Ringing peals for the Bedfordshire Association
Conductors should send full details (names, method, composition) to the Peal Secretary, pealsecretary@bacbr.org.uk, and pay the peal fee within 4 weeks (or by 14th January if rung in the preceding December).
Peal fees, currently £1.00 per ringer, should ideally be paid directly by online banking to the Association’s account – sort code 30-94-47, account number 01418488
Peal fees are transferred to the Association’s Bell Restoration Fund.
All peal ringers must be members of the Association. Non-members can be elected before the peal attempt provided that the proposer and seconder are Voting Members who are also taking part in the peal. Their election must be ratified at any BACBR meeting within 3 months of the peal. The proposer should make sure that the new member completes a membership form which should be passed to the relevant District Secretary.
Recently rung peals can be viewed on our website home page through a ‘live feed’ from the Ringing World’s Bell Board.
Bedfordshire Association Peal Records
In 1975 Michael Orme undertook considerable research to ascertain the total number of peals rung by the Bedfordshire Association up to 31 December 1974. More recently Richard Hillson has done further work. Taking into account information which exists today, it appears that 2,189 peals (2,141 on tower bells and 48 on hand bells) were rung by the Association by this date.
No official number of Bedfordshire Association peals rung appears to have existed until Michael undertook his research. Michael produced a chart showing how many peals had been rung by the Bedfordshire Association each year in each tower in Bedfordshire, also the totals each year for peals rung outside Bedfordshire and hand bell peals. That chart is in the Association Library and Richard has copied the data into a spreadsheet. Please get in touch if you’d like a copy. Until 1923 the Association rules required peals to be entered into a Peal Book; Association Peals are now published each year in the Annual Report. See below about inspecting the old peal books.
As of May 2023, these peals can now all be viewed on BellBoard by entering the following details on the search screen : – Other Association ‘Bedfordshire’ To ‘1974’ Length ‘Peals” Type ‘Tower and Hand’.
There are also two Bedfordshire Association peals recorded on BellBoard under Ely DA (8/1/1903 Biddenham and 21/6/1904 St Neots (Handbells)).
Entries on BellBoard aren’t an official Bedfordshire Association record, but the information is a useful searchable database which can be imported into a spreadsheet.
These figures may still be inaccurate, not least because some peals are likely to have been unrecorded or still awaiting discovery. If you’re interested in helping with further research, please do get in touch!
For completeness, and to help anyone wanting to do further research, this summary document beds.assn.peals.to.31.12.1974 (1) also shows, on the second page, 11 peals that neither Michael nor Richard counted as Bedfordshire Association peals. Whilst excluding the six false peals and the two peals where the Association was corrected in Bell News is appropriate, there is less certainty about the three peals which were published in Bell News as joint Bedfordshire Association and Ely DA peals but weren’t included in the Bedfordshire Association Annual Report, maybe because of membership issues.
Richard has produced this updated note beds.assn.peals.to.2022 , it appears that 4,349 peals were rung by the Bedfordshire Association up to 31st December 2022. Pat Albon is also making good progress ensuring that all peals rung at Bedfordshire towers, but not for the Association, are entered.
The Peal Books from 1897 to 1920 are deposited in Bedfordshire County Records Office. where they can be inspected free of charge (but not taken away) by appointment at Bedfordshire Archives, Riverside Building, Borough Hall, Bedford, MK42 9AP, 01234 228833, email archive@bedford.gov.uk) on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday with separate morning (9.30am to 1.00pm) and afternoon (2.00pm to 4.30pm) sessions. The 1897-1906 Peal Book is Catalogue Number X529/7 and the 1906-1920 Peal Book is Catalogue Number X529/8. The Association’s 1976 Annual Report (on Page 41) lists Association Records which were deposited at the County Records Office in 1976.
A very big thank you to Richard and Pat for all their painstaking work on this!