The ancient art of bellringing as practiced mainly in England - although it has been exported in a small way around the world - is a very far cry from the continental carillon, where bells are struck by hammers, and play tunes. English bellringing is a skill that takes many years to learn, not only how to handle several hundredweight of bronze swinging full circle, but also the intricacies of change-ringing. No tunes are rung, instead the order of the bells change in mathematical permutations, called methods; these methods are many and varied. Only the "pattern" of the method is memorised, all else depends on rope sight: an awareness of what other ringers are doing and how this affects one's own bell.

To give you a taste of what's involved and what it sounds like, I've hunted down some links for you to copy and paste into your own browser.

First off, this is what the method, Stedman Doubles, looks like written down:

http://www.ringbell.co.uk/methods/st5.htm

And this is what it sounds like, although this example is a little shaky in its striking. There are too many hesitations, and Sam would have some choice words to say:

http://www.tibenham.fsnet.co.uk/images/newbells.mp3

Here is a video of some excellent ringing on eight bells. I have to admit, I much prefer the faster pace of eight bells, and this is superb striking:

http://video.aol.com/video-detail/grandsire-triples-at-birstall-nr-leeds/1101757068


Here is what ringing looks like. You can see both the physical process of ringing, and also see the bells in full swing, although the sound quality is poor. The video appears to be of some sort of open day, where visitors are allowed into the bell chamber. Note the very essential ear protection the visitors are wearing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umGC22VVOso