There has been a long-established tradition of handbell ringing in the Salisbury Diocesan Guild.
In 1887 the 10th peal for the Guild was a peal of Grandsire Triples rung in Salisbury by William Tydeman, Thomas Blackbourn, James Washbrook and Henry Adams.
By 1895 a total of 37 handbell peals had been scored (out of a total of 126 peals for the Guild) – almost all in Salisbury and being of Grandsire Triples, Plain Bob Major and Grandsire Caters.
Handbell ringing appears to have ceased at this point, as the next recorded peal was in 1940 – a peal of Grandsire Doubles in Mere. A purple period of success followed in the immediate post-war period, mostly rung by a Bournemouth band run by Marcia Marshallsay and Arthur Davis. The early peals were all of Grandsire and Plain Bob, but notable achievements included a peal of Stedman Caters in 1948 and Plain Bob Royal in 1949, both rung in Ferndown with Daniel Matkin. Significant progress continued in the early 1950s with peals of Spliced Plain, Little, Double and Reverse Bob on both eight and ten bells. This band ceased ringing for SDGR in 1953.
In 1969, a new handbell band lead by Brian Woodruffe and Roger Keeley in Whiteparish was established and began to explore a much wider range of methods. Including ringers from W&P (and Marcia Marshallsay again) they rang peals of Plain Bob Maximus and Plain Bob Fourteen, Kent and Oxford Treble Bob Major, Neatherseale Surprise Minor and some significant long length peals (10,241 Grandsire Caters and 20,048 Plain Bob Major) in 1979 and 1980. Brian Woodruffe is the leading handbell ringer for the SDGR (95 peals) and Marcia Marshallsay follows with 75.
In 2022, a new band formed in Bournemouth. Starting with a peal of Kent Treble Bob Major we’ve subsequently rung the first peals of Surprise Major for the Guild – Cambridge, Superlative and Bristol – and then last year we’ve scored the standard 8-Spliced Surprise Major and Stedman Caters. So far in 2024, we’ve added Yorkshire Royal, 15 Spliced Surprise Minor and London Surprise Major to our peal totals.
Handbell peals are easier to organise than tower bell peals – only half the number of ringers required, and no tower to find. We sit down to ring, on comfortable chairs – and typically they can be completed in less than two and half hours. On the downside, handbell peals are much easier to lose and our success rate is less than 50% of attempts. Although each of us has rung handbell peals previously, with different ringers, it takes longer to assimilate each others’ style compared with tower bells. It’s harder to recover from mistakes as we ring more by structure than blue line, and errors tend to affect two bells rather than one. Nonetheless, when going well, the rhythmic accuracy can be very exciting and rewarding.
David Warwick
