Getting roped in (From Bournemouth Echo)

Getting roped in

7:00am Monday 6th July 2009

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I’M standing in the tower of Shapwick’s Grade I listed Church of St Bartholomew with a bell rope in my hands and an anxious expression on my face.

Despite the reassurances of villager Vernon Hunt, the idea of pulling a bell more than three times my own body weight fills me with trepidation and visions of hurtling into the belfry above.

But with Vernon’s guidance (he is doing most of the work, catching the rope as it rises) my erratic pulls become steadily smoother until the weight of the bell is barely noticeable.

Luckily for people living in nearby villages, my attempts are audible only through speakers in the church, thanks to a “silent” bell system, activated by computer sensors mounted on the bell frame.

In May, the bells of St Bartholomew’s were heard across the village for the first time in nearly half-a-century thanks to a £75,000 restoration project driven by the villagers with the blessing of the Parochial Church Council (PCC).

Four of the bells hanging in the belfry have been restored by Whites of Appleton in Oxfordshire, with the tenor and third both dated 1380, the treble dated 1768, and the second dated 1912.

A brand new fifth bell was made earlier this year by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry, with the Shapwick band travelling to East London to see their new treble cast from a molten mix of tin, brass, and silver.

I am granted a close-up view of the new and restored hardware, climbing a narrow iron ladder, firstly into the clock room, before ascending further up the 14th century tower into the belfry.

I pass through the same small, square hatch used, remarkably, to hoist the bells on to an ancient oak frame, skilfully restored in situ by Dorset craftsman Ian Robberts.

All five bells were hung in a single day in May using a block and chain hoist, with three volunteers from the village supervised by a small team from Whites of Appleton.

The professionals remained at St Bartholomew’s for a few days afterwards, Vernon adds, to make adjustments and to attach five bell ropes donated by the ringers of St Mary’s church in Sturminster Marshall.

The bells look enormous, with the 630-year-old tenor weighing in at 375kg, and even the lighter treble tipping the scales at a sizeable 200kg.

Both are dwarfed, Vernon assures me, by the largest of Sherborne Abbey’s eight bells, a 1700kg tenor, the largest in the country.

My nerve has failed me at the belfry’s first platform, and I crouch nervously beside bells four and five, admiring the beautiful wooden wheels on which they are mounted.

Circular bell ringing is exclusive to the British Isles and its former colonies, Vernon tells me, with “bands” of ringers skilfully controlling the movement of the bells in a 360 degree arc from “down” to “top dead centre”.

Development of the two-handed rope technique with which the movement of the bell is controlled is, Vernon assures me “a lifetime’s apprenticeship” and after my brief effort, I can readily believe him.

I quickly learn to look straight ahead rather than up, aiding my balance and forcing me to rely on my hearing for the task at hand, rather than my eyes.

“You ring with your ears,” says Vernon, who stands directly in front of me skilfully catching the rope at the fabric-covered “Sally” as it heads skyward, while I hold the tail end.

Like most skills, it is most readily acquired at a younger age, he continues, and the band at Shapwick includes two 10-year-old trainees.

Tuesday night practice sessions bring would-be ringers of all ages and abilities to the tiny East Dorset village from across the district.

Shapwick’s band is one of many in the area, says Vernon, with active teams of ringers at churches in Corfe Mullen, Spetisbury, and Sturminster Marshall, among others.

Bands spend long hours learning the complicated peals, known as “methods,” plotted in graph-like patterns in the ringers’ equivalent of sheet music.

Each method starts with the treble and a cry among the ringers of “Look to”, before they launch into complex patterns with wonderful names like Superlative Surprise Major and Triton Delight Royal.

Margaret Wetenhall, the chairman of the Shapwick Community Trust, has been the restoration’s driving force, gaining the backing of the parochial church council, and persuading waste giant, SITA, to invest £47,000 in the project.

A desire to restore a tradition lost to Shapwick after centuries in the 1960s had been the villagers’ motivation, said Mrs Wetenhall.

Former resident, William Wake, the Archbishop of Canterbury for over 20 years in the early 18th century, would have been among those called to prayer by the venerable bells again ready for use, she adds.

Former Bishop of Sherborne, Rev John Kirkham, will rededicate the bells on July 26.

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