15.10.13

First Quarter Peal Rung

On 31st May, a team of bell ringers (Peter Woollam, Cordelia Warr, Madeleine Harris, Karen Compton, Rev David Smith, Peter Neil and Tony Freemont) joined forces to ring a First Quarter Peal using the new Tenor bell.

A full peal on eight bells will contain at least 5000 different changes.   A performance of 1250 changes on 8 bells makes a quarter peal.   A full peal will take about three hours to ring, and a quarter peal 45 minutes.

A quarter peals are sometimes rung before evensong or a special service,   they are also rung to celebrate an important event. However, most are rung just for the pleasure of ringing a quarter peal with different methods.

Most ringing consists of short pieces (5-10 minutes),  a quarter peal is a much longer ring,  is of a set length,  to a specific composition with the same ringer ringing the same bell for the duration.

Some ringing groups bands go from church to church ringing quarter peals either to celebrate an occasion or just to ring in different churches and using different methods they have learnt.

To view a larger version of the pictures below click on a picture.

Ringers Ready

Ropes Ready

Ringing in action

First Pull

The Rules

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