Grace Bannister travels to Richmond to explore the ancient and surprisingly complicated hobby of bell-ringing.
Before joining a local bell-ringing practice group at St Mary Magdalene’s Church in Richmond, I thought the activity just involved tugging on a giant rope dangling from the ceiling. I was sorely mistaken.
During my first session, I realised just how heavy and difficult the bells are to ring. The Tenor, which is St Mary Magdalene’s heaviest bell, is nearly 1,000 kilograms in weight.
Like any other musical instrument, the bells take time to get to grips with. It quickly became clear to me that bell-ringing is neither quick nor easy to learn – members are still “beginners” four to six years on in their practice. The bell-ringing session was a perfect mirror of my first time playing ukulele in childhood: my ambitions of mastering ‘Riptide’ by the end of the session were shot.
Senior bell-ringer Andrew Harvey explained to me: “The bells are essentially a big lump of metal on a wheel attached by a single rope; it takes some practice to get confident and capable of ringing with other people in a musical manner.”
The oldest bells at St Mary Magdalene’s church date back to 1680, and the group are currently undergoing fundraising initiatives for five new bells, which in their current state are deterring new members by being difficult to ring.
[It] felt like a more complicated, musical version of patting your head and rubbing your tummy.”
Tower captain Jackie Harrison assured me that the bells are notoriously difficult to ring, but I remain unconvinced that my absence of a musical ear didn’t also play a part.
Beyond getting the bells to ring, trying to ring them in time with the seven other bells in the tower felt like a more complicated, musical version of patting my head and rubbing my tummy.
While the evening proved to be much more technically challenging than I had anticipated, I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Richmond’s bell-ringers and can understand why so many people up and down the country take part in the activity.
In fact, many Richmond members explained to me that their holiday destinations often revolve around where they can ‘ring’. The members mentioned a ringer from Dublin who regularly joins their practice when he comes over for work in London.
And with Church of England law mandating that all churches must have at least one bell to ring, there’s nothing stopping you heading on down to your local church to learn the ropes.