English Change Ringing

Did you know there are bells in Mitchell Tower, above Reynolds Club?  There are and you can ring them.

We would be delighted to have you come visit us.  The bell tower is in The Reynolds Club.  We are in the bell tower on Wednesdays from 4:30pm to 8:00pm and on Saturdays from 10:30am to 1:00pm.  Go up the stairs toward the radio station, WHPK.  If you come to a locked door, use the phone by the door to call the bell tower, extension x24930.  Someone will come down to let you in.

We will host a New Bell Dedication weekend May 8th to May 10th, 2026.  Click here for more information.

You can participate with your house or graduate program in the Haller Trophy Competition to learn how to ring the Mitchell Tower change ringing bells, earn bragging rights and earn cash prizes.  You can see the rules for the Haller Trophy here.

Learn to ring – earn a T-shirt like this one.  Learn more here.

Also feel free to take a look at UChicagoCreative’s documentary about the University of Chicago change ringers.

Mitchell Tower, University of Chicago

Thanks to Kim Schafer for her profile of our tower in her Bell Advocate blog!

With Bells On

If you had to name American universities that are especially pro-bell, the University of Chicago would be near the top of the list. First, it has the stunning Rockefeller carillon which I had the great pleasure of performing on for years. Second, it has a ring of ten bells in nearby Mitchell Tower. (These bell towers are within two blocks of each other. I’m thinking we need to arrange a “dueling bell towers” of sorts.) Only one other American university campus boasts a carillon and ring—The University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee.

Tom Farthing, the fearless leader of the intrepid change ringers, showed me around the tower and the English ringing tradition. Change ringing is a method in which a set of bells are rung one at a time, each by a single person, in mathematical permutations, so that the in each iteration each bell is played only once…

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Memorial Bells

The bells of earth go sounding on
From many an ancient steeple,
Telling their tale of joy or woe
To all the waiting people:
Today they mourn a nation’s loss
In muffled tones of sorrow,
But change the merry wedding-bells
In gladsome tones tomorrow.
Today they sing of victory
With banners gaily flying;
Tomorrow, requiems for the dead
On all the winds are sighing.
Their tone is one: but human souls
All thoughts and passions blending,
Can change the music at their will,
To each emotion bending.
And when death’s sad procession moves,
The bells are slowly tolling;
How mournfully upon the ear
Those waves of sound come rolling.
The bells of Earth go sounding on
With note that ever changes,
And over all the chords of life
Their mystic music ranges.

~William Wilson

from Legends o’ The Bells by Ernest Morris (n.d.), London: Sampson Low, Marston & Co., Ltd. , 4.

Northamptonshire Jingles for National Poetry Month

Northamptonshire Jingles

Pancakes and fritters,
Say the bells of St. Peter’s;
Where must we fry ’em?
Say the bells of Cold Higham.
In yonder land furrow
Say the bells of Wellingborough.
You owe me a shilling,
Say the bells of Great Billing.
When will you pay me?
Say the Bells of Middleton Cheney.
When I am able,
Say the bells of Dunstable.
That will never be,
Say the bells of Coventry.
Oh! yes it will,
Says Northampton’s great bell.
White bread and sop,
Say the bells of Kingsthorpe.
Trundle a lantern,
Say the bells of Northampton.

 

Nine Tailors Make a Mystery

You may already be familiar with Dorothy L. Sayers’ novel The Nine Tailors, a Lord Peter Wimsey mystery which features change ringing. The 1934 novel was her ninth in the Lord Peter series, and it is a good entry point for many non-ringers to begin to understand the art and science of this particularly British form of campanology. The title comes from the phrase “nine tailors make a man,” but where does that phrase originate?

According to the Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs (2009), “nine tailors make a man” refers to the fact that a gentleman must select his clothing from a range of sources. However, numerous historical sources illuminate another meaning related to change ringing: the practice of ringing a death knell, or passing bell. In small villages in England the sickly or ill would be common knowledge to the people who lived within hearing of the church bell. The bell–typically the tenor, or lowest bell–would be rung to mark the death, and people could deduce who had died according to the number of times the bell sounded.

Local variances could be found around Britain, but the universal tolling-bell, or “teller,” to denote a deceased male was rung nine times. In many places six “tells” indicated a woman, and three indicated a child, so “nine tellers mark a man.”

You can see how the bell both “tolled” and “told” the death of someone in the village, and how over the years “teller” became “tailor” and “mark” became “make.” Mystery solved!

Sources for this post

Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs: “Nine tailors make a man” and reference to H.B. Walters Church Bells

Casterton News, Dec. 28, 1916

Wikipedia: “Funeral toll” and “Death knell“

Silencers and the Art of Bell Ringing

A wooden clamp specially sized to fit inside each bell holds the clapper in place for silent ringing.

Ever wonder how change ringers learn their art without continuous clanging on nights and weekends?

In most belfries, a system of louvers can be opened and closed to reduce the sound of the bells to almost nothing at the ground level. Mitchell Tower doesn’t have such louvers (at least, not yet), so silencing our bells means we have to get our hands dirty.

We have ten custom made wooden clamps, each sized to its own bell. When screwed into place, the clamp holds the clapper still, preventing it from hitting the sides of the bell. Voila! Silent ringing. As you can imagine, in the middle of winter this gets a bit rough. The belfry is unheated and there isn’t much protection from the wind. Each silencer goes on with just one rusty wingnut, and in freezing weather it’s not likely to be a quick job. This is why you’re not as likely to hear our bells from December through February: it’s just too cold to take the silencers off.

Want to squeeze under there to put the silencer on?

One day we hope to be able to forego the silencers all together. Mitchell Tower is in need of restoration, and we hope that when it happens it will include louvers that can reduce the sound of the bells and eliminate the need for the silencers. Until then, we’ll keep scrambling up the ladder into the belfry to do it ourselves.

“…A glorious din…”

“The ropes hang through holes in the bell-chamber ceiling; and when touched by the ringer’s practiced hand, the brazen monsters groan in their airy loft above, as they begin to swing on their gudgeons. It is like the first growl of the lion, when the keeper stirs him in his den–but there is no use in their resisting. One moment more, and the ringer has dropped his bell one-half pull, and set her the next–all eight are now fairly raised–hand, ear, eye, and heart of every ringer are intensely strained and engaged in the work; yet, cool withal, no flurry or disorder appearing–

“And through the whole tower there begins to ring a glorious din, which, with the creaking of the wooden bell frames, and a shaking of the very building itself, much reminds one of the noise and recoil of a battle-ship, when she opens her broadside fire.

“Now is the moment for the spectator to hurry up the broad ladder into the belfry, to watch the wild summersaults, performed at intervals, by every bell in the peal. For a moment the bell rests against the slur-bar, turned completely upwards; and the next it swings down, and is immediately turned up again on the other side,–the clapper striking as it ascends. Poor fellows! See how they whirl upon their axles. The gazer almost sickens as he watches their extraordinary revolutions and tossings: but the ringer’s heart is merciless–and when you look at the wretched bell, as at “a thing of life,” and almost expect it to drop motionless and dead on the stocks, a “cannon” is suddenly struck on all eight at once, as if to rouse them afresh for the course of seemingly interminable changes which immediately follow.

“Henceforth the bells appear to roll about in frantic disorder; and, stunned by the noise, chilled by draughts of cold wind, and shaken in nerve by the reverberation, the spectator descends with careful steps from his tyro-visit to the belfry.”

~from The Bell: its Origin, History, and Uses by the Rev. Alfred Gatty, M. A., Vicar of Ecclesfield. (London: George Bell 186 Fleet Street, 60-61), 1848.

Have you been in or near a bell tower when changes are being rung? If yes, describe your experiences in the comments below. If not, come to our tower and try it sometime!

Muddled by Methods?

“[G]reat,” may we say with Dr. Southey, “are the mysteries of bell-ringing!” The very terms of the art are enough to frighten an amateur from any attempt at explanation–Hunting, dodging, snapping, and place-making: plain bobs, bob-triples, bob-majors, bob-majors reversed, double bob-majors, and even up to grandsire-bob-caters. Heigho! who can hope to translate all this gibberish to the uninitiated?

~excerpt from The Bell: its Origin, History, and Uses

Feeling confused about change ringing methods? Don’t worry; you’re not alone, and there are some great resources out there for learners of all levels. Try starting with this post about the mathematics of ringing the changes by Burkard Polster and Marty Ross. You might also want to take a look at the MIT Methods page and the North American Guild of Change Ringers info page for more details.

Beginners are always welcome to come learn with us at the UChicago tower. Stop by during practice to try it out!

Annoying the Neighbors for 400 years

The UChicago change ringing bells have a long history of  annoying the neighbors. In 1910, the Secretary to the President of the University received a letter from a disgruntled faculty member who took issue with some extended ringing on July 4th: “I can only sit in my office and wonder what idiot has been licensed to mangle the sabbath calm of this memorial day with the maddening repetitious jangling of a boiler factory in Hades.”

An excerpt from another letter read: “If I were a self-respecting student I should proceed at once to organize an expedition to drag [the bells] down from the belfry the next dark night…to the bottom of Lake Michigan.”

The Hyde Park neighbors of the bell tower are not the only ones who have taken issue with change ringing. One author in 1932 made his views quite clear: “I do not wish to be hard on English bell ringing. It is a healthy and ingenious exercise, and distance certainly lends enchantment to the sound….but music it is not….The bellringer’s Paradise is the musician’s inferno.”

What do you think? Watch this short video of call changes on 12 bells and post a comment below.

No Ordinary Set of Bells

There are bells in the Reynolds Club tower. And you can ring them.

We’re not talking about the carillon at Rockefeller Chapel. Our bells rotate a full 360 degrees on huge wheels. Each bell weighs between 550 and 2,400 pounds and is controlled by a single person who pulls on the bell rope about once per second. The bells are too big and swing too slowly to play musical tunes. But by making minute alterations in timing, a group of ringers can change the order in which the bells sound.

Welcome to the ancient art of Change Ringing.    Want to try?