Suggestions for ringing for COP26 and beyond…
For those who have decided they will ring prior to COP26 to try to raise awareness about Climate Change and to encourage our world leaders to be courageous and address the problem seriously, you may be wondering ‘What can we ring that is different enough to let people know this isn’t just a practice, and that might have some meaning?’ we have put together a few suggestions.
The more traditional ways of sending a warning are
1) Ringing Rounds in reverse ie 6 5 4 3 2 1
St Buryan Bells
2) Firing ie from ringing for example rounds, then all striking simultaneously, then back to the previous sequence.
Worcester Cathedral
How about sending a coded message?
At the Standing Committee meeting in October we brainstormed some ideas and one that was suggested involved sending a warning message to the community, the country and around the world. This is poignant as bells were used in the past for warnings (invasion), and we are trying to warn our leaders of the dangers to our climate. As we have the first ever telecommunications station at Porthcurno within the Diocese, the possibility of using Morse Code was suggested. In a popular recent TV series, sending Morse using a high tone for a dot and a lower tone for a dash was mentioned, and this made the sending a message on bells more feasible.
We discussed the message we might use and ‘Save R Clim8’ came up. The use of the numeric 8 and capital R have 2 purposes, They decrease the number of letters needed, and engages with todays text based culture.
The Morse code for this is
SAVE
dot dot dot, dot dash, dot dot dot dash, dot
R
dot dash dot
CLIM8
dash dot dash dot, dot dash dot dot, dot dot, dash dash, dash dash dash dot dot.
To make things more interesting than just 2 bells being chimed or rung, here are 2 possible ways of ringing this.
Click for an explanation of the transcoding to Bell Numbers (This explanation will be used for Jane’s (PRO) Interview on Radio Cornwall 31/10/21 at 07.20)
Suggestion 1
The first code uses a different pair of bells for each word. Based on a 6 bell tower, starting with the 2 and 4, then the 3 and 5 and finally the 4 and 6. (Of course you could use Titums i.e. 1 and 4 then 2 and 5, and finishing with 3 and 6. For an 8 bell tower the numbers can easily be adapted.) There is a small space between each letter, and a longer space between the words, which start again with a higher pitched bell.
How this might sound can be heard on this mp3 track.
.
This is still a little uninteresting so to develop it further, change the pair of bells for each subsequent letter.
Suggestion 2
To be used on Radio Cornwall
It can certainly be argued that this is a bit convoluted but it is different enough that some observant folk may hear it and want to know why it’s being rung, or may just want to know why there’s ringing on a Saturday evening. If we can get a short explanation into our local Facebook page, that will also increase awareness of the COP26 meeting, the fact that bells can be rung for more than just services and that ringers are not completely living in the past!
You are welcome to adapt the message using the Morse table below, change the bells to Titums for suggestion 1 or adapt for an 8 bell tower.
The pdf files can be printed out to put 1 on the floor in front of each ringer. I know of 1 tower with a very heavy tenor who are planning to ring this full circle, standing at hand or back as appropriate as a challenge to their handling skills. Wishing them the best of luck! Would certainly be something for Bellboard.
