It can be exciting to discover something that was previously hidden. When researching for my book on the history of Wokingham ringing I drew on many sources including tower minutes (1935+), Sonning Deanery Ringers records (1880+) and All Saints Parish Magazines (1865+) but before that there was very little. There were payments for ringing for civic events in churchwarden’s accounts from the the early 1800s, and a bit about late 18th century ringing matches in the The Reading Mercury.
In recent years a lot of old newspapers have been digitized and can be searched online – a huge improvement straining one’s eyes poring over a microfiche reader for several hours. But even better, ringing historians have compiled extracts of references to bells and ringing, to create an invaluable research resource, and that is where I was able to find out a bit more about our early history.
The eleven ringing matches run by Wokingham inn-keepers between 1765 and 1785 were part of a local trend in this popular form of entertainment. For example in 1785 there were eight ringing matches within ten miles of Wokingham. The local team was generally barred from competing since knowing the bells would give them an unfair advantage, but Wokingham ringers weren’t mentioned as competitors anywhere else either.
In the 1820s & 1830s there were thirty six matches in the Wokingham area with three in Wokingham, and Wokingham ringers were often mentioned as competitors, which suggests that they had become more skilful – or maybe just more competitive.
A more radical change was that most of these 19th century matches were for ringing handbells rather than tower bells. That’s less demanding on the skill of the competitors, but these matches were organised by inn-keepers (profiting from public entertainment) not the ringers, and handbells opened the market to inns out of earshot of a bell tower, like the Pin and Bowl (which was on Finchampstead Road until it was demolished in 1992).
The records show the ‘Wokingham Youths’ competing in eight matches. Their best year was 1829 when they won on tower bells at Egham and came second on handbells at the Pin and Bowl in Wokingham.
This was all long before ringing for services was introduced.
For the history of Wokingham ringing: jaharrison.me.uk/book/Heritage/
John Harrison (July 2024)
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