Archives Occasional Paper No. 2.

Probably the most precious item in the Chester Diocesan Guild’s Archives is a small piece of paper – actually two pieces stuck together – which has on both sides a neatly copied and complete 720 of spliced Treble Bob Minor - see Side 1 & Side 2 (in portable document format requiring Acrobat Reader). (For a typed Microsoft Word document, click here).

This document was found amongst the papers of the late C. Kenneth Lewis, and came into the Archives in 2005. Its existence was known prior to that date, however. Michael Foulds, a prominent member of the Whiting Society and author of several of the publications of that society, alerted the Guild Archivist to its possible whereabouts. In fact an article by Cyril Wratten in the Ringing World of April 18 1969 mentions a manuscript in the hands of Kenneth Lewis. It did not take the Archivist too long to find it and it has now been carefully preserved for future generations.

What, then, is the significance of this 720? It is in nine methods, some of which are irregular, and some even have internal places made in 5-6. It will not tempt, therefore, many modern devotees of Spliced Treble-dodging Minor to ring it. There are more interesting extents and better methods on hand nowadays. And Since Brian Mills’s band first rang a peal in 210 methods in 1969 it has been possible to ring extents in 30 methods, although that needs a fair amount of learning and dedication. Its importance lies in the fact that it is almost certainly the oldest extant 19th century copy of a 720 which formed part of a series of extents of TB Minor methods in three, seven and nine methods composed around the middle of the century. As Cyril Wratten pointed out in his 1969 article, it would not be until 1936 that another 720 in as many methods would be composed.

First of all what is the history of this manuscript? It was given to Ken Lewis by Tom Wilde of Hyde. In a letter to the Ringing World of March 23 1923 Tom Wilde says he had found it among the papers of his father, and he had been told by an old Hyde ringer that the 720 had been copied out by Tom Wilde’s grandfather (James Wilde 1833-1878, the father of the James S. Wilde who went to New Zealand in 1899). The manuscript, then, must date from at least the 1870s. What, however, of the composer? The manuscript says it was composed by the late James Platt of Saddleworth Fold. Tom Wilde wrote, in 1923, that he did not know when James Platt died, but the Cyril Wratten article gives a date of 1858. He quoted a reference from Jasper Snowdon who wrote a memoir of one William Harrison which appeared in Bell News after Harrison’s death in 1880. Harrison had taken part at Saddleworth in a 720 in seven different methods conducted by James Platt. Thus we can probably conclude that Platt’s Crown Bob in nine methods was put together in the 1850s.

The first of Platt’s spliced series of TB methods, the one in three methods (New London, Violet and Oxford), was rung in March 1849 at Saddleworth, and the performance was reported in the Era, a Sunday sports paper. It is very significant that when the Rev. H. Law James arranged 14 Surprise Minor methods into seven true extents in 1910-11 it was believed that something very new was being rung, and thus the Exercise was first introduced to true Spliced Minor ringing.

This is patently untrue, but clearly generally believed. Very important progress in the theory of Spliced Minor was being made up in the Pennines in the middle of the 19th century. James Platt was undoubtedly way ahead of his time. Harold Chant, in the introduction to his Method Splicing, published in the late 1960s, acknowledges that James Platt arranged the 720 in nine methods – although he said it was in 1880 – but he wrote that it was difficult to see ‘how the arrangement could be true’. The 720 in our Archives, with the exact figures which James Platt put down, is completely true.

‘Splicing’ had been practised for very many years before Platt’s Crown Bob series were put together. Cyril Wratten, in Volume 3 of Change Ringing: The History of an English Art (1994), postulates that Crown Bob – which refers to the joining together of methods into a single touch – derives its name from the joining together of the Scottish and English crowns in 1603 (when James VI of Scotland became James I of England). The name first appeared in print in 1702 but no explanation of its origin was given. Thus, Wratten surmises, the idea of ‘splicing’ goes back a long way, probably well into the seventeenth century. Yet methods were put together without any regard for truth. It would appear, certainly according to Wratten, that James Platt composed the first true 720 of Spliced Minor with his three methods rung in 1849. Strictly speaking that was in two methods, since a lead of Violet is simply a bobbed lead of New London TB. It is also true that ‘combined’ Oxford and Kent had been rung six years prior to that, but that is not proper lead-end splicing.

Platt obviously knew what he was about; and he was very probably the first person to use techniques which are now well known to serious ringers of Spliced Minor. Essentially he has taken a three-part 720 of Oxford with 3 as observation bell. British Queen (which is now known as Snowdrop) has been inserted into the first course as a three-lead splice (with 3 and 4 as fixed bells). Holmfirth and Oxford are lead-splicers, so the former can easily be incorporated into the first course. The other six methods all have the same changes in a lead; they are also course-splicers with Oxford, and so they constitute the second course of each part. It would easily be possible to add four more methods: Kingston, Capel, and Tivydale and Spencer (which are Holmfirth-up and Kingston-in and Capel-in respectively). British Queen is not the only method which has a name no longer recognised: New York is Sandal; Nelson’s Victory is not the method which became popular again a couple of years ago with the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar but is now called Navigation, but is really Reverse Oxford; and Glossop should be called Bolsterstone.

It is most fitting that the Platt/Wilde manuscript should have been kept by Ken Lewis, himself a great Multi-Minor ringer and composer. It is even more fitting that the Chester Diocesan Guild should have this document, as it was our Guild which did so much to advance the cause of Spliced Minor ringing. Your Archivist still harbours the desire to call this extent, and just needs five other people to join him in ringing these methods, some of which are, frankly, rather unappealing.

David Adams
CDG Archivist
Tuesday, 26 June 2007