Australian and New Zealand Association of Bellringers

George Pipe Library at the Adelaide Ringing Centre

George Pipe was instrumental in the formation of ANZAB and was the first to turn in the tenor at St Peter's Cathedral in Adelaide. His infectious enthusiasm has now been directed to the Adelaide Ringing Centre. George has donated a collection of books from his private collection as well as a financial contribution to new books to set up the library for the centre.

George Pipe and Matthew Sorell at Ipswich, January 2013

In recognition of George's support and longstanding connection with ringing in Australia and New Zealand, and particularly with Adelaide, the library will now be known as The George Pipe Library at the Adelaide Ringing Centre.

I visited George and Diana in Ipswich in mid January to collect the first tranche of the collection and was met with enthusiasm and a warm welcome. George and Diana are great friends of ANZAB and we hope to see them on our shores in the not-too-distant future.

Matthew Sorell

The Adelaide Ringing Centre

writes:

I am pleased to announce that the St Peter's Cathedral, Adelaide, Council has embraced our proposal for a Ringing Centre to be housed in the second (Eastern) tower of St Peter's Cathedral. We are currently finalising technical drawings before we begin work on this centre. We anticipate training 20 new ringers per year for the foreseeable future, drawing on local schools running the International Baccalaureate program, in support of Adelaide's five towers. We see the Centre having a wider role in ANZAB as a focal point for the development of curricula and training resources.

This world-leading centre will feature:

• A set of eight dumbbells, configurable for individual, paired or group practice on four installed simulation computers (with connectivity to a further four laptop computers). The dumbbells will be connected via sensors to software (Abel), allowing for a wide range of uses from individual bell handling to advanced simulated ringing within a group of up to 24 bells. The dumbbells, each weighing around 200kg, will be configured to feel like real, moderate sized bells.
• Audiovisual facilities including cameras for critical review of bell handling.
• A seminar facility for theory and related classes.
• An extensive library of books, journals, pamphlets and computer software.
• A set of handbells (relocated from the main belltower) for handbell training and ringing.
• Network facilities to the main tower to watch the bells and ringers live via video link.
• A video outlet facility in the Cathedral narthex to bring the bell tower to the congregation and the general public.

Technically, we have designed a 3cwt dumbbell for mass production, so that the design will be available to anyone for local manufacture using industry-standard laser cutting.

Everything going to plan, we anticipate an opening possibly in the last weekend in June 2012 to coincide with St Peter's Day.

Further details are available on I am particularly interested in hearing from anyone with the technical background to cast a critical eye over the specifications of the Centre.