My previous post, about the interment of the late Harry Dodson’s ashes, threw-up something interesting while I was checking for the report of the events in the local Blackmoor newspaper.
As well as the web page which I was looking for, my search results also included this, a page on a site for bell-ringers, of all things. It’s an entry in their ‘Winchester and Portsmouth’ archive, showing two extracts from the periodical, ‘The Ringing World’, one being from 1939. However, it is the first extract, from 1935, which initially caught my interest.
If I‘ve understood the notation correctly, it records the occasion of the 80th birthday of Harry’s grandfather, James Norris, when a Grandsire Doubles quarter-peal was rung in St. Matthews, Blackmoor (where Harry’s remains have now been laid to rest). Not only was James ringing the tenor bell himself at 80, but Harry was ringing the treble, and in a quarter-peal for the first time. Was there no end to Harry’s talents?
I confess that I have had to assume that there was only one Harry Dodson with a ‘Norris’ as a grandfather in the Blackmoor ringing team at the time but I’m feeling safe with that assumption, for once
It all seems to fit: the then 15 year-old Harry would have started work in Blackmoor a year or so before and not yet moved on elsewhere.
If you're not a ringer and if a quarter-peal doesn’t sound like much, the time taken for a full peal described in the second of the extracts indicates a quarter-peal would have meant ringing for around 40 minutes. And if you want to get an idea of how the changes in a Grandsire Doubles need to be played, check-out what Wikipedia has to say, here. Memorise that.
As well as the web page which I was looking for, my search results also included this, a page on a site for bell-ringers, of all things. It’s an entry in their ‘Winchester and Portsmouth’ archive, showing two extracts from the periodical, ‘The Ringing World’, one being from 1939. However, it is the first extract, from 1935, which initially caught my interest.
If I‘ve understood the notation correctly, it records the occasion of the 80th birthday of Harry’s grandfather, James Norris, when a Grandsire Doubles quarter-peal was rung in St. Matthews, Blackmoor (where Harry’s remains have now been laid to rest). Not only was James ringing the tenor bell himself at 80, but Harry was ringing the treble, and in a quarter-peal for the first time. Was there no end to Harry’s talents?
I confess that I have had to assume that there was only one Harry Dodson with a ‘Norris’ as a grandfather in the Blackmoor ringing team at the time but I’m feeling safe with that assumption, for once
It all seems to fit: the then 15 year-old Harry would have started work in Blackmoor a year or so before and not yet moved on elsewhere.
If you're not a ringer and if a quarter-peal doesn’t sound like much, the time taken for a full peal described in the second of the extracts indicates a quarter-peal would have meant ringing for around 40 minutes. And if you want to get an idea of how the changes in a Grandsire Doubles need to be played, check-out what Wikipedia has to say, here. Memorise that.