Yorkshire Almanac A bell-ringing contest at All Saints Church, Wath upon Dearne prompts an outraged editorial in the trade journal

7 September 1874: A bell-ringing contest at All Saints Church, Wath upon Dearne prompts an outraged editorial in the trade journal

Church Bells. 1874/09/26. Bell Contest in Yorkshire Get it:

Unedited excerpt

If an excerpt is used in the book, it will be shorter, edited and, where applicable, translated.

We are are grieved to read in the Sheffield Daily Telegraph that prize-ringing was lately allowed at the parish church of Wath-upon-Deane, the “Queen of Villages,” where ten sets of ringers competed for nearly £30, beginning at 7 o’clock in the morning!! It has been shown over and over again in our columns that such prizes are not necessary for maintaining good ringing, and as Yorkshiremen are especially able to set good examples in many things without the temptation of a prize, why will they not give up this waste of money? and why do not the parsons and churchwardens manfully inhibit such desecration of the goods of the church? They would only be doing their duty, and be thanked by hundreds of the best ringers in the kingdom.-Ed.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Comment

£30 in 1874 was roughly £2,400 in 2021. Who put up the prizes? Were they inspired by band contests?

The exact date is given in the Sheffield independent, which reports:

Eleven sets of ringers entered to compete, viz.: New Mills (or Holmfirth), Kirkburton (Senior), Kirkburton (Junior), Kirkheaton, Burley, Batley, Penistone, Ecclesfield, Rawmarsh, Almondbury, and a mixed company calling themselves “All England,” but they did not appear on the occasion. The proposed task was two true treble peals of 720 changes each, differing in name and change. The prize was won by Kirkburton Senior set, which had only 408 faults, as follows: Kirkburton Senior, 408 faults, prize £10 10s.; Kirkburton Junior, 613, £7 7s.; Ecclesfield, 680, £5. 5s.; Almondbury, 859, £2 2s.; Kirkheaton, 1101, £1 ls. (Sheffield Independent 1874/09/12)

The editor’s criticism might have been more successful had he spelt the village’s name correctly.

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Comment

£30 in 1874 was roughly £2,400 in 2021. Who put up the prizes? Were they inspired by band contests?

The exact date is given in the Sheffield independent, which reports:

Eleven sets of ringers entered to compete, viz.: New Mills (or Holmfirth), Kirkburton (Senior), Kirkburton (Junior), Kirkheaton, Burley, Batley, Penistone, Ecclesfield, Rawmarsh, Almondbury, and a mixed company calling themselves “All England,” but they did not appear on the occasion. The proposed task was two true treble peals of 720 changes each, differing in name and change. The prize was won by Kirkburton Senior set, which had only 408 faults, as follows: Kirkburton Senior, 408 faults, prize £10 10s.; Kirkburton Junior, 613, £7 7s.; Ecclesfield, 680, £5. 5s.; Almondbury, 859, £2 2s.; Kirkheaton, 1101, £1 ls. (Sheffield Independent 1874/09/12)

The editor’s criticism might have been more successful had he spelt the village’s name correctly.

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17 November 1812: A doggerel inscription at St. George’s, Doncaster, commemorates two sons of ringing master Robert Smith, one of whom died by his father’s bells

10 June 1715: Following the accession of the Hanoverian George I, Tories ring the bells of Leeds church on the birthday of his Jacobite rival, the Old Pretender, currently plotting a comeback

15 August 1805: The Sheffield volunteer infantry depart to fight Napoleon on the beaches

6 March 1684: The highwayman and racketeer John Nevison is captured at an alehouse near Sandal Castle, Wakefield

27 January 1830: William Cobbett rides from Leeds to black Sheffield

2 January 1673: Despite Charles II’s Declaration of Indulgence, Presbyterians Oliver Heywood and Christopher Richardson are detained while preaching at Lascelles Hall (Kirkburton)

14 July 1663: Leeds borough returns for the hearth tax, designed to pay for the household of Charles II

28 December 1872: The tower of St Peter’s, Earlsheaton (Dewsbury), rings a true peal of Kent treble bob major (16,608 changes) in 9 hours 50 minutes, setting a new national record

4 September 1947: Conflicting hopes for the future of the nationalised coal industry, as a wildcat strike against increased hours at Grimethorpe spreads through the South Yorkshire coalfield

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Comment

Re this wave of unofficial strikes:

Major-General Sir Noel Holmes, chairman of the north-eastern division of the National Coal Board, in a statement yesterday on the strike at Grimethorpe Colliery, said that 140 coal-face workers, out of 2,682 employed at the pit, were not doing a fair day’s work. A committee representing management and workmen had decided that the stint for the 140 workers should be increased by 2ft., but they refused to accept its findings and came out on strike. The other coal-face workers came out in sympathy. “As much as I dislike mentioning this fact,” said Sir Noel Holmes, “it is only right to recall that at Grimethorpe since January 1, 1947, and before the present strike, there have been 26 sectional unofficial stoppages, which have lost 33,000 tons of coal to the nation. The present stoppage up to date represents a further loss of more than 40,000 tons.” (Times 1947/08/27)

Holmes’s Wikipedia article curiously doesn’t mention this phase of his career.

I’m guessing that the Welsh ex-Puritan authoritarian Communist Arthur Horner is the voice of the NUM in the above – see e.g. the Times for 9 September.

Interesting comments on the wartime coal boards by T.S. Charlton, colliery manager at Cortonwood:

The management of the collieries is in the hands of men trained primarily in management of mines and miners. They have a working knowledge of all the machinery available and how best it can be used, but the details of this side are left to the mechanical and electrical engineer. Labour costs are two-thirds of production costs, and therefore the handling and the best use of men are of the greatest importance to managers. Why it should have been decided that labour leaders should be good labour directors is, apart from the political issue, difficult to understand, unless it is on the old adage of “poacher turned gamekeeper.” Unless and until the production director has control of his labour side, I can see little hope of his schemes proving effective.

The miners have put forward suggestions to improve output, but they appear to do no more than improve the position of the miner. Can it be said that any suggestion already put forward by the men has put up the output figure? Why should it be assumed the men’s side of the pit production committees should be able to improve output in any way? Their training, inclinations, and very job depend upon their obtaining the best for their electors rather than for production.
(Charlton 1943/12/01)

Charlton was clearly a clever and capable man – it would be good to know more about him.

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