New method named St Milburga of Wenlock Surprise Major

Earlier this year, I was contacted by Val Roberts, Vice-President of the Hereford Diocesan Guild of Bell Ringers and a long-standing stalwart of ringing in this area. Val had seen that we had rung and named a new method called St Milburga Delight Minor in 2024 and wondered if it might be possible to devise a Major method for St Milburga to be rung on the newly overhauled ring of eight at Much Wenlock. The particular reason for the request was that the current Team Rector of Much Wenlock, Rev’d Preb Matthew Stafford, would be celebrating 25 years in the priesthood in early July 2025. Matthew has a special interest in St Milburga, so Val thought that another method named for her and rung at Much Wenlock would be a fitting way to congratulate Matthew on his special anniversary.

And so I got busy with using the Complib website to look for an as-yet unrung Surprise Major method which might fit the bill. There are a huge number of possible methods to choose from, but the trick is finding one with rules and patterns which are familiar enough to other ringers so that the learning is not too arduous and therefore the likelihood of success is high. Eventually, I hit the jackpot with the following:

It has a 2673485 lead-end order, which it shares with the first Surprise Major methods that most ringers learn, such as Cambridge and Yorkshire. It also has patterns of work in it that match certain elements of other commonly rung methods, such as Superlative, Double Norwich and Pudsey. Finally, it has a lot of 'music' in it, such as Queens (13572468) in the the plain course, which helps to make it pleasing to the ear. We agreed that this should be the method that we would ring for our quarter peal attempt, and the date was fixed for Wednesday 9 July 2025.

The band convened for a 5pm start and, although it was the start of yet another heatwave, the ringing room was fortunately not too humid. In the end, we were able to score the quarter peal in 50 minutes with only a couple of minor slips and otherwise lovely striking on the beautiful heavy bells of Much Wenlock. The name we chose for the method having finished the quarter peal was St Milburga of Wenlock Surprise Major. From there we went back downstairs and outside to be greeted by Rev’d Matthew with a glass of Prosecco for our efforts. We raised our glasses to him in congratulation, of course, and he recalled with fondness that the last time bells had been rung for him was when he was becoming a priest a quarter of a century ago.

Once the new method has been confirmed by the CCCBR, it will be available for all to ring, and we hope to revive it at Stoke St Milborough before too long. Watch this space... Many thanks to all members of the band who participated in the quarter peal, especially to Nick Green for calling the composition and to Val Roberts for the inspiration. Congratulations once again also to Rev’d Preb Matthew Stafford and here’s to the next 25 years!  

Ashley Smith
Stoke St Milborough Bell Ringers

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The Quarter Peal band with Rev Matthew: (L-R) Martin Bluck, Rose Horton, Martin Scott, Steve Askew, Rev'd Preb Matthew Stafford, Nick Green, Ashley Smith, Steve Horton, Val Roberts

A circular method diagram of St Milburga of Wenlock Surprise Major