The ancient art of bell-ringing can be divided into two catagories: tower bells and hand bells.

Tower bells are the loud, big bells rung in church towers. They are rung by pulling on ropes and their fluffy 'sallies'. The bells themselves are mounted on wooden wheels which rotate through 360 degrees when the rope is pulled.

Hand bells are much smaller and quieter bells which can be held in your hand by way of a leather handle. They are rung by swinging them up and down.

Whilst tower bells ring methods almost exclusively, hand bells may ring methods or tunes, although change-ringers will ring tunes far less often!

Methods are the heart of ringing and are a way of dictating the order in which the bells are played. A sequence in which each bell rings once is known as a 'change'. For example, when the bells ring in order from highest to lowest, the change is written as '123456', and is called "rounds". Methods are made up of lots of these changes, and there are certain rules about how bells can swap places from one change to the next. Unlike ringing tunes, if one person goes particularly wrong in a method, it is very difficult for the band to keep going - but that's what practice nights are for! Fortunately methods are much easier to show by example than to explain in text, so join us if you want to find out more!