Method Toolboxes for teachers

5. Method ringing

5.3. Course and after bells

The concept of course and after bells is something that you can introduce when someone is learning to plain hunt or when they are learning to ring their first method. Some find it really useful, others find it just too much!

At some stage a new ringers will hear the expression “follow your course bell” and if you've not introduced the concept to them, they won't have a clue what this bit of bellringing wisdom means or what to do with it. Like a lot of things in ringing, the concept of coursing order and course and after bells is quite simple to understand but it is routinely very poorly explained, if it is explained at all.

Definitions

Coursing is a way of describing how bells follow each other around in a method. One way to think of it is the order in which bells arrive at the front and the back.
Your course bell is the bell that you course or follow down to the lead – so you might hear someone say “take your course bell off the lead.” The bell ahead of you when you arrive at the lead, or the back is your course bell.
Your after bell is the bell that follows you down to lead – hence the instruction “your after bell takes you off the back”. This is the bell behind you, which leads after you, or arrives at the back after you.

Examples

The definitions are very dry, and it is probably easier for students to understand the concepts using an example or by drawing out Plain Hunt in different colours. It's actually a lot easier to see the concept by illustrating with more bells – six being the minimum.

In Plain Hunt the bells come down to the lead in a certain order. In this example (on the right) we are showing Plain Hunt on five bells.

Your course bell is the bell you ring over before you lead.
You take it off the lead.
If you are ringing the 4 it is the 2.

Your after bell is the bell you ring over in 2nd place after leading.
It takes you off the lead.
If you are ringing the 4 it is the 5.

Supporting resources

Extending into methods

Developing an awareness of course and after bells when ringing is helpful later on when progressing on to ringing methods. Your course bells are the same whichever method you are ringing. However when you meet them and what work you do with them varies with the method you are ringing. Your course and after bells will change when a bob or single is called.

Knowing which bells are your course and after bell helps you ring in the same way that knowing the work you do with the treble helps you ring:

If you know that you are doing a piece of work with one of these bells then you don’t have to worry so much about ropesight.
It gives reassurance – you’re in the right place.
If you’re not quite sure then knowing how you work with your course and after bell can help you get it right.