VE Day 80th anniversary

The Priory Bellringing Reporter reports…

’On VE Day evening during our ringing practice we rang 80 blows of "firing" to mark VE day 80 years on.

Firing is when all the bells are struck simultaneously and is so called because, from a distance it apparently sounds like a cannon firing!

We begin by building up the bells from the tenor alone and started counting once all the bells were firing together.

It is tricky to get the timing exactly right because no individual ringer can hear if their bell is slightly early or slightly late in amongst the rest.

For the technically minded it may be of interest to know that firing the Priory bells puts a momentary vertical load of about 19.5 tons through the bell frame. I'm happy to say that the new (2015) frame didn't even flinch at this fairly brutal treatment.’

Here’s a link to hear the bellringers in action