Scawtland!

Hello... 25 hours late, my apologies; I was dancing to Scottish EDM in the rain, I'm sure you'll understand...

Wednesday lunchtime at Bishopsgate last week was great; there were 7 of us, and one of the guys can ring 2 bells at once (it's nuts), so really we had 8. With more limbs he could probably ring more bells, too...

One of the first things you learn in change ringing when you can handle a bell is plain hunting, where you go in and out and in and repeat (or out and in and out, but the underlying pattern is the same):

Plain hunting on 6 bells

Doing that on the treble i.e. bell #1 is the basis for a lot of methods, like Grandsire, Plain Bob, and all their variants. The treble plain hunts, and the other bells dance around it in "the method." So even if you don't know the method, as long as you can plain hunt you can be useful and ring with others. This is what I end up doing a lot at Bishopsgate; plain hunting on the first bell while bells 2-7 or 2-8 are dancing around, in either Grandsire Triples, Bob Major, etc. etc:

Grandsire Triples

Treble bobbing is another pattern, where instead of going straight in or out, you go 3 steps forward, 1 step back, and repeat. Whereas plain hunting feels like gliding in and out, this feels more like weaving, or dancing:

Treble bob hunting on 6

This is what we practiced on Wednesday, and I'd tried it before but this was the first time it actually felt good. And doing that on the treble is the basis for a whole host of other methods, namely the "Delights" and "Surprises." Cambridge Surprise is one of the most popular, which you can ring on 6, 8, 10 or 12 bells (Minor, Major, Royal and Maximus, respectively).

Cambridge Surprise Minor

A huge unlock (although I've yet to do it to a proper method)! Learning to treble bob opens up a whole new repertoire for me, where I can join in with more advanced ringers even if I don't know the method they're ringing.

Then on Thursday I drove up to Scotland, staying in Dumfries for the night. By complete coincidence they have an 8-bell tower where they practice on Thursdays... and it was excellent! A lovely group, great bells, and we rang some Bob Doubles, Bob Minor, and Grandsire Doubles.

It was the first place outside of England where I've rung, and a bell tower map I made came in handy — belfry.world — which I use to find nearby towers and their practices if I'm visiting somewhere different.