Articles

The first two articles on this page were originally written for and published on the website of St James Bell Ringers, Mangotsfield. Whilst serving as their Tower Secretary I was pivotal in their entry to the Gloucester & Bristol Diocesan Association's Best Kept Tower Competition in 2002, and for some reason that inspired me to put pen to paper – or rather, finger to keyboard. Since their website is no longer online, in April 2004 I revised the articles for publication here instead. (Note that the second article was originally in two parts, which I have now combined into one.)

The remainder of the articles here were originally written for Contact, the parish magazine covering St John the Baptist, Keynsham, during my tenure there as Tower Captain of Keynsham Church Bell Ringers. These are not the only articles I wrote for Contact, but the others (which I promise were not all given "All About..." titles) are of limited interest or relevance outside of their original context.

Ringing-In the New Millennium

First published in August 2002
Doing our bit – and more – for RING in 2000 at St James, Mangotsfield.

The Best Kept Tower Competition

First published in August 2002
The enormous amount of work carried out following the recasting of the bells at St James, Mangotsfield in 1992, and the mad rush to prepare for the competition ten years later.

All About Quarter Peals

First published in July 2013
A basic introduction to change-ringing and the challenge of attempting a Quarter Peal.

All About Muffled Ringing

First published in July 2014
How bell ringers adapt their normally joyful ringing for mournful occasions.

All About Ellacombe Chimes

First published in February 2015
The story behind the apparatus that allows tunes to be played manually on church bells, with a little history of the chimes at St John the Baptist, Keynsham. (Incorporating revisions from a second, similar article first published in August 2021.)

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