Quarter peals (and Peals) can be seen as a good gauge of how healthy bellringing is in an area. In order to get people ringing quarter peals, you need plenty of support from other ringers. And to ring on higher numbers and a variety of methods, you need to have the chance to practice this before you succeed in ringing a quarter peal. 2025’s quarter peal statistics are a positive sign that these criteria are being met, and an encouragement for us to keep on doing what we’re doing, and hopefully keep improving ringing across the county.

Quarter peals in Leicestershire were up in 2025, with a total of 404, vs 294 in 2024. The Framland Society’s 150^th anniversary has contributed to this, plus an increase in the Wednesday evening quarters at the Bellfoundry.

There has also been an increase in different venues, again partly thanks to the Framland celebrations. 2025 sees quarters in 140 different locations, vs 2024’s 69. The Loughborough location for the handbell band (56 quarters) holds the top spot again, Packington has lost its second place to the Bellfoundry, with Sapcote holding steady in 4th, and the University of Leicester, a new entry in 5^th, dropping St Mary de Castro to 6th.

88 of all the quarters were on handbells, the Loughborough band still ringing the majority of these, but we’re also seeing an uptick by the newly formed University of Leicester band.

With there being more quarter peals overall, its not a surprise that there has been an increase in almost all stages (ie number of bells rung to the method) this year, the only exception being caters which is down from 7 to 5. The biggest increase has been in Minor methods, up to 101 in 2025 vs 2024’s 60.

With quarters of Minor being the most common, its not a surprise that they also include the largest variety of methods rung, 48 listed in total, though quite a few of these include two or more methods being rung in one quarter peal, so the actual number of methods is likely to be higher. The majority of them are treble-bobbing methods. In the even-bell stages, Cambridge is predominantly at the top spot, topped only by Spliced by the bands ringing Major. In the odd-bell stages, not unexpectedly, doubles has the greatest variety with 15 different methods; with triples and above consisting mainly of Grandsire, Stedman, Erin and Plain Bob. For more details about methods rung, view here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1nKSypO4X_JAxv8hOCJmNDvwkQxBXUH381V0yg-XVGtc/edit?usp=sharing

The leading 10 ringers all rang at least 31 quarter peals in Leicestershire – the table below shows quarter peals rung in Leicestershire in column A, with column B being that ringer’s total for the year. The top four are the Loughborough handbell band, who augment their totals by also ringing with the Wednesday evening Bellfoundry band, members of which predominantly make up the rest of the top 10 (with Mark Pendery sneaking in there at 9^th place). Up and coming young ringer Tessa Preston doesn’t quite make it into the top 10, but has made a good effort coming in at 11^th with 29 quarters.

Well done to the 22 ringers who rang their first quarter peal during the year, some of them also going on to ringing further quarters during the year. The ringers and the towers they rang their first quarter at are (in chronological order):

Anthony I T Burbage (Sapcote),
Helen Gordon (Shepshed),
Emma Richards (Shepshed),
Rich Moon (Desford),
David Wicks (Twyford),
Paul Watson (Twyford),
Saskia Hamilton (Lubenham),
Poppy Watsham (Earl Shilton),
Carole Moscrop (Waltham on the Wolds),
Jonathan Seymour (Lubenham),
Geordan Boylan (Branston),
Tom Bullock (Stoney Stanton),
Carl Bullingham (St Mary de Castro),
Matthew Leavy (St Mary de Castro),
Alex Hopwood (Wanlip),
Karen Selby (Barrow upon Soar),
Michael S Smith (Kirby Muxloe),
Will McGorum-Wallington (St Margaret’s),
Emma Lovegrove (Thorpe Arnold),
Marie McSeveney (Shawell),
Louise Higson (Loughborough Parish),
Joseph Travis (Stoney Stanton)

Rebecca Banner