
When we arrived at the final tower on the Blackburn open day we found the bells to be half-muffled. The muffles had been left on from a previous occasion, and bells always sound good half-muffled. Half-muffled is when one stroke (usually the backstroke) is quietened by a special piece of leather attached to the clapper of the bell. The only time bells are fully muffled (both strokes quietened) is when a member of the Royal Family dies. Stedman is a lovely method, and is a principle (where all the bells ring the method, rather than the treble doing something different). Firing is also known as Hips, and is called as Hips here. It is when all the bells ring at the same time to produce a single note. The switches between Rounds, Hips etc. must be clean as well. An interesting variation here is Que-Hips, where the odd bells (1357) ring together (I'm on 7) and the even bells (2468) ring together to create the Minor and Major chords. Well, in theory anyway. With thanks to Anne Westman who recorded the Firing/Hips for me. This is the last of my videos to be in a lower quality, as I now have a new camera which means I can do High-Definition! :-)
Half
Muffled
Muffles
Stedman
Triples
Firing
Hips
Major
Prestwich
Blackburn
Church
Bell
Ringing
Bellringing
Campanology