The Bells, The Bells

 Tower Tour, Portsmouth Cathedral, Sept 14

Maybe we didn't miss much by not going outside to see the view. Perhaps there isn't suitable access. The view would hardly have compared to Durham's or, for that matter, the nearby Millennium Tower. What we had was the Ringing Room, the workings of the clock and then the bells on three separate levels. It gets increasingly laddersome the higher one gets. It was okay but I don't fancy ladders much and I wouldn't have wanted it much more challenging.

The bells are, of course, by John Taylor of Loughborough who would have been a candidate for investigation by the Monopolies Commission had anybody else wanted, or known how, to cast church bells. It's not sumptuous up there but hardly needs to be.

The views of and from the organ were worth having, seeing for the first time where David Price, Sachin Gunga and their regular guests go to do their work. I've lifted this picture of it from their website because my pictures haven't come out very well. I can always go back on Thurs for the Organ Tour and hear about it properly. One could spend some time flicking through their library of organ music and be none the wiser in the same way that we were shown two books of bell ringing sequences, like Stedman Caters, which is equally enthralling for being equally incomprehensible. 

I officially cite Bells on Sunday as my favourite radio programme but that's only when All Gas and Gaiters isn't being repeated. It's esoteric, redolent of a largely disappeared England. The ringers at Portsmouth Cathedral would gladly have me, or you, because - like long distance time trial cycling, fewer people do it than once did. It being such a thing makes the idea of it quite attractive but I lack the commitment to learn something new and turn up regularly.