Handbell Toolbox

This page is aimed mainly at those who have not rung tower bells. If you are a confident tower bell ringer you may wish to jump to the next page of this book. 

What is Plain Bob Minor?

You have already learnt and rung Plain Hunt on six bells and learnt the three handbell positions – coursing, opposites and the 2/3 position. The first method that you go on to ring will be Plain Bob Minor. Let's now look at how Plain Bob Minor works, sometimes known as its structure (which can be represented by place notation).

The good news is that Plain Bob Minor is mainly Plain Hunt. It is only when the treble leads that something different happens – a place (seconds place) is made over the treble for two blows causing the bells above this, in 3/4 and 5/6 to dodge. This happens for five leads in total and then the bells come round. You can find out more about what a dodge is in the method toolbox.

Let's assume you can plain hunt competently and let's pick up plain hunt just before the treble leads. What happens? All the bells (positions 1-2, 3-4 and 5-6) cross, just as they would in plain hunt and the treble (the person with the red head) leads:

Now, if we were ringing Plain Hunt this row would be followed by places being made in 1 and 6 (lead and lie) causing the middle bells to cross and the next row would be rounds −1 2 3 4 5 6. Instead in Plain Bob places are made in 1 and 2 and the bells in 3/4 and 5/6 cross which results in a dodge.

Note that a bell (in this case the 3) leads, makes seconds over the treble and leads again. In the plain course each bell makes seconds over the treble once.

The above changes could be written as:

X X X
I I X X
X X X

Write out Plain Bob Minor

Write out Plain Bob Minor for yourself now with all the bell numbers written in. Alternate between all the bells crossing (bells in positions 1-2, 3-4 and 5-6) then the middle bells crossing (bells in positions 2-3 and 4-5), just as with Plain Hunt. Each time the treble leads, make places in 1-2, rather than 1-6. Here's the start:

1 2 3 4 5 6
2 1 4 3 6 5
2 4 1 6 3 5
4 2 6 1 5 3
4 6 2 5 1 3 etc...

Keep going till you are back at rounds.

Plain Bob Minor cribsheet

Download and print out the Plain Bob Minor handbells cribsheet.