Two local ringers happened to be in Salisbury visiting the famous cathedral clock this week, when they bumped into the mother of another local Norfolk ringer.  What is the probability of that chance encounter? They do say that in London you are never more than 6 feet from a rat, but that is an exaggeration and a more realistic distance is 164 feet, but in Salisbury how far are you likely to be from another ringer and would you recognise them if your paths crossed?  Given that there are only about 40,000 ringers in the UK, assuming they are spread evenly, then you would expect to find one lurking round every 6.62 square km – except they tend to go around in a minimum of groups of 6 which means you would expect to find a band every 40 square km (approx.). Every 1,700th person that you meet in the UK is statistically likely to be a bell ringer, depending on which circles you draw on. So meeting a pair of ringers in Salisbury is unlikely unless, of course, there happens to be a reason for a bellringer to be in Salisbury. "Does the cathedral have particularly fine bells?" I asked.

"No, because of the spire" was the disappointing reply. Like our own Norwich, it is too slender and pointy to support a peal hung for full circle ringing. It is one of only 3 English cathedrals to lack bells, the other being Ely. This got us all thinking about whether spires are a defining factor in whether a church boasts "proper" bells.  There are some exceptions, for example St Mary's Redcliffe in Bristol has a lovely spire and some heavy bells, but in general the more slender the spire, the less likely the bells. Of course some places solve the problem by offering both towers and spires, with the bells housed squatly and the spires doing the "reaching to heaven" thing, but in general it does appear that  a tower is preferable for bells and for obvious reasons.  When places like Norwich cathedral were built there was no full circle ringing so the stresses that such an activity might put on an infeasibly slender structure were not even considered. Interestingly, the second Norwich cathedral, Norwich Catholic Cathedral dedicated to St John Baptist, does not have bells either, despite it being spire light and tower heavy. Perhaps there were no decent ringers in Norwich when it was built at the end of the 19th century (discuss).

Discussion followed on the construction of spires and fibre glass was mentioned, although I doubt many medieval buildings had discovered the technology. Spires symbolise the heavenly aspirations of the builders and provided a stunning visual spectacle, which no doubt impressed and wowed the locals.  But they were never intended to house tons of metal which can swing round and round controlled by a rope on a wheel, so they tend not to.

No doubt people can come up with exceptions and probably will point out my ignorance, but it does seem that impressive spires are not conducive to  peals of bells, which makes sense and makes the presence of so many ringers in Salisbury one March afternoon all the more mysterious.

What were they doing there?