A peal of bells and beer
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It’s just as well that bellringing is an indoor pursuit. After almost no rain in South Australia all year, the heavens opened over the long Pentecost weekend in June and didn’t seem to stop.
The wet and cold was no deterrent for about 25 bellringers from around Australia who descended on Adelaide for four days of pulling, heaving, mathematics and beer.
Anyone in the vicinity of St Francis Xavier’s Cathedral will know that the bells are loud, a good 80 decibels plus across Victoria Square albeit a volume control softens the sounds on the southern and eastern sides of the cathedral. But up in its belltower where the men and women of the Australian and New Zealand Association of Bellringers (ANZAB) gathered, it was a chance to socialise and enjoy a pursuit many of them have spent decades perfecting.
“It isn’t a spectator sport. It always looks the same but it’s the bellringers who get the full appreciation,” says Adelaide’s Philip Goodyer who has been pealing bells for almost 60 years.
“Twice a year we get together in a different location. People have come from New Zealand, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth, Sydney and (of course) Adelaide.”
Although the ANZAB cohort was in Adelaide a year ago to host its annual general meeting, it has been six years since they were here for ‘the big one’, a 12-bell weekend.
Not many churches possess a dozen bells hence the weightiness of the weekend get-together which happens twice yearly.
“It’s about the method and patterns. You learn on five or six bells and go up to 12. Twelve bells needs people to get together,” says Philip.
It was a full-on four days in Adelaide with the bellringers putting in a 20-hour shift in total with St Peter’s Cathedral and churches in Prospect and Walkerville also utilised. It is an unusual but fascinating way to spend your spare time.
Bellringers are an eclectic bunch, says Philip, and are not necessarily musical or religious.
“It’s a very ecumenical activity, the majority are not religious. It’s more a physical and mental activity than a musical one. The ability to play musical instruments (among the bellringers) is no greater than the general population.”
Being good with numbers helps a lot, however.
“The best bellringers have good rhythm and mathematics. It’s about learning patterns and takes about three years to be good. There are computer simulation programs you can practice with,” Philip explains.
“We ring by methods (which are) mathematical permutations and they all have names. There’s Plain Hunt which is ringing with five or six bells and is a starter and Bristol Maximus is 12 bells and which only St Francis Xavier’s Cathedral has in South Australia. It’s particularly complicated, there are lots of people ringing different things.”
For anyone unfamiliar with the art, the bells are set up so the ropes hang down in a circle, starting with the smallest bell and finishing with the largest. There can be up to 12 bells and each bell needs one ringer to control it.
Strength is important, the heaviest bell at St Francis Xavier’s Cathedral weighs 1.5 tonnes while some bells elsewhere can go up to four tonnes.
Reasons why anyone takes up bellringing are many – the youngest ANZAB member is just 17 years old and the oldest is 83 –- but there seems to be one constant.
“There is a social aspect, we go to the pub afterwards,” says Philip, with a Saturday night group meal in Unley and trips to the Crown and Sceptre and Saracens Head in the Adelaide CBD on the menu last month.
Philip lived in England for several years and rang bells at St Paul’s and Westminster Abbey in London and Liverpool Cathedral. It is very much a colonial endeavour he says with more than 5000 bell towers in England but just 61 in Australia (Hobart is the oldest and dates back to 1847).
“I know lots of bellringers in America but it originates in England,” he says, with its village life historically revolving around the church and the pub.
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