Handbell Toolbox

Oxford or Kent?

Kent Treble Bob Minor might well be the first Treble Bob Minor method you ring on handbells. Build up to it by ringing the stepping stone exercises/methods of Treble Bob Hunt, Bastow Little Court and Forward Minor. There are advantages and disadvantages of ringing Kent:

Disadvantages:

• The 3/4 Kent places are "wrong" and can often be inaccurately or wrongly struck.
• The 3/4 places whilst difficult to learn aren't used in other methods.

Advantages:

• Kent is often rung in the tower and people are more familiar with it than Oxford.
• Easier to ring and keep right especially for an inexperienced conductor or band that is learning to ring together.

If you're a novice band, you could try ringing Kent with dodging in 3-4 instead of places in order to cement the other rules first. It is false, but that shouldn't be an issue.

How to ring Kent

• The treble rings treble bob throughout.
• If you meet the treble on the front you must dodge with it and thereafter make seconds, lead and make seconds until the treble returns to dodge with you in 1/2. This is called ‘the slow work’.
• Whenever the slow bell makes seconds the other bells dodge in 3/4 and 5/6 (this will feel like Bastow except that it is the ‘slow’ bell making seconds not the treble).
• If the treble is under you when you arrive in 3/4 make Kent places rather than dodge.
• If you "fluff" the places, remember that whichever of the three positions you were ringing when you started the places, you will be leaving the places in the same position.
• Write the places out and learn the patterns for these places.

When you are learning Kent it is perfectly alright for the strongest ringer or the treble ringer to call out "treble dodging in 1-2 now", "lead end" or "hunt above" (the slow bell) or "dodge above" (the slow bell). Adding structural comments like this can stabilise the ringing and help people learn how to ring by watching or listening for the treble. A two page Kent Treble Bob Minor cribsheet can be downloaded for study and reference.

Ringing bobs

The plain hunt block (x16) at the Kent lead end is replaced by a (x14) block when a bob is called. This is the same place notation block as for a bobbed lead of Plain Bob Minor and it has the same effect:

• One bell runs out – the bell just coming out of the slow. In fact it is unaffected by the bob. Remember to make Kent 3/4 place on the way out.
• One bell runs in – the bell just going in to the slow. It, too, is unaffected by the bob.
• Two bells dodge in 5/6. This dodge replaces the plain hunt at the lead end and results in a triple dodge at the back – counted as 'one when the treble is dodging in 1-2 down, one for the bob, and a final one for when the treble is dodging 1-2 after the lead end.
• One bell makes the bob. This is the bell that made 3/4 Kent places up when the treble dodged in 1/2 before the lead end. Before the bob, this bell first makes Kent up, makes two blows in fourths at the lead end followed by Kent places down. This entails ringing thirds, long fourths, thirds and in. This is the most difficult manoeuvre to make – study it before you ring it!