Malmesbury Abbey
What goes on in St Paul’s Tower?
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From (almost) whichever direction you approach Malmesbury, two buildings are
visible on the sky-line. One is the Benedictine Abbey, about which much is
known and written; the other is tall and slender, but less well known, and is
the steeple which is all that remains of the original parish church of St.
Paul’s. This church ceased to be used as the parish church in 1541, when
William Stumpe gave the Abbey to the town, because "the parish church of
St. Paul of Malmesbury is fallen, even unto the ground, and is not fit to
receive the people for divine service". However, although this was the
end of the church, this wasn’t the end of the Tower; this housed a few
bells, and over the years these have been added to until in 1951, three new
bells were dedicated to bring the total number of bells to eight. On these
bells is practiced the ancient art of Change Ringing – an activity which is
peculiarly English and is due to the method of ringing which developed in the
17th century.
But what goes on in St Paul’s Tower?The sound of bells is both insistent and compelling and few people are indifferent to it. Bells have always been associated with stirring events: fire, invasion and Royal Celebrations, but the surging sound of change ringing is specifically English and is only practiced in countries where the English have gone – Wales, Scotland, Ireland, America (mainly the East Coast), Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Kenya, India. After the World War II, there was a great resurgence of interest as all bells had been silent – they were only going to ring out if there was an invasion! And in the run up to the Millennium, many churches raised considerable sums of money (together with grants from a £3million lottery fund) to get their bells restored. One of these was in fact Charlton Church who raised over £50,000 to restore their bells, which had not been rung for almost 150 years! |
But what really goes on in St Paul’s Tower?
Change ringing developed in the 17th century, when the English were heavily involved in the Civil War, and the Puritans were in control; hard work on Sundays was not allowed; enjoyment was not allowed on Sundays. The change ringing that developed was hard work, mentally stimulating and enjoyable and so was banned on Sundays; hence the developments in ringing bells took place as a secular activity, and as a result technological advances were introduced, which might not been done if ringing had just been a church activity.
Basically,
as a result of these ‘hi-tech’ (by 17th century standards)
developments, bells were hung so that they so that they turned through a full
circle, starting from ‘upside-down’ (i.e. with the mouth of the bell
upwards). This is the bit where it can get exciting as when you pull on the ‘fluffy-bit’
on the rope, it quickly disappears up to the ceiling! With this method of
ringing it is possible to control the ringing of a number of bells so that they
can be rung (for example) down the scale, one after the other. Because the bell
is rotating through 360o, the clapper doesn’t strike the bell until
it is about two-thirds of the way round. So you pull on the rope and then about
11/3 seconds later it goes ‘Boinng’.
So is that what really goes on in St Paul’s Tower?
Well, not all. Ringing the bells down the scale soon gets a bit tedious, and
so the early English bell ringers developed a system for changing the order of
the bells. Here is
their first ‘method’, which we call ‘Plain
Hunt’. But as soon as they got the hang of this, they wanted something even
more challenging, so they devised more complicated ‘methods’, and today
ringers are still devising more and more complicated methods. As an example,
here is part of a ‘standard’ complicated ‘method’ - Cambridge Surprise
Minor.
But who goes up St Paul’s Tower and rings the bells?
We currently have 14 ringers, who are drawn from all walks of life, but these are part of the wider community of bell ringers, of which there are only about 40,000 worldwide, ringing in about 5,000 churches. Incidentally, the heaviest bell in Malmesbury is about 11cwt (550 Kilos), but the heaviest bell hung for ringing is at Liverpool Cathedral, and weighs in at a massive 82 cwt (4.1 Metric tonnes)! As mentioned above, Malmesbury has 8 bells, and until recently 12 bells was the most in any tower, but Birmingham and Dublin now have rings of 16, while Winchester Cathedral has a ring of 14..
So is that all about what goes on in St Paul’s Tower?
Just about, but it is difficult to convey the fascination of bellringing, so if you have ever been intrigued about what goes on in the Tower, or this article has interested you, or you are just plain curious, please DO come and see us. We practice on Tuesday evenings (19:30 – 21:00) and we ring for Sunday services. If the door is open when we are ringing, you are welcome to come in and have a look. Who knows, it could be the start of a new hobby for you!