Change ringing miscellany

This is a collection of notes on change ringing. Will be occasionally updated.

Plain Bob and Grandsire: variable number of hunt bells

From a conversation: what would a three hunt bell variant of Grandsire would look like?

A good start to answering this is to notice that Plain Bob and Grandsire are very closely related methods: same idea, just with a different number of hunt bells.

Grandsire has an even number of hunt bells. This means the bell making a place (3rds) has to do it to one side of the conventional lead end, due to the symmetry involved.

And Plain Bob, having an odd number of hunt bells, can put its place (2nds) exactly at the lead end.

This general principle about odd/even number of hunt bells dictating where the place is can be applied to any number of hunt bells on any stage.

Below are some examples. Some of the variants have been rung and named, not surprisingly.

Stage 5: 2 hunt bells

This one we all know: Grandsire Doubles.

Stage 6: 3 hunt bells

This method is the same effect as if you’re called three bobs in succession in Plain Bob Minor (which comes around).

It is named as Single St Hildas Bob Minor.

There’s also Double St Hildas Bob Minor in case you’re thirsty for dodging.

Stage 7: 3 hunt bells

This is named as Canny Bob Triples.

Notice how it has long 7ths at the back.

General rule: if stage minus hunt bell count is even, you’ll have a method with long places.

Stage 8: 3 hunt bells

Stage 9: 6 hunt bells

A more extreme example.

The number of leads in this method is 3.

In general: number of leads = stage minus hunt bell count (9 - 6 = 3).

Double methods

The many-hunt-bells idea applies to double methods too (so you have places and dodging at the half lead as well as the lead):

Stage 8: 3 hunt bells, double method

Stage 10: 4 hunt bells, double method

An idea: vari-hunt Plain Bob

Start off by ringing plain hunt¹ (on whatever stage). Conductor calls out numbers before lead ends to change how many hunt bells there are to be from now on. Some bells would go into the hunt, some would come out, some unaffected.

Could be a bit of a nightmare.

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