100th
peal at Heavitree.
Sunday 29 September 2002.
[Reproduced
from the "Heavitree Herald".]
You may have
heard the bells ringing interminably on Sunday 29th September and
wondered why? For a start this was the Patronal festival of St
Michael's Church and seemed like a good excuse for a special
ringing event. But what to ring? It also turned out that
ninety-nine full peals had been rung on Heavitree bells since they
were installed in 1897 so a full peal would be the 100th. It was
decided to try for a band comprised completely of local ringers;
in the event all those in the band ring at the tower regularly for
service on Sunday mornings.
A full peal
consists of ringing the bells in all of the possible orders
without ever repeating any changes until returning to rounds
(ringing down the scale) where it started. With seven changing
bells this is 5,040 changes and takes something over three hours
non-stop with no changes of horses or even a break for a cup of
tea. For two of the band this would be the first time they had
attempted anything this long, while for a third this was only the
second time, and never on bells as heavy as these. But we had
success! No-one went so wrong that we had to stop, no-one had to
give up owing to lack of energy, nothing broke (ropes, bells,
clappers), and the conductor (and assistant!) kept everything in
order and checked that all was OK. And after three hours and
twenty minutes we were able to stop, nurse our blisters, top up
our liquid levels, and congratulate ourselves on a significant
achievement.
The band
stood as follows:
Guild of
Devonshire Ringers
Exeter, Devon
S Michael, Heavitree
Sunday 29 September 2002 in 3h 20 (26)
5040 Grandsire Triples
Comp: J J Parker
1 Pamela A L Miller
2 Matthew J Hilling
3 Valerie Oates
4 Anthony G Osborne
5 P Wendy Campbell
6 Anthony W J Appleton
7 Ian L C Campbell (C)
8 Martin Lloyd
First peal: 1, 8.
First as conductor.
Rung by Sunday service ringers for Patronal Festival.
100th peal on the bells.
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