oddstruck

This was written for the Ely District Newsletter 'Striking Features'

Reflections from Old Reports (1)
By “Oddstruck”

The other day I was reading the results of a survey carried out in the Diocese for the Central Council. Here are a few of the salient findings.
“The total number of ringers is 773…but only just over half are members of the Association”
“29 ringable towers have no Sunday Service ringing……29 towers ring rounds or call changes”
“83 towers find difficulty in getting recruits and 80 find it difficult to keep them”
“33 towers find difficulty in getting an instructor and 66 say they would appreciate help”
“36 towers are unringable”
“17 towers ring regularly on Sunday but have no Association members”
With all the doom and gloom recently about the nationwide shortage of ringers and the lack of learners, I expect most of you are thinking this is a very recent survey.
Wrong! In fact it took place nearly 50 years ago and appears in the Ely DA Report for 1958! “Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose………….”
Another quote is “comparisons are odious” but I’m going to make a few. Although the total number of ringers was nearly 800, Association members numbered less than 400. Junior members are not given but the survey states that there were 90 schoolboys and 51 schoolgirls, though it is probable that at many were learners and not members. Less than 1/5 of the adult members were women! Last year, the Ely DA had a total of 625 members, so in theory, when the number of non-members is taken into account, it appears that in 2008 we are in a far healthier position than in 1958. 95 towers are listed in the 2006 report as having Sunday Service ringing at least once a month compared with about 80 in 1958. There are more towers of 5 bells or more that are ringable. The number of peals has more than doubled, from between 50 and 60 during the 1950s to well over 100; in 2006 the figure of 162 was a ten-year high, although only 3 ringers (lower than in previous years) rang their first peal compared to 16 in 1958. Surprise Major and Royal feature much more often in the peal columns; spliced is now quite common and far more complex methods are being rung. So ringing must be in a much better state now that in 1958; the statistics prove it! Time for another quote: “Lies, damned lies and statistics….”. Many bands struggle to ring on Sundays and rely on help from nearby towers, as many churches now do not have a service every Sunday. In 1958 nearly half of the towers who rang on Sunday rang twice; nowadays this is rare. Over 100 members are over 60; many of them are over 70 (a few feature in the 1958 report!) Junior membership has fallen over the last 10 years or more, as has the number of ringers under 30. Ringing has an ‘aging population’ crisis akin to the country as a whole. Although ringing at the top of the tree seems healthy, with more and more complex methods being rung on higher number of bells, this expertise does not seem to trickle down to the roots very often, and unless the roots are watered, the tree will die.
And how does life (as well as ringing) now compare to that in the late 1950s? As someone who was not born until 1959 and did not start ringing until 1976, I cannot possibly comment, but some differences are obvious. The subscription in 1958 was 2/6 but remember that most people earned less than £50 a month and the working week was a good 10 hours longer (including Saturday morning for many). Less than half of all ringers had cars and televisions. As for computers, they were vast machines used for calculating and mobile phones had not even been thought of! So the pace of life was obviously very different, as many of you will know – you were there! I am not going to comment on whether life was better then or now; it is impossible to say; different does not necessarily mean better or worse and the same can be said for ringing then and now. What is important is that it survives and develops, and we can all help to ensure that it does so, whatever our ability

Piczo