In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries ringers did not have a good reputation. They rang as and when it suited them, without reference to the clergy who had little or no interest in when the bells were rung. Ringers would have rung for all sorts of secular occasions from the arrival of the mail coach to celebrations of the local horse races. Ringing competitions between local towers were quite common with some of the competitions being advertised in Sporting Life and the contests becoming closely associated with the consumption of much alcohol. The drunkenness and other bad public behaviour of the ringers, was cited as a reason for the demolition, in 1792, of the detached bell tower in the Close of Salisbury Cathedral.
In the 1830s a group of Clergy started a movement, known as the Oxford Movement to return the Church of England back to its apostolic roots. This had the effect of re-invigorating the Anglican Church and one effect was to encourage ringers to become part of the congregation and to create organisations for the promotion of ringing that was associated with the Church. The first such was the Guild of Devonshire Ringers formed in 1874. This Diocese was a little behind; the Salisbury Diocesan Guild of Ringers was formed some 8 years later at a meeting in Salisbury on 14th September 1882 under the patronage of the Bishop, Rt. Rev. George Moberly, and the Presidency of the 3rd Earl Nelson, a local man who lived at Trafalgar House, Downton. The first Master, the Rev Arthur du Boulay Hill was a relatively young priest, also from Downton, and the first towers to join did so because their incumbent was a ringer.
One of the aims of the Guild was to introduce change ringing into as many towers as possible. In February 1883, a mere 5 months after its formation, the Guild appointed James R. Jerram its first Instructor of Change Ringing. He was provided with board and lodging and reasonable expenses. By 1887 he was also Guild Secretary.
The Guild was administered as a whole until at the 1901 AGM in Wimborne it was agreed to break the Guild into four Branches corresponding to the four Diocesan Archdeaconries. In the 1920s these branches were subdivided into eight which, with occasional boundary and name changes, existed until 2023 when a ninth came into being after the Channel Isles were transferred from the neighbouring Diocese of Winchester to Salisbury.
Our first three Presidents could certainly be described as gentry, or upper class. The first, the Earl Nelson, a practising Anglican, was a political figure and at one time Chief Whip under the Conservative Prime Minister Lord Derby. The second, Captain J E Acland, lived at Wollaston House, Dorchester, and learnt to ring in the late 1860s whilst a student at Oxford. He was a founder member and first Master of the Oxford University Society of Change Ringers. He also served as our Guild Master from 1904 – 1910 before being elected President in 1913 following the death of the Earl. The third President, also an Earl, the Earl of Shaftesbury, who was a ringer at Wimborne St Giles in Dorset, served for 41 years. Since then their successors have been well known ringers of more modest backgrounds.
The first Guild’s first peal, rung in 1886, was Grandsire Triples at Trowbridge, conducted by William McCaffrey, and included in the band, very appropriately, was the original Guild Instructor James Jerram and also Thomas Blackbourn, a Salisbury bellfounder. Dorset had its first peal the following year, Grandsire Triples at Bridport conducted by Ferris Shepperd.
Moving forward to the period after the First World War it is interesting to see if ladies were encouraged to ring whilst the men were away. It would appear not! In 1921 three years after the war ended the membership of the Guild was 782 of which 24 were ladies, the largest group, 7, being in the West Dorset Branch and 17 altogether in Dorset. [This, incidentally, was the year that the Ringers’ Collect was introduced.] Ten years later, in 1931, membership had risen to 875, but the number of ladies had only increased to 35, the largest group, 10, now being in the Dorchester Branch and 22 in Dorset altogether. Fifteen years later in 1946 following the end of the Second World War there were 1163 members, 93 of whom were ladies. This time the largest group, 30, were in the Devizes Branch.
By 1986, another forty years on, things are beginning to improve with 435 ladies out of a total membership of 1187 i.e 37%. The ladies are beginning to make their mark though; Margaret Godley is the first lady President, and Judith Robertson, the first General Secretary. Another 20 years on, 2006, there are 515 ladies out of a total of 1439 members, i.e 43%, approaching half of the membership.
By 2023, the latest year that figures are available at the time of writing, apart from Peal Secretary and some of the new offices like Health and Safety, ladies have filled every Guild office, including membership of the Central Council, with distinction, as witness our present day President, Master and General Secretary. The number of ladies has increased to 573, or 44% of the membership.
Ross Robertson
