Wimborne Ringers at Inveraray

There aren’t many towers further apart within the United Kingdom than Wimborne Minster and Inveraray. The round trip is just over 1000 miles. However, many would argue that Wimborne’s bells (cast by Gillett and Johnston in 1911) were the finest-sounding peal of ten in Dorset and Inveraray (cast by Taylor’s in 1920) are the best ten in Scotland.

A long-standing peal attempt scheduled for 2020 was scuppered by the pandemic, but reorganised once ringing was getting restarted for September 2023. Finding a cohesive band that is prepared to travel that distance, and ringers that are capable of ringing the heavy-end (the tenor weighs 41cwt) is not without its challenges, but a team was assembled and travel plans and accommodation were duly organised. Those with serious work commitments took flights from either Southampton (to Glasgow) or Bournemouth (to Edinburgh) whilst others had a more leisurely drive over a long weekend.

As readers of the Ringing World will have seen (in the 8th September 2023 edition), Inveraray bells were derelict for a significant part of their life, but the tower has had considerable attention in recent years to deal with the weather ingress, and the ringing chamber is now very comfortable and spacious with excellent acoustics. We were fortunate to start the peal in bright sunshine.

The choice of methods (Bristol, Cambridge, London and Yorkshire) provided for a good variety of hunting, dodging, places, points and fish-tails as well as keeping our concentration focused over the three hours and forty minutes which it required to complete the peal.

Louis Suggett gave a flawless performance on the tenor – metronomic in tempo and ably supported in rhythm and accuracy by the rest of the back-end – and we were all delighted when ‘that’s all’ brought this physically-exhausting and mentally-demanding peal to its successful conclusion.

David Warwick