As an ART Teaching Centre, Marsworth tower is largely focussed on teaching new ringers – we have busy practices with regular attendance from both our own ringers and many who come from other towers. The more experienced ringers at Marsworth realised we were spending the vast majority of our time repeatedly ringing exercises for developing foundation skills and basic methods. Whilst this was all enjoyable and helped our newer members to progress, we felt we also needed a project which involved some personal challenges – but was still manageable around our other ringing and teaching commitments.

We hit upon the idea of ringing 26 quarter peals within a year, each starting with a consecutive letter of the alphabet – in order, from A through to Z. We also decided to keep this to the ‘plain minor’ category as they were relatively easy to learn and the quarters could all be attempted without a lot of additional study or practice time. Between 28th December 2014 and 23rd December 2015, we rang the following methods – each keeping to the same bell. Most quarters were scored at the first attempt and we tried where possible to avoid any methods that we had rung before, so that they were usually new to us, in fact in many instances the quarters were scored as “first blows in method for all”.

Armitage is the Name, Buxton, Childwall, Doxey, Edge Hill, Fulbeck, Gower, Hempsted, Ingleborough, John Pertwee, Keefe, Lakesend, Marshaw, Nicholaston, Old Oak Common, Pinehurst, Quernmore, Ribchester, Super Court, Thelwall, Upper Brow Top, Vaynol Hall, William Hartnell, Xebec, Ysbyty-Ystwyth and Zomerset were rung at All Saints’ Church, Marsworth, Bucks by the following ringers:

Treble: Thomas Monks (aged 14)

2: Ruth Monks

3: Rose Nightingale

4: Richard Booth

5: Bob Tregillus

Tenor: Simon J O Head

A, B, C, D, F, H, I, J, K, M, O, R, S, W and Z were conducted by Simon Head and E, G, L, N, P, Q, T, U, V, X and Y were conducted by Rose Nightingale.  All the ringers involved felt that the further into the alphabet we progressed, the easier it became to pick up a new method and learn it on paper to QP standard. Both conductors felt that the alphabet had helped to develop their conducting skills.

We were quite expecting to need to repeat methods, but had surprisingly few failures – although there were a few nerve-wracking moments in a couple of the attempts (Ingleborough springs to mind!), only a couple fired out, necessitating a repeat attempt. Because the same band were needed for every quarter, we had to work around various holiday periods, a ringer with a shoulder problem, Church availability and our other commitments so we organised dates for each attempt using a group conversation on Watsapp.

As the end of the plain minor alphabet was reached (such a nice feeling to complete Zomerset just before Christmas!), we started discussing plans for next year. Some of us were keen to start ringing another minor alphabet, such as Delight, Surprise or Treble Bob – to discover more minor repertoire, and this is something that is definitely on the cards for the future. But for 2016, several members of the team have developed rather a ‘wishlist’ for quarters in methods that we wanted to ring but which didn’t fit into the right letter. So for now, we plan to attempt these methods on our wishlist and also invite other ringers to take part. By not being confined to the same ringers in every quarter, we should have far greater flexibility over when we can ring and what we can attempt.

Looking at the list, it’s rather eclectic and involves personal challenges with conducting, composition and ringing – including some of the letters that ‘got away’ – methods we considered for the plain minor alphabet but decided against for some reason. Just for fun, we’re looking forward to ringing Puff the Magic Dragon, Quasimodo and Union Bob. Thomas Monks who rang the treble throughout would understandably quite like a change of bell and has given us a list of minor methods he would like to ring inside in 2016 (such as Double Oxford, Kent, Oxford TB, Cambridge, Single Court, Double Court) – and we are looking forward to helping him to achieve this.

The ‘Plain Minor Alphabet’ Team.