, Sussex, the Whickham Ring, 5088 Yorkshire S Major - was rung on dumbbells using a simulator.

29 May: Staunton-on-Arrow, St Peter, 5040 Spliced Plain Minor in 42 methods - includes methods that do not comply with Decision A.1.f requiring no more than four consecutive blows in the same place.

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. All individual methods where 15 or more peals were rung in 2010 are included. An “Other” category is included for completeness.

A total of 235 methods were rung to peals for the first time in 2010 (13 of these were rung in hand). A further 9 methods that had been rung previously on tower bells were rung in hand for the first time, and one on tower bells that had previously been rung in hand.

A list of the new methods and when they were rung is included alongside our report.

Towers

The following 77 towers had 10 or more peals in 2010: (78 in 2009):

There were also 26 handbell venues where ten or more peals were rung during the year.

First pealers and firsts as conductor

We have noted 149 people who rang their first peal in 2010 (186 in 2009) and 32 firsts as conductor (41 in 2009). We congratulate all those involved in these performances, particularly where several firsts were included in one peal.

These statistics have been generated by Andrew Craddock from Pealbase and we would like to acknowledge his excellent work in providing the information and adding an additional search facility to Pealbase in the process. The data for first as conductor is based on the counts of peals where the string “First as conductor” or “First peal as conductor” occurs in the peal footnotes and lists ringers who apparently have not called a peal in the years prior to 2009-2010.

The number of ringers ringing their first peal has been consistently below 200 since 2004. Prior to this, the number of first pealers had been consistently above 200 since 1957 with a high of 851 in 1977. This appears to be showing a continuing downward trend whereas the number of first conductors has been relatively stable since 2000 - see table at foot of page.

Corrections to the 2009 Analysis

There are a number of alterations to the 2009 Analysis due to late publication as detailed below.

Corrections relate to tower bells except where specified.

The amended methods analysis for 2009 is shown in the 2010 methods table, which forms part of this report. Revised totals for 2009 are: tower bells 4,291, handbells 773, total 5,064.

The Felstead Project

Work on maintaining the accuracy of the Felstead database has continued during the year. Andrew Craddock is responsible for all peal data post-1989 and downloads the data regularly from the Ringing World and Campanophile websites for all new peals rung; the committee is grateful for his doing this work. Alan Baldock looks after the data for all pre-1990 peals and arrangements have recently been put in place for him to enter the data directly on to the database without having to send it to Andrew Craddock for uploading; thanks are due to Peter Trotman and Andrew for enabling this procedure.

There are many instances of inaccuracy on the database where the name of the method does not appear in the Council’s record of method names. The most common reason for this is that the name had to be changed after being published and either no correction was published or a correction was not picked up and the record card changed. There are also a number of peals, which have been found to be false, still appearing on the database as valid. Work is on-going to correct the inaccuracies in these areas but it is quite a lengthy task sometimes requiring a number of enquiries being made before the correct status of a peal is discovered.

We continue to receive notification from various ringers of some previously unrecorded or inaccurately recorded peals and the committee is grateful to all who have contributed in any way to the accuracy of the data. John Eisel has continued to be of great help in answering queries by reference to the material in the library. His on-going work with the extracts from eighteenth and nineteenth century newspapers has also enabled a considerable number of previously unrecorded peals to be added to the database.

Public Relations Committee

The Committee continues to meet on a regular basis and also carries on much of its work via email. This important, front-line committee has been operating below strength for some time.

Leaflets and Posters

Demand for the publicity leaflets remains high, and a further 50,000 were printed during the year. The Publications Committee is responsible for advertising and selling the posters. A simplified downloadable leaflet is in production for use when time does not permit the supply of pre-printed materials.

Noise Complaints

This year has been much quieter with only five contacts having been made. We responded to all, which as far as we know were resolved satisfactorily.

Learn to Ring

This year we received a total of almost 50 enquiries. In each case the enquiry has been referred to a suitable local contact. No feedback has been recorded.

Roadshows

Having been asked to conduct a comprehensive review, prior to any decision about the format and direction of future “Roadshows”, we spent some time considering the strengths and weaknesses of past events, and how best to obtain input from the ringing community. This led to a plan for a web based survey, supplemented by paper questionnaires at various events during early 2011.

Bells on Sunday

The Committee has maintained close contact with the producers of this programme with a view to maintaining the quality and variety of items produced. Some examples of the success of this strategy have already been noticed.

Wider Remit

We have spent some time considering how, in addition to the services that we already provide, we might stimulate more widespread developments in the relationship between ringers and the public. With our resources currently limited, we have not progressed this beyond initial ideas, but we hope to do so in the future.

Liaison

Members of PRC continue to work with other Council committees as appropriate. Particular links this past year have included Tower Stewardship, Ringing Trends and ICT.

International reports
A N Z A B www.anzab.org.au

The ANZAB Executive had another busy year in 2010 and is continuing to review the administrative workings of the Association. More propositions will be put to the next AGM which, after a gap of seven years, will be held in June 2011 in New Zealand in Hamilton and Auckland.

The 2010 AGM was held in Melbourne and was a great success. It was novel for some attendees to be travelling back and forth across a big city and the trams were much enjoyed together with the superb catering, and good fellowship. There was an excellent success rate with quarter peals and an “alternative” striking competition format tried out.

The 2011 Executive is unchanged with Julie Doyle (Canberra) President; David Pacey (Melbourne) Treasurer; Anita Adams (Christchurch) Secretary; together with Vice Presidents David Smith (Brisbane), Roger Lubbock (Perth) and Lexi Prabhakar (Sydney).

There were some notable ringing achievements during 2010 including:

• The first peal on the augmented bells at St David’s Cathedral in Hobart,

• The first peal on the twelve in St John’s Cathedral, Brisbane; and

• A peal of St Mary of the Cross Surprise Major at St Mary’s Basilica in Sydney for the canonisation in Rome of Australia’s first saint, Mary MacKillop.

NEANZAB continues to be very active in ringing training and weekend visits have been made to the majority of the country New South Wales towers. These provide an excellent morale boost to towers in more remote areas as well as being great opportunities for general ringing education and socialising.

The 2012 ANZAB Festival will be the occasion of ANZAB’s fiftieth birthday and it promises to be an outstanding event. The NEANZAB Branch is well advanced with preparations for this big event in Sydney and we look forward to ringing with a large group of visitors from around the world.

Julie Doyle
President ANZAB

Central European Association
www.change-ringers.eu

The Central European Association continued to meet every 6-8 weeks during 2010, at centres as wide apart as Dordrecht, Holland, and Winterthur, Switzerland. One important development was the augmentation of the mini-ring at Brandau [Die Gloeckli] to 8. These are installed in Brian Diserens’ living room and provide a good central point for ringers in Holland and the Frankfurt area. Peals of Cambridge, Yorkshire and Brandau Surprise Major were rung on these bells during 2010. A particularly successful weekend was held at Brian’s from 7-9 January, during which a wide variety of quarter peals were scored on the miniring and in hand. There have also been several trips to Dordrecht, where 8 peals in a variety of methods have been rung. We have also had the luck that Mike Trimm has moved to Bonn and this has made it possible for us to ring peals of Rutland and Cambridge Major and Kent Maximus in hand.

We currently have hand bell groups in Winterthur (Switzerland) and Ludwigshafen (Germany), as well as a tower bell group in Dordrecht (The Netherlands). There are prospects of starting a hand bell group in Ulm in the course of 2011. There are clearly major problems, not only in the amount of travelling involved, but also in the limited number of ringers. Any expatriate (or anyone knowing an expatriate) is invited to send an e-mail to Rodney Yeates at rodney.yeates@t-online.de. Anyone willing to finance the installation of a 24cwt 10 at Frankfurt Cathedral is also invited to contact me at the same address.

Rodney Yeates

North American Guild of Change Ringers
www.nagcr.org

The North American Guild had yet another extremely successful year in 2010. No new rings were installed, however several ringing areas are returning to active ringing status thanks to completed maintenance projects and/ or renewed interest.

During 2010, the NAGCR lost three ringers: Bill Hall, NRLM, Ken Quimby, former member and Kurt Ward. Our membership decreased slightly and still stands at just under 600 members (not including Non-Resident Life Members).

As with last year, each month of the NAGCR calendar was filled with at least one of a wide variety of ringing offerings to satisfy all levels and in all geographic regions. These included ringing festivals, regional meetings and our annual AGM this year was held in Little Rock, Arkansas during the first weekend of October.

Personal accomplishments by members included two members conducting a peal for the first time, eight members ringing their first peal, and a veritable plethora of firsts in the quarter peal category.

New initiatives for the Guild include various functions and support to help new bands of ringers, support for the improvement of online submissions of peals and quarter peals, and the formation of a website team to help with the expansion of available services online.

We look forward to continue to host visitors from overseas and for more information on any of our events and tower details go to www.nagcr.org.

Scott Stricker

South African Guild of Church Bell Ringers
www.scifac.ru.ac.za/cathedral/bellguild

Two events dominated 2010 in South Africa south of Johannesburg, the disaster at Durban and the departure of a leading ringer from Grahamstown.

In May, the 2nd at St Mary’s Greyville, as it was being rung up, crashed into the treble. Both wheels damaged in the accident have now been repaired, except for some metal braces which have been sent to a foundry for straightening. The wheel of the 2nd now needs to be returned to the bell chamber through the roof. (That of the treble was repaired in situ). Taylors have cast the two replacement headstocks. At St Paul’s, where concerns about the safety of the tower had prevented ringing, work finally started in December 2010. This includes replacement of beams very seriously affected by dry rot, repair of damaged masonry, and of an unsafe floor. (It had been hoped that this would be completed by the end of February 2011, but there appear to be complications.)

Towards the end of the year, Colin Lewis, who has been active in ringing in South Africa since he arrived in 1983, emigrated and returned to Wales. He had been instrumental in founding the SAGCBR, in the restoration in Grahamstown and other bell installation projects and in teaching a continually changing home band at the cathedral there. His departure will leave a gap in Grahamstown, which will be all the more noted following the untimely death late in the year of Judith Orpen, who was doing much to hold ringing together in Grahamstown.

The AGM for 2010 was held in Johannesburg, who were perfect hosts for a successful weekend.

Ed Elderkin

Transvaal Society

The Transvaal Society, centred on Johannesburg, South Africa, is responsible for all ringing in and around that city. Sunday service ringing has now been maintained at St. George’s church, Parktown, for an unbroken period of 25 years and also takes place on the first Sunday of every month at the new tower of All Saints, Fourways Gardens. Both towers have a number of new recruits and we are grateful to Chris Fitter for stepping up to become Tower Captain at Fourways and shouldering the heavy teaching load there. We understand that an order has been placed for a new ring of bells for a school in the northern suburbs of Johannesburg and we look forward to this project coming to fruition during 2011; the Society has offered all possible assistance with the installation and in training members of the school staff so that they may, in turn, teach pupils of the school.

The Society hosted the AGM of the South African Guild on the weekend of October 15- 17th, 2010 and we were pleased to see a good turnout at both towers. We were fortunate to have the services of John Pusey, visiting from Oxford, England, for the weekend, and he kindly agreed to judge the striking competition. As always on these occasions, the winner is less important than the experience for our newer ringers and we were pleased to see a team from Fourways taking part for the first time, although they were unplaced in the final standings. Johannesburg is often the first port of entry for visitors to South Africa and we are pleased to welcome the ringers amongst them to our towers, although we like to put them to work in assisting our bands to grow and develop their skills! Practices are held at Parktown on Tuesday evenings and at midday on Saturdays at Fourways.

Richard Roberts

Associazione Suonatori di Campane a Sistema Veronese
www.campanesistemaveronese.it

In June 2010, a group of Italian ringers led by Alberto Bozzo from Vicenza visited the Malvern area for a few days marking the 25th anniversary of their first visit to England and first encounters with change ringing. They took the opportunity to do a little sightseeing in the Malvern area as well, of course, as revisiting local towers and meeting up with ringing friends. The photo shows us at Pershore in the “cage” before joining the Martley Guild at their Annual Dinner in a beautiful rural setting on the Herefordshire - Worcestershire border.

For June 2011, David Bagley is organising a visit led by Lucio Barbieri for ringers from Montegaldella to the Tewkesbury / Worcester area.

Alison Hodge
ASCSV CC rep in UK

Zimbabwe Guild of Bellringers

For many Zimbabwe ringers our nearest tower is 220 kilometres away in Kwekwe. Ringing in Harare is still not possible, but we have made a day trip to Kwekwe twice during the year to meet with the ringers there and those from Bulawayo.

We are delighted to report that Teddy has now recovered from his eye operation and only has to wear dark glasses in bright sunlight. A big thank you to all those ringers who so generously supported him.

The most notable event of the year was the 50th Anniversary of the Guild on 14 December. This event will be commemorated at our AGM on 26 February, 2011 in Kwekwe and in Reading.

Anne M. Phillips
Guild Master

Publications Committee

The Committee had a busy and productive year. Four new publications were produced: The New Ringer’s Book, Teaching Tips (which was also reprinted), an updated edition of Organising a Bell Restoration Project, and CC Rules and Decisions 2010. The New Ringer’s Book and Teaching Tips deservedly sold exceptionally well, accounting for a large proportion of the marked increase in income from sales.

Twelve titles were reprinted: Beginners Handbook, Towards Better Striking, Ringing Jargon Made Easy, Beginners Grandsire, Beginners Plain Bob, Doubles and Minor for Beginners, Ringing Circles, Listen to Ringing CD1 and CD2, Understanding Place Notation, Kaleidoscope Ringing and Teaching Tips. Ringing Circles was again popular and again sold very well.

The Committee held three meetings during the year, in addition to which the usual large number of telephone and e-mail conversations took place. We continued to maintain close contact with Tim Jackson, representing the Stewards of the Dove Database, on “Dove 10”. Two relatively early draft versions of “Dove 10” had been received for comment by the end of the year and we plan to hold a meeting with Tim to discuss many of the important aspects of production early in 2011. We hope to be in a position to seek indicative quotations quite soon.

The income from sales rose sharply to £17,500 from £8,300 in 2009 and £13,400 in 2008. The value of stock held rose to £12,600 from £10,700 in 2009. Income exceeded expenditure by £900 and the total cash available remained steady at around £14,000. A small amount of slow selling stock was written off. The fund remains in a healthy state and will be adequate to support production of “Dove 10”. Bulk discounts were offered in March as usual, and advertisements were again placed in a number of Association reports.

Andrew Aspland will leave the Council in 2011 and we thank him for his work. Derek Jones, who has been a key member of the Committee for many years, will also leave the Council in 2011. He has undertaken a huge amount of work for the Committee for which the remaining members record grateful thanks. We are pleased, and grateful, to be able to record that Derek will continue to be closely associated with our work in a consultative capacity. We also wish to record our grateful thanks to Sue Jones for her superb hosting of our meetings and for her expert help in running our bookstall at numerous Council meetings and at Roadshows.

Committee for Redundant Bells

The Committee has monitored developments concerning the fate of bells in redundant churches and redundancy generally by maintaining communication with the Church Commissioners, the Church Buildings Council and the Churches Conservation Trust.

The Committee has continued to administer the Rescue Fund and there is a separate report relating to this (p.456).

The number of churches declared redundant continues to reduce. The number of churches being vested in the Churches Conservation Trust is now the minimum as there are no new funds to enable the Trust to take on the responsibility of restoring and maintaining new vestings. Indeed it seemed the CCT might be abolished in 2010 but it is now to continue though with reduced resources.

It has become increasingly obvious throughout the year that the guiding principle that bells should remain in churches that are being declared redundant and not be removed prior to being declared redundant is very likely to result in the bells being “walled up” and unlikely to be available for any future use or inspection. Hanley has been a case in point, along with Layston in Hertfordshire and potentially St Cross, Oxford. The Church Commissioners are very aware of the problem and their cooperation and the very energetic work of the Chester Diocesan Guild and its members has enabled the bells at St John’s, Bollington to be removed for re-hanging elsewhere in the diocese. The Committee has kept a watch on the plans for the future of the bells at St Peter’s, Belgrave (Leicestershire), St Botolph, Heene (Sussex) and St Leonard, Aldrington (Sussex).

The Committee continues to receive a number of incidental enquiries concerning individual redundant bells and requests for bells. General advice is given and specific enquiries are referred to the Keltek Trust. The Trust is an integral part of any discussion or decisions concerning redundant bells. The Committee is grateful that David Kelly of the Trust is readily involved with the work of the Committee as a consultant.

The Committee plans at its first meeting in 2011 to consider the future working and rôle of the Committee.

Stocklist at December 31st 2010

Ringing Centres Committee

We welcomed two new members of the Committee in 2010 following the Council meeting at Derby. Pip Penney joined us as an elected member and Peter Dale was co-opted onto the Committee at our first meeting after the Council meeting. In addition, Janet Edwards was elected to the Committee after previously being co-opted. We were sorry that Christine Baldock who had acted as Secretary for a number of years decided to retire from the Council and this Committee. We miss the efficiency and dedication she gave and are pleased that she remains in contact with the Committee and continues to assist with the Committee’s work. There are vacancies on the Committee that were not filled last year, and there is scope for the Committee’s work to be made more effective with additional Committee members being available to contribute.

We held three meetings during the year with one being at Derby before the Council meeting and another by telephone conference.

We completed our annual survey at the beginning of the year and responded positively to matters which were raised by the Centres. We have received a trickle of enquiries about Centres, their establishment, our requirements and similar matters throughout the year and also, through meetings, attempted to discuss with Centres (including those which are no longer operating on a regular basis) the problems of continuing to run, the ability to attract recruits and the need to establish a quality standard. The majority of Centres appear to accept the need for a standard to be established, for the regular interchange of ideas between Centres and for some form of inspection or assessment to facilitate a network of Centres where the quality of teaching can be assured. More meetings are planned for 2011.

The Committee has continued to produce its News Sheet and this has generally been welcomed. We still need more contributions from different Centres for this to work as intended but it is including suggestions and initiatives from Centres which could be adopted by other Centres and is a vehicle for problems particular to Ringing Centres to be aired and the achievements of Centres publicised.

As part of ensuring standards at Centres, the Committee is following the development of ITTS with particular interest in its possible application and use in Ringing Centres. There is acceptance that there may be more than one good teaching course and others would be considered but there would also appear to be a number of poor teachers involved in teaching ringing generally who would benefit from a system such as this even if it is encouraged rather than made mandatory in Ringing Centres.

We would like to remind Centres that we need details of any amendment to contacts, websites and addresses to maintain our own records so that we may remain in contact with all existing Centres and if possible, with those no longer operating and certainly with anyone or any Guild /Association thinking of establishing a Ringing Centre so that we can be of assistance.

Janet Edwards has indicated that she wishes to retire this year from the Committee. We thank her for the work and contribution she has made over the last two years.

Ringing Trends Committee

At the Council meeting in May 2010, the report from the Ringing Trends Committee presented graphs covering information from nearly 12,000 ringers. The data presented was totally consistent with all previous data presented which showed that the major trend was towards a much older ringing population with 62% of ringers over the age of 50.

Additional graphs showed that just 10% of ringers today were under the age of 20 compared with 20% of ringers in the 1988 survey. There were also fewer people that learnt to ring before they were 20 than there were in 1988. The report generated a significant debate about what should be done about the perceived decline in ringing, and, as a consequence, a proposal was made that the matter should be taken back to the Administrative Committee to consider what should be done to address the crisis. The question of how to attract young learners was paramount.

There are currently six members of the Committee assisted by Jennifer Holden, who is not a member of Council, but acts as a consultant. The Committee met in October to discuss the immediate way forward for Ringing Trends in the light of the discussion at the Council Meeting and to decide what our next steps should be.

It had been previously agreed that no more general surveys would be undertaken for the present but it was agreed to progress a number of proposals to identify more detailed data about young ringers:

1. A survey of those towers that have been successful with recruitment and retention of younger ringers and how they have achieved that, with the aim of finding “best practice”. This would be progressed as a pilot scheme in the Oxford Diocesan Guild.

2. A longer term project was to target as many towers as possible which had been successful with young ringers. Towers with ringers under 20 would be identified from the database and approached to find out the retention rates for those ringers.

3. Different ways of recruitment, such as “Kids Ring Out”, would be examined to find out which, if any, has been the most successful, particularly with the retention of young learners.

4. University students would be asked about how they started ringing.

A significant amount of work has already been carried out with University Trends, which was reported on last year, and final results will be published in an article in The Ringing World shortly. It is hoped to publish all of the data obtained from the original survey on the Ringing Trends website in the near future.

The role of the Ringing Trends Committee for the future will be to continue to provide statistical support to the Council and the state of ringing will need to be measured again in the next few years. This will enable us to monitor and evaluate trends from current initiatives.

Towers and Belfries Committee

Three meetings were held during the year, at Evesham, Loughborough Bell Foundry, and at The Building Research Establishment HQ at Watford.

James Clarke, Andrew Preston, Alan Frost, Adrian Dempster and Adrian Semken retired on rotation at the last meeting and were re-elected except for Adrian Dempster who was replaced by Roland Backhurst of the Bath & Wells Association.

We have received enquiries from all around England and Scotland during the year, and also from Australia, New Zealand and the United States. Some of these require a simple reply and some require more but we have also completed inspections and submitted written reports in respect of six towers. Some of the enquiries were in respect of the possibility of installing new ringing peals.

The Committee’s main event of the year was our second Seminar on Sound Control held in London in September. Mike Banks is owed particular thanks for doing all of the hard work and Alan Frost for making the local arrangements and supporting him on the day. The event seemed to be well received and was attended by ringers, bell advisors, architects and surveyors etc from all around the country. The Committee considered organising a third such seminar but considered that it was unlikely to be sufficiently well supported, judging by the level of support at the last one. If we are wrong, please let us know. In order to give ringers a source of information available at all times, we are investigating the possibility of publishing the PowerPoint demo on our sector of the CCCBR website.

We have carried out one tower movement survey during the year and have had a restudy undertaken as a trial to verify predicted tower oscillation against actual. This last study was carried out by Mr Gordon Breeze of The Building Research Establishment who has recently been involved with the Committee as a new ringer and as their expert on structural dynamics.

The Committee, assisted by Gordon, believes that those currently studying tower oscillation should be co-ordinating their effort in order to ensure that there is uniformity of approach and understanding. Members therefore intend to attempt to organise a meeting or series of meetings as necessary.

The Committee has been represented at several meetings during the year, between EH, CBC and the CCCBR. For those interested in the subject matter discussed, the Secretary always publishes an account in The Ringing World.

Members have resolved to organise another seminar during 2011, but this time to train those who would like to know how to carry out a tower inspection, and prepare and present a report. This is being set up for September again and preliminary advertising is under way.

The long awaited new edition of the Maintenance Handbook is nearly complete and it is hoped to have it with the publishers this year. In addition to this, members are also preparing guidance for PCCs on how to manage a bell contract from placement of order to completion of work. This is an area where members believe that there is a need for further advice.

Tower Stewardship Committee

Introduction

Throughout the past year, the Tower Stewardship Committee has continued to offer guidance in the general areas of tower management within the wider community recognising Church and Common Law. This report gives brief details of work undertaken over the past twelve months.

Guidance Notes

A key outcome of the Committee’s remit has been the production of a set of Guidance Notes. During 2010, a new Guidance Note was added to the collection: “GN7 - Noise and the Environmental Health Officer”. This offers practical and common-sense advice regarding noise complaints, abatement notices and working constructively with local authorities.

All Guidance Notes are reviewed annually. 2010 updates - revision 4 - are available via the Central Council website, as follows:

• www.cccbr.org.uk/towerstewardship/

• GN1 Insurance and Ringing
• GN2 Tower Management
• GN3 Child Protection in Towers
• GN4 Tower Safety and Risk Assessment
• GN5 Church Law
• GN6 Fire Risk Assessment and Protection
• GN7 Noise, the Law and the Environmental Health Officer

Child Protection

For more than two years, the Tower Stewardship Committee has been helping to prepare the ringing community for the implementation of the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006. This Act had been due to be phased in from October 2009; however the newly-elected Coalition Government announced a review of the legislation in October 2010, the results of which were published in February 2011.

The outcome of this review, along with the publication of a new edition of “Protecting all God’s Children” by the House of Bishops, has necessitated a significant re-write of the Committee’s advice. We are grateful to Chris Mew for his efforts in this area - communicating with a large number of stakeholders, and succinctly synthesizing the complexities of Child Protection for the ringing community. All relevant advice to ringers is available on the Tower Stewardship section of the CCCBR website, supported by updates published in The Ringing World.

Website

Peter Trotman continues to assist in keeping an up-to-date and fresh look for the Committee’s work. All Guidance Notes can be found there, along with any supporting documents and guidelines; all Reports to Council are there, and contact details of all Committee members. Cross-referenced links are good, enabling visitors to find our material through a variety of links.

Other work

• The Committee has offered advice to a number of towers on such subjects as child protection, noise abatement regulations, wireless masts, belfry finances, dealing with complaints and how to complete risk assessments.

• The Committee maintains communication links with other Committees - in particular Public Relations Committee and Towers & Belfries Committee.

• The Committee also maintains communication links with other relevant bodies, such as Ecclesiastical Insurance Group.

Conclusion

The Committee is well served by the wide range of skills, qualifications and experience brought by members. At the time of writing, Robert Wood has elected to stand down from the Committee, and we express our gratitude for his contributions over these past few years.

As well as being pro-active in offering assistance, the Tower Stewardship Committee is also very open to suggestions and recommendations from all areas of the Central Council regarding our remit, our communication methods and any other component of our work.

Bell Restoration Committee

The Committee met three times in 2010: in London in February; in Derby in May during the Council weekend; and in London in October.

Membership

There have been several changes to the membership and composition of the Committee during the year. Frank Beech was elected to the committee in May and Jay Bunyan and Ian Oram were re-elected at the same time. Pat Albon was co-opted at the October meeting. Robin Shipp and Peter Wilkinson will stand down at the 2011 Council but make themselves available for re-election. Kate Flavell will also stand down but is not seeking re-election.

Provision of Information and Advice

We continue to maintain contact with parishes and individuals across the United Kingdom, and occasionally from overseas. Mostly, these are requests for general fundraising advice but we are also pleased to receive news of ongoing projects. We had more than 67 contacts during 2010 and these included 25 initial contacts. In addition to contact by telephone, email and letter, Committee members also make visits to parishes where such contact is thought to be useful. Five visits were made last year and were much appreciated by the parishes concerned. We still provide a service for searches using the FunderFinder system and it is pleasing to note that this continues to assist a good number of parishes. During 2010 we received 33 enquiries (32 in 2009) and completed 11 searches (12 in 2009). We have been notified that the FunderFinder facility will cease to operate in June 2011 and we are currently exploring the possibility of subscribing to an alternative but similar service.

Information useful to parishes and/or ringing societies continues to be notified widely through the pages of The Ringing World. During the year such matters included Gift Aid and the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme, as well as a feature about the legacy we received during the year.

We have completed work on updating the Appendices to Organising a Bell Restoration Project and these have been included in the new edition of the booklet completed during the year as well as being published on the website, where they are regularly reviewed and updated as necessary.

Preparation of a checklist to assist parishes in comparing estimates and quotations for bell restoration work has been completed and we are grateful to the Towers and Belfries Committee for their advice and comments on the draft document. The checklist has been included as an appendix in the Organising a Bell Restoration Project booklet and on the website.

Administration of Funds

As reported previously, the Manifold Trust will not be making further grants via the Committee. One outstanding grant was paid during the year; the other remaining project was only completed just before the year-end. The Trust continues to receive requests for help with bell restoration, although it has very limited resources to offer help; the Committee has provided assistance when requested.

We reported last year that we were inviting applications from the Central Council Bell Fund, despite there being just a modest amount available for distribution. Shortly after the closing date of 17th January we heard that the Fund was due to receive a legacy of an unspecified amount. As we had been overwhelmed by the number of applications, we felt it sensible to wait until we knew the amount of the legacy, as we hoped that we would then be able to offer more and larger grants than would otherwise have been the case.

We had previously advertised the criteria and priorities of the Fund and, due to the large number of applications, these were applied in order to arrive at a fair distribution of the available money. 28 grants were offered and accepted as follows:

Atherington, Devon £1,000; Benefield, Northants £800; Brentor, Devon £600; Buckland, Oxon £700; Builth Wells, Powys £400; Campsea Ashe, Suffolk £400; Elston, Notts £400; Freeland, Oxon £500; Great Brickhill, Bucks £1,500; Helmingham, Suffolk £1,500; Herne, Kent £700; Hutton, Somerset £1,400; Kington Magna, Dorset £600; Long Ashton, Somerset £400; Long Stratton, Norfolk £700; Moseley (St Mary), West Midlands £1,400; Peatling Parva, Leics £1,300; Porlock, Somerset £400; Ridgewell, Essex £1,500; Sandiacre, Derbys £900; Slapton, Bucks £1,300; Stoke Canon, Devon £1,500; Stoodleigh, Devon £1,500; Tong, West Yorks £1,400; Upper Boddington, Northants £600; Wollaton, Notts £1,000; Worcester (Old St Martin), Worcs £1,200; Zeals, Wilts £1,400.

We are most grateful to all who support the Fund; in addition to the legacy mentioned above, the Fund has also received various donations and income from the sale of jigsaws in earlier years. Whenever there is money in the Fund, the demand for grants is invariably very heavy and therefore we are always grateful for any donations or legacies. However, the Fund will need to grow significantly before we will be in a position to invite applications for grants again.

The locations of parishes which have received grants from the Central Council Bell Restoration Fund were plotted on a map in an effort to monitor the geographical distribution of the grants made. It proved difficult to draw firm conclusions from this as the distribution of towers and unringable towers is not uniform but the Committee will continue to strive to ensure that applications are encouraged from all areas and that all who may wish to apply for grants are aware of the availability of this funding and of the procedure for application.

We still hold a stock of Oranges and Lemons prints kindly donated by the ASCY and SRCY during 2009. We intend that these will be offered for sale on The Ringing World Centenary Day and at other suitable opportunities with proceeds to the Central Council Bell Fund. In accordance with the terms of the Fund, the Fred E Dukes International Bell Fund offered the following grants: St Cyprian’s Cathedral, Kimberley, South Africa: £1,000 and St Boniface’s Cathedral, Bunbury, Western Australia: £2,000. One grant to St James Anglican Church, Menangle, NSW, Australia of £2,500 was paid. Further applications for grants will be invited early in 2011.

Future Work

Work continues to make available in a downloadable form on the website the considerable amount of material in paper form that the Committee has acquired. This will support the information in the booklet Organising a Bell Restoration Project. The Committee has arranged a stall for the sale of Oranges and Lemons prints and Jigsaws on The Ringing World Centenary Day in March and members will also be available to answer queries and provide advice to visitors.

It is anticipated that a new Jigsaw will be prepared during 2011 through the kind efforts of Stella Bianco, to whom we are most grateful, and the Committee will support Stella in this project. With the growing emphasis, particularly from grant-awarding trusts, on public access, the Committee is preparing advice on ways that access may be enhanced in the many differing circumstances at the various towers undertaking restoration projects. This will assist parishes in making more comprehensive applications for grants with, it is hoped, a greater chance of success.

The Committee is drafting a series of articles that will be submitted for publication in The Ringing World from time to time and will also be available to ringing societies and parishes for use in annual reports, newsletters and parish magazines, for example.

During 2011 the Committee will prepare a glossary of terms, initials, acronyms etc used in a bell restoration context. This will form a useful aid to parishes and individuals embarking on a project and will include a Who’s Who of useful contacts. The completed glossary will be made available on the website and may also form an additional appendix in a future edition of the Organising a Bell Restoration Project booklet.

Biographies Committee

The last year has seen considerable progress in some areas of the committee’s work. We have greatly reduced the backlog of unwritten biographical records of deceased Council members. Thanks to the ICT Committee 564 old records, which were written up by calligraphers in the past, are now online and available for everyone to read. We are hoping that some of the recently written up records will be online in the near future.

There has been little progress in persuading living CC members past and present to fill in forms giving information about their ringing careers; several people have requested forms, but few have returned the completed ones to the committee. I would like to thank those who have returned completed forms - and urge those who have not yet done so to try to find time to return them.

Work is proceeding on devising a way in which biographical material relating to any ringer can be put online. Our Committee is discussing the best way forward in this respect with members of the ICT Committee. Obviously it is important to get it right so that once the information is there it can be searched in a variety of ways.

The Committee met in May in Derby, but otherwise have communicated by email. Thanks are due to David Willis for the huge amount of work he has done this year in finding dates of birth, etc. of deceased ringers who did not fill in biography forms; to John Eisel for supplying numerous scans of information required for biographical records; to Peter Trotman and Stuart Piper for the work they have done in connection with putting records online; and to the many Guild secretaries and other people who have supplied information when asked. I should also like to thank the retiring members of the Committee for their contribution to the Committee’s work during the past.

The following former Central Council members died in earlier years, but their deaths have not been previously reported:

• James Kenneth Armstrong, Gloucestershire, 1936-1939, attended 1 meeting, died 1964

• Robert Binns, Leeds and District Society, 1897-1899, attended 1 meeting, died 1919

• Frank Donald Boreham, Oxford Diocesan Guild, 1948-1956, attended 7 meetings, died 1978

• Charles Frederick W Eyre, Staffordshire Archdeaconry Society, 1969-1975, attended 7 meetings, died 1994

• Herbert Green Fretwell, East Derbyshire and West Nottinghamshire Association, 1927-1929, attended 1 meeting, died 1957

• Joseph Griffin, Midland Counties Association, 1891-1924, Honorary member 1924-1936, attended 34 meetings, died 15th October 1947

• John Horace Hine, Devon Association, 1965-1992, attended no meetings, died 5th September 1998

• Charles William Metcalfe, East Derbyshire and West Nottinghamshire Association, 1945 only, attended 1 meeting, died 1964

• Reginald Herbert Newton, Shropshire Association, 1961-1965, attended 4 meetings, died July 1989

• Philip Leslie Parrott, Derby Diocesan Association, 1949-1951, attended no meetings, died 1989

• Henry James Poole, Bath Association, 1903- 1906, attended 1 meeting, died 3rd January 1944

• Canon Bertram Freer Sheppard, Cambridge University Guild, 1939-1950, attended 4 meetings, died June 1973

• William Stainthorpe, Yorkshire Association, 1900-1905, attended no meetings, died 1922

• Stanley George Buchanan Wollaston, Guild of Devonshire Ringers, 1902-1903, did not attend any meetings, died 1923

• Ralph Oliver Wright, Devon Association, 1984-1992, attended no meetings, died 1995

The following former Central Council members died during 2010:

• Stephen Ivin, Oxford University Society, 1960-1968, Honorary member 1970-1980, attended 14 meetings, died 7th January 2010

• John Malcolm Tyler, Peterborough Diocesan Guild, 1972-1983, Honorary member 1984-1993, attended 18 meetings, died 5th February 2010

• Douglas Herbert Rooke, Southwell Diocesan Guild, 1960-1965, attended 2 meetings, died 6th February 2010

• George Wilkins Massey, Bath and Wells Diocesan Association, 1972-2001, attended 29 meetings, died 14th February 2010

• Joan Mary Peel, Sussex County Association, 2005-2007, attended 3 meetings, died 13th March 2010

• Revd Roger Owen Fry, Bath and Wells Diocesan Association 1954-1959, attended one meeting, died 8th May 2010

• John (Jack) Percy Sims, Guild of Devonshire Ringers, 1981-1983, attended 3 meetings, died 15th June 2010

• Frank Charles John Arnold, Norwich Diocesan Association, 1978-1989, attended 12 meetings, died 7th September 2010

• Olive Delia Barnett, Honorary member, 1953-1989, attended 36 meetings, died 25th October 2010

Report of the Stewards of the Carter Ringing Machine Collection

The past year has been very quiet with the only demonstration being last May to coincide with the Annual Meeting in Derby. The Bellfoundry had an open day and we gave three demonstrations during the course of the day to appreciative audiences.

Two faults became apparent during the demonstrations and these were subsequently traced. One was a fault in the wiring harness, which has become very brittle and it was decided that, in order to keep the machine in working order, it would be best to replace the whole of the harness. A jig was constructed in order to make up the harness away from the machine, and then the original was removed and has been put in safe storage while the new harness took its place. Outwardly the machine appearance is the same, but the new wiring is modern, plastic-coated wire which should be good for a few years!

The second fault was due to a lever becoming loose on its shaft. It was not apparent how this was originally fixed, and so we resorted to a modern glue which has proved to be quite successful.

A further project was to provide a computer interface so that we could monitor the behaviour of the machine. This is connected via an alternative cable, which is more robust than the original cable. It is now possible to ring the bells under computer control, but the task of monitoring the output of the machine still needs more work done. When not connected to the computer the new cable can be used in place of the old one (which is still functional).

The last time the machine was run, it was very cold and we believe this may have caused the machine to be somewhat erratic with a number of jams. We hope that the warmer weather will improve the situation. It is hoped to organise a number of demonstrations later this year.

Report of the Steward of the Rolls of Honour

The two Memorial Books are kept in their display case at St Paul’s Cathedral; they are in good condition and the pages are regularly turned. The books were removed during March 2011 and were displayed as part of the “Inspired by Bells” Ringing World Centenary Art Exhibition.

The Rolls of Honour section of the Central Council website has continued to be updated with a large number of cemetery and memorial photographs being added - there are a large number of photographs to be added in due course. The website has continued to produce enquiries from both ringers and non-ringers about those listed; Peter Trotman again deserves great thanks for his work on the website. Perhaps the following comment from one correspondent who wrote: “I’ve just visited the very impressive CCCBR website and offer my congratulations to you and your colleagues for creating such a splendid piece of work” shows just how good a job Peter has done!

Further research on those names that are currently shown in the Rolls of Honour has continued. This involves confirming the identity and details of some of those listed. I am very grateful to Yvonne Cairns for her continued help in this respect. David Underdown has also continued to assist in researching those listed, particularly those that I have struggled to identify. Indeed, two soldiers - Private Gilbert Drew of Dinder, Somerset, and Private George Barrick of Great Dunmow, Essex, have recently been recognised as War Casualties by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission as a direct result of David’s efforts.

An article was published in The Ringing World in November 2010 which gave more details about the thirteen ringers known to be buried in the Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery in Belgium.

Fund raising for the new Great War Memorial Book has gone well with over £2,400.00 being raised so far. I am very grateful to all those that have contributed. This total covers many personal donations together with donations from Guilds and Associations. I have been discussing the dedication page of the new book with professional illuminator, Mr Tim Noad. The design of this is nearly complete - the vellum pages have been ordered and I have made contact with the binder who will be making the new book. Due to the great craftsmanship that this work entails it is difficult to put a precise timescale on the project. However I am confident the end result will be a worthy commemoration of the 68 names not yet recorded together with those that come to light in the future.

Alan Regin

Report of the Stewards of the Dove Database

We are pleased with our progress so far towards producing a new, 10th edition of Dove’s Guide, although this has taken longer than we originally anticipated. This is partly because we have re-introduced many of the appendices that had appeared in earlier editions but were missing from Edition 9 and partly because we have been developing a semi-automated method for swiftly repopulating the book’s data content from the underlying database. Before Christmas, we submitted a draft to the Publications Committee and to our team of independent reviewers for their comments, and have received positive feedback.

Perhaps surprisingly, the rate at which changes are made to the database contents underlying Dove continues at the rate we reported a year ago: still more than four altered entries each and every day - and that is a figure measured over the last eight years. A similar number of changes are made (and, surely, this must begin to decrease at some stage!) to the proto National Bell Register data, which now form an integral part of the facility. The combined result is an upload of about 7Mb of data to the Council’s website virtually every day of the year. It is pleasing to note that we have made substantial progress with the bellframe data, and we are grateful to Chris Pickford for his ready help and guidance in this specialised area.

A few statistics (as at 7 March 2011) may not be out of place:

It is with gratitude that again we acknowledge the work of our co-opted consultant, Ron Johnston, and John’s son, Sid, in all that they do to make this truly a team effort. Others too have been most helpful, not least our regular contributors, and also those from “within the trade”, all of whom - taken together - are as assiduous as ever in ensuring that few changes go by unrecorded for more than a very short period of time. Our sincere thanks go to them all. We are also grateful to Anne Sladen for the work she did during the course of 2010 to refine the physical location (i.e., latitude and longitude coordinates, and National Grid ones for UK towers) of each and every ring.

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 29 May 1979 and amended on the 26 May 2008 and registered with the Charity Commission on the 22 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 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
R. J. Cooles
A. J. Frost
I. Hastilow
R. Lewis
J. Newman
The Honorary Secretary is: R. J. Cooles
The Honorary Treasurer is: The Revd Dr J. C. Baldwin

Annual Report: 2010

The final repayments of loans in connection with the Northampton Project were paid to the Fund in 2010.

There were high hopes during the year that the project to remove the ring of 10 bells at Hanley and hang them at the nearby parish church of Stone would at last be achieved. The last hurdle was to obtain Listed Building Consent for removal from Hanley. After much campaigning, including one orchestrated by the Trustees in conjunction with The Ringing World, the hopes were dashed when Listed Building Consent for the removal of the bells was refused. The Trustees are very grateful to all those who participated and sent in representations to the Borough Council and to The Ringing World for its support. It appears now that the bells must remain at the church. There is a little hope that the bells may be restored in the future.

The Trustees received an enquiry concerning the possible acquisition of a chime of bells in Canada currently in storage which could be used to provide a ringing peal. The project was encouraged. The Trustees also kept a watching brief on St John’s, Bollington and Chatham Victoria Tower and St Cross, Oxford in case of plans to remove the bells from these closed churches were realised and bridging finance was required to enable a scheme to be achieved. The Bollington bells have been removed without the need of funding from the Rescue Fund, the St Cross bells look as though they have to remain where they are and negotiations concerning the future of the bells at Chatham continue.

The Trustees have remained in discussion with the Keltek Trust throughout the year concerning other churches that have been closed, and where bells are at risk to coordinate and jointly fund the cost of removing the bells for future use elsewhere if this can be achieved. The Trustees are always grateful to those ringers who have undertaken to provide loans for the Fund and prompt to respond when loans are requested. New promises of loans are welcome and the Trustees hope that Council members will consider offering loans by notifying the Treasurer.

Rescue Fund for Redundant Bells

Registered Charity No 278816

Note 1:
The one outstanding loan to a parish was repaid during 2010

J C Baldwin
12 March 2011

The Ringing World, April 29, 2011, pages 442 to 456, corrections in minutes