My Bell Tower

I imagine that many people who enjoy any sort of activity that relies on either major infrastructure or expensive equipment have a desire to create their own set-up to play with. Whether it's railway enthusiasts building extensive model layouts (or even miniature live-steam railways in their gardens), or body-builders creating home gyms, we all just want to continue the fun of our chosen activity when the specialist facilities aren't available, and ideally without leaving the comfort of our own home.

My particular activity was tower bell ringing, in which I had enjoyed participating for nearly thirty years when I finally decided I'd had enough of the strong church influence and walked away. Fortunately, within that time I'd become familiar with the technology of bell ringing simulator software – which, within the tower, allows for the clappers to be tied so the bells don't sound, while sensors detect the bells turning and tell a computer in the Ringing Room when to "ring" – and as I was far from alone in wanting to continue my ringing at home, various options for "dumbbells" were readily available.

Choosing my preferred dumbbell – literally, a dumb or voiceless bell – was in fact the easiest part, because I didn't just want a weighted wheel to simulate the feel of a tower bell – I wanted a miniature version of the real thing, and the John Norris Dumbbell ticked all the boxes for me. Specifically, its supplied papier-mâché bell was big enough to allow room for the turned wooden bell I'd acquired thirteen years earlier and which I planned to hang in its place. And because I wanted to see my bell as well as ring it, mounting the bell-frame above the ceiling (either in an upstairs cupboard; or, if I'd wanted to ring it upstairs, in the attic) wasn't going to suit me, so I built a tower from IKEA shelving components, acquired some ceiling-mountable pulleys from Maypole Bells (another manufacturer of dumbbells, albeit of the "weighted wheel" variety) and created what you can see in the photo.

Find out about the Ringing for Special Occasions I've performed on my bell (with plenty more planned – in addition to ringing just for fun, of course), and the Compositions I've rung on many of those occasions; or read on to learn how my bell, bell-frame and tower all came together.

The bell

On 30th January 2009 I brought home a turned wooden bell, 7¾ inches in diameter, that was once hung for full-circle ringing in a home-made miniature timber bell-frame in the Ringing Room at the church of St Mary the Virgin, Olveston. Turned by the father of the Tower Captain who had recently emigrated abroad, this bell was previously used as a demonstration piece for novice ringers and visitors, until it and its frame were removed by the Tower Captain prior to his departure, and all was destined to become firewood.

At the time I was a regular visitor to the Friday evening ringing practices at Olveston, and in the neighbouring pub after one such practice the subject of this would-be firewood came up. Evidently some of it had found its way to one of the other ringers, and in amongst it was the bell. I recall it being deemed "too good for firewood", but the only other use the ringer in question had for it was as a garden ornament (which in time would no doubt have resulted in its complete loss through deterioration). In short, it wasn't really wanted, so I expressed my interest and a week later was delighted to receive it.

The bell came complete with a hardwood clapper which at Olveston had always been heavily padded in order not to make any noise. Initially I included the clapper when I hung the bell in my "John Norris" frame on 18th January 2025, although it was clear that the dynamics didn't match those of a full-sized bell's clapper and as such it didn't strike the bell at the correct time. Even with the addition of some padding the noise of the clapper rattling inside the bell was too much of a distraction when on 8th March 2025 I first rang it (which, with a simulator, I have always preferred to do solely by listening to the other bells, rather than watching any on-screen animations of ringers or ropes that the software might provide), so it wasn't long before I removed it entirely. However, I will of course keep it with the bell, as it is a part of its history.

The bell-frame

John Norris has been producing his dumbbells since 2003 and has made more than one hundred of them, all but ten being sold either to existing "full-size" towers as demonstration bells (indeed, my first experience of a John Norris dumbbell was borrowing one from the ringers at All Saints, Littleton Drew, Somerset for a publicity event in Keynsham), or to ringers like me who want to enjoy their ringing at home. The remaining ten John keeps at home, with eight in the roofspace of his garage comprising The Wickham Ring that was completed in April 2008.

Construction of my own dumbbell began on 16th November 2021 as one of a small batch of four, John's second batch of 2021. It was completed as No.102 on 20th January 2022, and I brought it home to Lyndenlea, Mangotsfield on 9th March 2022. I very quickly set about testing playing with it as it sat on the floor, raising and ringing it "off the wheel" (i.e. manually swinging it by hand, rather than using an attached bell-rope), and connecting its included Hall effect sensor to my laptop on which I had already installed Abel, the widely-used bell ringing simulator software. As thrilled as I was with my purchase, however, it was never destined to sit on the floor – it needed a bell tower.

The tower

It took me about a week of research to finally settle on the construction of my bell tower. I assembled it in my kitchen where I had a hard floor and plenty of space, although I needed help to move it out of there because I couldn't fit both it and myself through the door! I'd looked hard for an off-the-shelf shelving unit, but nothing quite met my needs – IKEA's HEJNE units were a strong contender but I didn't like the slatted shelves or the single screw fixings on each corner; whereas I liked the solid shelves of their IVAR units but wasn't keen on the 'dowel in the hole' shelf support system – so I decided to take what I liked from each range and secure them with screws from the local DIY store. I ended up with three IVAR shelves secured to HEJNE legs with two screws at each corner, and a total of three OBSERVATÖR cross-braces: one on the back, and two on either side between the lower shelves, as I needed to maintain open side access to the middle shelf to operate my laptop whilst ringing.

My original plan was to keep the tower as a self-contained unit, potentially even moveable, so I envisaged a beam extending from above the unit to carry the top pulleys. I'd brace the tower between the floor and ceiling with screw-adjustable feet mounted upside-down at the very top of extended back legs, and these extended legs would also carry the pulley beam. However, after progress stopped for over two years while I moved house, throughout which time everything was put into storage, when I eventually decided on a new location for it in my new home at Lyndenlea, Yate I decided simply to screw the tower to the wall and the pulleys to the ceiling. Truth be told, I mainly screwed the tower to the wall because of the flex in the thin HEJNE legs that allowed the top half (above the middle shelf and the side cross-braces) to move front-to-back; the structure was remarkably sturdy otherwise. On reflection, a more square leg would have been a better option.

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