Residents of Armidale were treated to three days of bell ringing to mark the 16th anniversary of the installation of the eight bells in the tower of Armidale’s St Peter’s Cathedral from October 27-29, 2012. Ringers came from across NSW to celebrate the occasion with their colleagues in Armidale.
The bells were installed in September 1996 and were cast at the Whitechapel Bell Foundry in London, which has been producing bells for more than 400 years. In Armidale, there are eight bell ringers, from as young as 16 to over 70.
“What it requires is not physical strength but good hand eye coordination, concentration and teamwork,” said Armidale Tower Captain Simon McMillan.
“You are actually playing a musical instrument with six or eight other people.”
The sounds that are heard ringing across Armidale vary from standard call changes where the conductor tells the bell ringers where to ring, to patterns called methods, where the conductor doesn’t need to say much at all, as the ringers know the patterns they have to follow.
“It’s permutations and combinations from mathematics. For example, on five bells, the number of patterns you can ring is 120 and on eight bells there are 42,000, so you can imagine just how many combinations are possible,” said Simon.
Armidale resident Lois Beaton began bell ringing whilst a student at the University of London where she learnt to ring as a member of the University Society in 1957. Once Lois was married, she travelled to Australia with her husband, first living in Canberra for a year where there were no bells and then moving to Armidale where again there were no bells until 1996.
“I couldn’t ring for 34 years, so I jumped at the chance to join the bell ringers in 1996,” said Lois.
“Even after such a long time away from bell ringing, I was surprised at how well it all came back to me, although it did take a little while; it wasn’t instant.
“In six months or so I knew far more about ringing than I had ever learnt when I was a student. I went about it in a different way and there were more books about to learn from.”
The rhythm of the movement and the rhythm of the sound are what Lois enjoys most about bell ringing.
“When the ringers are going really well and sounding very even, there is such a sense of achievement,” Lois said.
