Quarter Peal – 1250 Yorkshire Surprise Major

HHWWHHsW (two homes, two wrongs, two homes, single wrong)…
This traditional quarter peal, probably the simplest of Yorkshire S Major, uses just 7 calls.
You can also call it for Lincolnshire S Major.

First work out what work your bell will be doing at each call. Which bell you choose to ring depends on how difficult you want to make it for yourself. Here we will look at it from the 6, which is unaffected (so are the 7 and 8).

First there is a bob at Home, so when the tenor is about to become 8ths place bell again (i.e. at the very end of the plain course). The 6 is about to become 6ths place bell. For a method where the treble treble-bobs, like Yorkshire, you make calls at the blow before the treble leads full, i.e. when it dodges back into 2nds place.
Then you ring another course and call a bob just as you are about to become 6ths place bell again.
Next comes a Wrong. This is when the tenor will be 7ths place bell – so since the order of place bells is 8, 5, 2, 6, 7, 3, 4, this will be after 4 leads and when you are about to be 8ths place bell.
Then another Wrong – you’re going to be 8ths place bell again.
Then 2 Homes – as before when you were going to become 6ths place bell.
Finally there is the last call – a single this time. This is at the Wrong (about to be 8ths place bell) and then it comes round at the Treble’s backstroke snap (i.e. when the treble dodges back into lead for one blow when dodging 1-2 up coming away from lead). Make sure you think very carefully about the details of how this works (I would definitely recommend writing out the last few changes in full) so that you are prepared for it and know exactly where to call "That's all!"

Then you can look at how many leads there are between each call – useful for knowing how much time you have available to work out what is happening before you need to make a call. Work out who you are coursing (if you're ringing the 6 you start by coursing the 4) – useful for knowing who you are dodging with at the back and front and who cuts through your places etc. Work out who is coursing you for the same reasons – the 8 is always coursing the 6 in this composition. You can try working out which bell does which work at each call and the full coursing orders.

I guess the more you know about the method and composition the better, but you can’t expect to remember all of it at once and some things are more important than others. I'd concentrate first on being absolutely sure where the calls come with respect to the work of your own bell. But the most important thing by far, though it sounds silly, is not to go wrong yourself.

On to Call this Quarter of Yorkshire from an affected bell.

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