Page 21 - January Phonebox Magazine 2012

Bellringing ‘The Nine Tailors’ by Dorothy L. Sayers – Fact or Fiction?
Ringing News for
January 2012 – Happy
New Year, Everyone!
On Wednesday, 4th January the Northants Mid-week Group are planning a visit. There will be about 20 of them (depending on the weather!) – a mixed bunch of ringers, mainly from Northamptonshire and Bedfordshire. The group have visited Olney before, in September 2010, and the request to return came from those who were unable to come then. They are ringing in Olney from 2-2.45, then will be moving on to Emberton. We are glad to welcome them again and hope the ringers who have not yet tried our refurbished bells enjoy them as much as we do.
The January Peal Attempt will take place on Saturday, 21st January 2012 starting at 10.00 am and will be rung by the South Northants Society, comprising of friends some of whom have rung together for over 30 years, probably conducted by Andrew Haseldine. Such an experienced band of ringers hardly needs wishing “Good Luck” but we do hope the weather stays kind for them and they have an enjoyable time.
Helen Dilley
From this question regular readers of this column may think that I have ‘lost the plot’ and written one bells related story too many. Dorothy Sayers was a very accomplished crime fiction writer so of course it is fiction. Yes, but what about the ringing events and facts in the novel itself; are they fact or fiction?
It is the case that the author carried out a lot of background research before writing this book and actually learnt to ring a bell as part of that research. All of the technical looking jargon at the start of each paragraph is correct and is taken from a famous ringing related book of the time. It is also true that it can be fatal to be too close to a peal of bells in the actual belfry while they are in changes especially, as is the case in this book, when the louvres are blocked by snow. The multiple harmonics and sheer volume of sound would rupture the eardrums very quickly and then impact other soft organs of the body in the same way; not exactly a pleasant or painless death, but mercifully quick.
But what of the bells described in the book and that peal. At the start of the book Lord Peter Wimsey and his butler Bunter have a car accident in the fens, in heavy snow near the village and church of Fenchurch St Paul. It also happens to be New Years eve. They are taken in by the Rector who just happens to be one ringer short for a peal attempt on the eight bells starting just after midnight. One of Lord Peter’s many talents also just happens to be campanology so after just surviving a nasty car crash he then volunteers to ring in a peal later that night.
So just after midnight, in the early minutes of the New Year, they go into changes at the start of the peal. But this is no ordinary peal and these are no ordinary bells. They are attempting to ring a peal 15,840
changes long in a method called Kent Treble Bob Major (that is over three times the length of a normal peal at just over 5000 changes which is what we attempt at Olney on the third Saturday of each month). The bells have a tenor weighing 41 cwt. (over 2 tons) which would make it the second heaviest peal of eight in the world after that at Sherborne Abbey. On these weight of bells a normal length peal would take anywhere between 3 hours 45 minutes and 4 hours to ring and would definitely require a very fit and experienced band of ringers.
They ring this peal in just over 9 hours and 13 minutes, which in reality should have taken at least 12 hours. The ringer of the tenor was a gnarled little man called Hezekiah Lavender who had been ringing that bell for over 60 years so must have been in his late 70’s at least. They also used an extra ringer to step in and ring if anyone of them wanted a break; this has not been allowed in peal ringing for over 200 years and would have invalidated the performance. The story is set between the wars and for huge fenland towers like Fenchurch St. Paul it would be a good 70 years before the subject of sound control and limiting ringing time would even be mentioned.
So we have an unusually long peal, rung in an impossibly quick time, with an aged old man ringing the extremely heavy tenor from midnight to after 9.00 in the morning......definitely fiction but it is a great story and well worth a read. If you want a break from Agatha Christie try Dorothy Sayers. An old fashion book printed on paper; that would be an original present this Christmas.
Best wishes David Phillipson
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Phonebox Magazine 21