BellBoard

Grandsire Doubles is one of the oldest methods still rung regularly today, probably dating to the 1640s or ’50s, but is none the worse for that. It is sometimes neglected because, as a twin hunt method, it is unlike most other commonly rung doubles methods. Dodging at handstroke can also be unfamiliar. But Grandsire provides a useful step on the way to ringing Stedman, and extends elegantly to all odd stages where it provides a useful introduction to ringing on higher numbers.

If Grandsire is familiar territory for your band, consider making it more of a challenge by ringing some extents which involve extremes in addition to the regular bobs and/or singles. (A Grandsire extreme is printed on page 26 of the 2020 Ringing World diary.)

Resources

• Learning Curve 2.3: Why learn Grandsire?
• Learning Curve 4.1: Conduct Grandsire Doubles – 1
• Learning Curve 4.2: Conduct Grandsire Doubles – 2
• Pages on Grandsire Doubles from Bill Butler’s Doubles and Minor for Beginners (with thanks to CC Publications for permission)
• Grandsire Doubles Handout from the Alresford School of Bell Ringing website
• Collection of Grandsire Compositions (includes extents with extremes)
• Grandsire Doubles page in Steve Scanlon’s ’Handy Diagrams for Learners’
• Grandsire Doubles page in Steve Scanlon’s ’Handy Diagrams for Learners’
• John Harrison’s Sparsholt course notes on Grandsire Doubles
• ’Treble’s Going’ website, linking to several different resources for learning Grandsire Doubles
• An article by Will Bosworth on Grandsire as a Pathway step, published in The Ringing World, 3 Jan 2020