Hello, I'm Chris Richmond- the man behind this fascinating archive.
It's quite a devoted task capturing the sounds of my home county's historic church bells from contacting all the various parties involved with each tower, arranging the recording sessions, getting the bells 'up' ready to record them and exercising precise bell control in order to capture each bell as cleanly as possible in the recording. Then there is the laborious task of editing, programming and curating all the individual sounds ready for the archive. (See this video for an insight into the whole process.) But where did it all begin? My interests in recording sound go back much further than my involvement within the bellringing fraternity. it wasn't until early 2018 that I caught the bellringing 'bug' when I decided to pursue church bells as a potential recording subject for my fledgling sound effects label, Infrastructure Recordings, which provides sounds for use in media. |
Living in Norfolk, I was aware of the vast number of historic churches dotted about the landscape and was schooled under the shadow of the lofty tower of St. Nicholas Church in Blakeney, where I was well-accustomed to the sound of the hourly strike of the clock bell, which dictated much of the school day.
Although there are no other bells in the tower at Blakeney, nearby was the Church of St. Mary, Wiveton, which does have a ringable peal of bells and I remember hearing them regularly ringing out across the Glaven Valley when I lived in the neighbouring village of Cley-next-the-Sea.
Another fascinating treasure within the Glaven Valley, which I discovered much later thanks to a chance conversation with an elderly gentleman one afternoon, was the Church of St. Martin at Glandford- a tiny village which was extensively revamped by Sir Alfred Jodrell towards the end of the 19th Century.
This historical note is important because it was Sir Alfred who was responsible for restoring the church and commissioning a 12-bell mechanical chime, which still plays to this day, and makes for a marvellous subject to record, as it plays from a repertoire of seven different hymns.
However, capturing sounds of 'proper' bellringing proved to be rather challenging as a complete outsider to the ringing world. I had no idea where to start.
Which churches local to me actually contained ringable bells? And more importantly, when were they rung?
Eventually I came across the website of the Norwich Diocesan Association of Ringers (NDAR) and (excuse the pun) all my prayers were answered.
The site features a handy list of bell towers along with the practice nights- perfect!
And so, one dark and drizzly Friday evening in February 2018, I went along to the Church of St. Andrew in Holt with the intention of taking some test recordings.
I arrived at the church during the tail end of a service, which I hadn't anticipated.
However, once the congregation started filing out of the church, I caught the attention of one man, who turned out to be one of the ringers.
"I'm just going home to get changed- just wait at the bottom of the tower and I'll be back shortly," he said.
Before I knew it, I was invited up into the packed ringing chamber and straight into the heart of this rather welcoming, yet isolated church sub-culture. There were smart, wooden peal boards hanging up on the wall celebrating successes that would otherwise mean absolutely nothing to the unassuming general public, and the ringers spoke to each other in their own jargon- it was like another language.
I found this all very fascinating but the thing that really made me catch the 'bug' was the sound the bells made as they lowered the back 6 in peal at the end of the practice- all those harmonic tones clashing and building a unique, magical resonance within the tower as the bells swing faster and faster on their way down.
From that moment, I decided I wanted to become a bellringer, and so I enrolled at my then-home tower of St. Nicholas, Wells-next-the-Sea, where I was taught the basics of how to handle a bell myself.
Being sonically-aware, I soon noticed that every tower sounded different.
The bells of Wells, for example, sound different to those at Holt, even though both towers have 8 bells.
A number of factors contribute to the unique sonic characteristics of each tower and I was keen to capture them.
As I became more confident with my own bell control, I started visiting other towers- armed with my recorder, and so I began to collect an archive of sounds of ringing at different Norfolk towers.
Although there are no other bells in the tower at Blakeney, nearby was the Church of St. Mary, Wiveton, which does have a ringable peal of bells and I remember hearing them regularly ringing out across the Glaven Valley when I lived in the neighbouring village of Cley-next-the-Sea.
Another fascinating treasure within the Glaven Valley, which I discovered much later thanks to a chance conversation with an elderly gentleman one afternoon, was the Church of St. Martin at Glandford- a tiny village which was extensively revamped by Sir Alfred Jodrell towards the end of the 19th Century.
This historical note is important because it was Sir Alfred who was responsible for restoring the church and commissioning a 12-bell mechanical chime, which still plays to this day, and makes for a marvellous subject to record, as it plays from a repertoire of seven different hymns.
However, capturing sounds of 'proper' bellringing proved to be rather challenging as a complete outsider to the ringing world. I had no idea where to start.
Which churches local to me actually contained ringable bells? And more importantly, when were they rung?
Eventually I came across the website of the Norwich Diocesan Association of Ringers (NDAR) and (excuse the pun) all my prayers were answered.
The site features a handy list of bell towers along with the practice nights- perfect!
And so, one dark and drizzly Friday evening in February 2018, I went along to the Church of St. Andrew in Holt with the intention of taking some test recordings.
I arrived at the church during the tail end of a service, which I hadn't anticipated.
However, once the congregation started filing out of the church, I caught the attention of one man, who turned out to be one of the ringers.
"I'm just going home to get changed- just wait at the bottom of the tower and I'll be back shortly," he said.
Before I knew it, I was invited up into the packed ringing chamber and straight into the heart of this rather welcoming, yet isolated church sub-culture. There were smart, wooden peal boards hanging up on the wall celebrating successes that would otherwise mean absolutely nothing to the unassuming general public, and the ringers spoke to each other in their own jargon- it was like another language.
I found this all very fascinating but the thing that really made me catch the 'bug' was the sound the bells made as they lowered the back 6 in peal at the end of the practice- all those harmonic tones clashing and building a unique, magical resonance within the tower as the bells swing faster and faster on their way down.
From that moment, I decided I wanted to become a bellringer, and so I enrolled at my then-home tower of St. Nicholas, Wells-next-the-Sea, where I was taught the basics of how to handle a bell myself.
Being sonically-aware, I soon noticed that every tower sounded different.
The bells of Wells, for example, sound different to those at Holt, even though both towers have 8 bells.
A number of factors contribute to the unique sonic characteristics of each tower and I was keen to capture them.
As I became more confident with my own bell control, I started visiting other towers- armed with my recorder, and so I began to collect an archive of sounds of ringing at different Norfolk towers.
About the Archive
On the 25th of August 2018, the Mancroft Ringing Discovery Centre was opened in the tower of the Church of St. Peter Mancroft, Norwich. The centre boasts a ring of 8 state-of-the-art training bells linked to laptop computers, which can be used for private practice or rung together as a peal and is a valuable resource for bellringers across the diocese and beyond. The computers run Abel software, which give users the flexibility to choose alternative bell sounds from the default one. After a little experimentation, which proved to be an instant success following positive feedback from users at the centre, it was decided that the bells of Norwich were to be recorded and made available on the simulators, and thus, this archive was born. The archive now includes the sounds of over 100 different towers, which are all readily available to use at the centre or can be downloaded here* for use in your own version of Abel software. *coming soon. |