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Terminology

Introduction
Bell Ringing, formally known as Campanology is a very British art. It has developed over the past 300 years, and there are more than 5000 different rings of 5 or bells in the United Kingdom, and there are a handful of rings in countries such as the United States, New Zealand, Australia and South Africa.

The English style of ringing bells involves beginning by ringing from the highest note bell to the deepest, called rounds. This can then be followed by intricate patterns or methods in order to produce different musical combinations.

Methods range from very simple to very difficult, usually depending on the number of bells. For example, Plain Hunt Singles [singles = 3 bells] is the following:

123 [rounds]
213
231
321
312
132
123 [rounds]

As you can see, each of the possible combinations of three bells is rung, when this is done it is called an extent. The extent of singles is 6 [3x2x1], the extent of minimus [four bells] is 24, doubles [5 bells] is 120, minor [6] is 720, triples [7] is 5040, major [8] is 40,320, Caters [9] is 362880, Royal [10] is 3628800, Cinques [11] is 39916800, and maximus [12] is 479001600.

On tower bells, it would take around 17 hours to ring every possible combination of 8 bells - this has been done! However, a non-stop performance of 5000 or more changes at any level from singles and above is known as a 'peal' - of which hundreds are rung every year.

In order to achieve a peal, the band of ringers ring a method, or a collection of several different methods for between 2-3 hours. The more bells, the longer it takes to complete each change or row, and therefore it takes longer to achieve 5000 or more changes.

To achieve a peal, the order of bells must be changed in order to achieve 5000 or more different changes, or, in the case of minor and below, the extent [720 changes, or less] must be rung 7 [or more than 7] times. The order of the bells is changed by the band ringing a composition - which is akin to a set of instructions that is communicated to the rest of the band by a designated conductor. Compositions are what you will find on this site.

A Quarter peal is a performance on 1250 changes or more performed in the same way as a peal, but about a quarter of the time taken.

The compositions you will find on this site denote when a conductor must change the order in order to achieve the relevant number of changes in the allotted method.

By Central Council rules, Peals must be true or in other words, each change has to be rung once before any other change can be repeated [for minor], above minor, for a true peal, no change can be repeated - this is why compositions are important, and why they can vary so much from very simple to very complicated.