Full Peal of St Mary's bells
Ready, steady, go
On September 11th 2009, a group of expert bellringers from across the region performed a Full Peal of the six St Mary's bells.
After some warm-up rings and some practice methods, the Peal started at about 3.30pm and lasted two hours and 43 minutes. The Peal consisted of seven extents, each a complete cycle of the 720 possible permutations of six bells. Four methods were used - two extents each of Double Oxford, St Clements, and Plain Bob and one extent Cambridge.
The ringers rest content, job well done
Such a Peal is both physically mentally challenging, requiring a high degree of concentration over a long period of time, each individual ringer having to ring their bell without a break.
The ringers were (from left to right in the photo):
- Halisi Drysdale (bell 1 - treble)
- Jonathan H Potter (bell 5 and conductor)
- Alan J Frost (bell 4)
- Andrew Haseldine (bell 3)
- L Roy Woodruff (bell 6 - tenor)
- Julie A Haseldine (bell 2)
As you can see, not even a broken foot can stop a bellringer!
