Central Council of Church Bell Ringers

The Central Council of Church Bell Ringers (CCCBR) is an organisation founded in 1891 which represents ringers of church bells in the English style.

It acts as a co-ordinating body for education, publicity and codifying change ringing rules, also for advice on maintaining and restoring full-circle bells. Within England, where the vast majority of English-style rings are located, most towers are affiliated through local ringing associations.

The Central Council also publishes the bell ringers' weekly journal The Ringing World.

Change ringing had developed rapidly in the nineteenth century helped by the formation of the many local ringing associations which had sprung up. However, the need to have a national body with general oversight was increasingly debated, and discussions took place in 1883 about forming one. The eminent ringer, the Revd F.E. Robinson, advocated a National Association to connect the many ringing associations and collect and publish ringing information and performances, but this did not gather much support.

However, the bell ringing aristocrat Sir Arthur P. Heywood still saw the need for standardisation of phraseology and change ringing methods and rules, in addition to representing the interests of ringers as a whole. He saw an alternative solution, which was to have a central “advisory” body.

Heywood contrived in 1890 to organise a dinner in Birmingham for the 80th birthday of the noted ringer Henry Johnson, to which representatives of ringing associations from around the country were invited to attend as a “national gathering”. At the dinner he proposed a meeting of representatives from each association to discuss “matters of consequence”.

Heywood's ideas of the aims of the prospective Council were:

At the exploratory gathering in 1890 there was strong support for the concept of a central advisory and coordinating body, and the first formal meeting of the new Council took place the following year on Easter Tuesday, 28 March 1891, at the Inns of Court Hotel, London. 74 representatives were present from 33 different societies, and Sir Arthur was elected as the Council’s first President.

Two Initial Committees were appointed; one to liaise with the Church Congress and a second for bells & fittings. The first meeting debated the definition of peals which was a strong current topic, and which has been debated at intervals ever since. Further debate took place in 1892 with general agreement on rules for ringing on 8, 10 and 12 bells but there was divided opinion on ringing on 5 & 6 bells. Such was the dissent that the subject of peal “Decisions” was dropped in 1897 and not raised again until 1911.

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