How often have you heard the expression “follow your course bell” and not had a clue what this bit of bell ringing wisdom meant or what to do with it?  Like a lot of things in ringing, the concept of coursing order is quite simple to understand but it is routinely very poorly explained, if it is explained at all.

In Plain Hunt and Plain Bob the coursing order is the order in which you follow the bells, although it is in fact a much deeper property of the way methods are constructed, and so the concept of coursing order can be applied to other methods too.

The easiest way to see the coursing order is by looking at the order that specific bells (e.g. the treble, the 2^nd and the 6^th) pass the other bells in Plain Hunt.  You will notice a circular pattern. This is the coursing order and on 6 bells it is 653124 i.e. the 5^th courses the 6^th, the 3^rd courses the 5^th and the treble courses the the 3^rd.

In Plain Hunt and Plain Bob, the coursing order is the order in which many things happen:

You ring over the other bells in the coursing order.
The bells come to the front in the coursing order.
The bells go to the back in the coursing order.

Your course bell is the bell you follow down to the lead – so you might hear someone say “take your course bell off the lead.” Your after bell is the bell that follows you down to lead – hence the instruction “your after bell takes you off the back”.

 

To complete this challenge get out your coloured pens and paper and write out Plain Hunt on 12 or 20 bells and work out the coursing order. You should be able to see how the coursing order extends to all numbers of bells.

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