Guild and Branches

  • ODG
    Oxford Diocesan Guild Website. There is a great deal of info on the Guild and its branches on these pages, including a history section - its not as good as ours though! We have forums... yeah!

  • ODG map of branches
    A clickable map of the ODG branches - Check out all those other lovely Branches in the guild from the comfort of your far superior arm chair, knowing that the Central Bucks Branch rule...

  • Banbury Branch
    The Banbury Branch of Church Bellringers. Up to date and informative site for spying on the activities of our fellow branch, and all its leaves. A lovely site, simple and easy to view.

  • Bicester Branch
    Bicester Branch of Bellringers. Fantastic and welcoming Branch, with a great deal of helpful up to date information. Click, View then Visit!

  • Chiltern Branch
    Chiltern Branch of Bellringers. Orchard Cup hopefuls... ha! A great and welcoming site, reflecting the Branch and it's members. So will the cup come to CBB this year... stay tuned.

  • Chipping Norton Branch
    Chipping Norton Branch of the Oxford Diocesan Guild of Church Bellringers. This has just enough info for one to find, contact and visit the Chippy bells of your dreams... but why leave the CBB?

  • East Berks & South Bucks
    East Berks & South Bucks Branch. If it's sun, sea and cocktails you want, go on a cruise. If, however, you're into cold, cloudy and wet (followed by a pint of Real Ale), then visit Berks. I can't remember the last time I saw the sun over Amersham - but then I've only ever been at night for the practice.

  • Newbury Branch
    Newbury Branch of Church Bellringers. A distant and mysterious land of bells and towers. Some say they ring with 'strange' handling and sleep with one eye open. So any curious person should click on the link and find out if this is rubbish.

  • North Bucks Branch
    Man has been known to venture far into the north, but never before had anyone travelled to this extreme latitude for fear of falling off the edge of the world! We had probably discovered more about the bottom of the ocean, indeed more about the moon, than of this cold and barren out region of the Guild. But as any civilised people, we introduced Bells, gave them fire and educated the people, and all was made well! You can click on the link and hear their side of the story.

  • Old North Berks Branch
    From Bellringing to nuclear fusion, this Branch has it all! Loads of Towers here... have a 'surf' and e-visit those towers you haven't yet rung. All the organising for a trip can be done from the comfort of home, and without the hassle of wasting fuel and inconvenience of leaving your favourite CBB tower and pub. You could even use the time saved from not travelling to maybe learn those blue lines on-line.

  • Oxford City Branch
    The Oxford city ringers website. A great, active site loaded with news, pictures and events. Nice to see activities, outings and info. Nearly as good as CBB?

  • Reading Branch
    This Branch, like fine wines, I know nothing about. So it was cool to find other English Change Ringers live there and like us have one unified language (which I can't speak). Interestingly both our cultures evolved from a fantastic art form known as Bellringing - a little known about exercise. The fracture in our two cultures occured when the CBB designed (rather cleverly) a 'flag', which it then used as an instrument to conquer the outlying regions of the Guild, and discover other interesting places (traditionally this activity is called an 'outing' and is achieved using carriages powered by internally combusting fire). Find out more using the link above.

  • Sonning Deanery Branch
    Bellringing began as a totally fruitless hobby (much like counting paperclips or collecting European standard size coloured elastic bands from UK state run banks), but this all changed with the introduction of the Pub and alcohol in 1982. Suddenly, on the back of this alcohol revolution, History was made as the Knights of the Sonning Deanery single handedly built every one of their towers. Their cause? The Noble Art of English Change Ringing. When they were done, and the tools returned to the hire shop (deposit was lost on receipt because of excessive wear on one of the stone cutting tools), they sat round their creations and devised ancient looking peal boards (tea staining techniques probably employed in a cliche manner). When they were satisfied, one popped over the hill to Reading and brought back Pot Noodles for all the others to enjoy. They created a beautiful Branch, and made a webpage to share this beauty. A must see region.

  • South Oxon Branch
    South Oxon Branch of Bellringers. Just down the road from CBB is a lovely little Branch with a couple of towers spotted here and there. To find out if they're any good, you'll have to visit - so click on the link and do your research!

  • Vale of the White Horse Branch
    Vale of the White Horse Branch of Bellringers. Yep, another Branch - but a lovely branch. I could get into the story of how the horsey thing was actually created in 2004 especially for Google Earth, but that story would ruin the enigma of this iron age beast (to give you an idea of the reputed age, we now live in the 'JCB' age circa. 2004). Lots of useful info, so be sure to have a look!

  • Witney & Woodstock Branch
    Witney & Woodstock Branch of Bellringers. As with all lists, there is always a final item... good old WWB. If you've read this far you're keen, so sign up for the CBB branch activites and do something more active than 'surfing the web'. Don't forget to follow this link first though!

  • Guild Educational Leaflets
    Another great thing about being online is that you can download things free of charge instead of spending money for them to be printed, a good example is the guild educational leaflets, which I would suspect a some of you will have bought from the bookstall paying your 50p's or whatever for them, but here they are now, they are an excellent little resource and you can print them for yourself - Take a peek!



Other Resources

  • CCCBR
    Central Council Website for all things ringing, including: forms, information and even more ringing links than nodes in the human brain!

  • CCCBR - Bell recordings
    Central Council Website for bell recordings.

  • Bell Ringing Recruitment Leaflet
    Here you can find a fantastic little leaflet that you can print off to put in your tower, or alternatively you could go and order some from the listed email address and get them professionally printed for free!

  • Bell Ringing Recruitment Poster
    Some time ago they were giving out free copies of these posters with the ringing world, but this is no longer the case, you can now print them for free from here or pay a small fee to get some copies printed on to A4 or A3 sized paper

  • Practice Toolkit
    This is a free toolkit that the CCCBR have put together to help individual towers progress, there are posters, learn the lines, quizes to see if you can remember and parts to move you on to the next level.

  • Dove's Guide
    Dove's Guide for Church Bell Ringers. It started off as a book in the dark days but now is a website updated daily (oh how the internet is so fantastic!) A truly amazing work, cataloguing the worlds towers in a useful and relational way - a must if looking for practices, bell details and locations!!!

  • Campanophile
    They call themselves "The online ringers resource" or something like that... its similar to the ringing world only that its mostly free and its online. This is probably the easiest way to submit and view your quarters and peals online as it publishes details to its website and also sends them off to the RW

  • Ringing.org - methods and compositions
    An amazing selection of methods and relevent data, as well as compositions to call. A complete reference for method ringers.

  • Online Method Printer - boojum.org.uk
    All of the central councils methods and an option to enter your own with place notation. A choice of colours and type of print out allows numerous styles to be selected. A fantastic method printer (pdf output) for all ringers.

  • Ringing Wiki site
    A growing collection of articles, pictures and sounds related to the art of ringing. Have you ever wondered about the tax implications of taking wedding fees? How about the different music Bristol produces in a plain lead? What is Plain Bob Doubles? Look no further! Ringing Wiki has these answers, and more!

  • A selection of method diagrams
    I think that these posters/ crib sheets are great for learning methods... there is absolutely everything there! Have a look at them and print them off either on A4 or if you have A3 then it could be put up as a poster for everyone in the tower!

  • Jblueline
    Learn those methods! A helpful way of learning methods, from this website you can access an online version, a mobile phone version (java phones - works on most modern ones!!) and a computer version... A really well designed piece of cross platform software, do try it out, then arrange a quarter and ring the method... you may have seen Hal use this on his old phone or me use it on mine... I can definitely say its worthit rather than carrying round a diagrams book, but please remember iPhone users - it won't work (sorry Hal! )

  • Method Workshop
    A free utility for Showing and printing Method diagrams. This latest version will work on Windows Vista. Download, Install, sit back and Run. A great way to communicate Methods and print off Diagrams for your tower. Steve's a legend.

  • Heaton's Notes on Ringing
    A great series of notes on all aspects of ringing: learning, teaching, maintenance, conducting, belfry humour and puzzles + much more!!

  • Ringing World
    Submit quarters and peals online. Currently only a form submission site, but does allow an easy and quick way of posting those CBB quarters that we're all doing.

  • Pealbase
    Have you ever rung a peal? Well what yaa waiting for? Did you know that you're entitled to this free membership where you can spy on everyone else that also rings peals - apparently Heather has only done 16 throughout her ringing career... is this true?

  • Change Ringing Resources
    Many more ringing links can be found on this page, links that we have not got on our website, the chances are that you will find them by clicking this link!!

  • Stedman Triples
    A resource for those interested in Stedman Triples and how the first ever Bob-only peal was composed and conducted. Check it out!

  • Probell European Bell Maintenance and Restoration Project
    Exactly what it says on the tin. A brief summary of their work which included research on bells hung for ringing in the English style.

  • Hibberts
    Hibberts bell tuning website. An introduction, and more, to bell tuning and analysis. You'll soon have those tower bells humming like a treat, and those nominals octavely resonating above the fundamentals. Or not. Amazing amount of information on a fascinating subject.

  • Ellis and Pritchards Bell Ropes
    What happens when a rope needs replacing? You don't go and bind your own! (well you can if you want I guess) You go to the only remaining ropemaker left in Britain. They produce high quality bell ropes and they now all come with terelene tops, which is incredibly important if you don't want your bell ropes to stretch in weather changes - click on the link to find out more!

  • Big Wilf's Bell Muffles
    So, the in thing at the moment is these new Velcro Muffles - and they actually work... they are a lot easier to put on and take off and they are made perfectly to your bell's clappers. What's more is that "Big Wilf" also gives you an embroidered bag to store them in. Want to see more? Go to Stewkley and see theirs or click on the link.

  • National Bell Register
    A list of tower bells in England, supplied in excell format.



If you've got a link that you would like to see here, then email me.