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

Excerpt

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.

Abbreviations

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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Original

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.

133 words.