Change Bell Ringing
The sound of church bells calling people to worship can be heard throughout Europe. But it was in England that bell ringing evolved into an art form. At St Mary’s North Creake; across England and in the USA, bells are rung in sequence and to a set rhythm to produce an organised and structured music known as change-ringing.
There are hundreds of different sequences, and our bell ringers have to memorise them. The sequences require the order of ringing to change constantly, and are known collectively as change ringing “methods”.
The “methods” go by handsome names including Grandsire, Stedman, Cambridge Surprise and Plain Bob to name but a few.
The ringing of a peal of bells involves ringing without ever repeating the order in which the bells sound. Each order is called “a change”; hence the name change bell ringing. The eight bells at St Mary’s will allow us to ring over 40,000 changes.
We have a thriving community of volunteer bell ringers at St Mary’s, willing to give up their time for collective enjoyment and to maintain the 250+ year old tradition.
Appeal4Apeal provides the opportunity for our supporters to add their name uniquely to each of 100 methods and to each of 20,000 changes. Details of how you can become involved are on this web site in the "Ways to Donate" section. Please take a look. Thanks