In the film Singing in the Rain, Gene Kelly held an umbrella above his head to keep him dry, but you couldn’t do that while ringing because you have no free hands. But why would we need to?
During Covid we accepted the risk of getting rained on (and in one case pummelled by hail) when ringing handbell quarter peals on the lawn since it was the only way we could legally ring together. But in the tower?
An hour or so into a Monday evening practice during May the two of us ringing bells 7 & 8 felt an odd sensation, as if drops of water were splashing the back of our necks. When the ringing stopped we turned to make a comment and as we did so saw that water was dripping onto the shelf behind us, and splashing on impact.
The drips came from the air conditioning unit on the wall above us. That shouldn’t happen of course, and it never had in the five years since the ringers helped pay for the installation. To explain what happened let me make a small digression into the physics. Warm air can hold more moisture than cold air. So when you chill hot humid air, as well as cool air you also get condensation. If your car has air conditioning you might have seen water dripping from underneath it on a hot day.
Inside a building you can’t just let the water drip on the floor so it collects in a reservoir under the cooling element and is pumped outside, in our case onto the tower the tower roof where it runs into the rain gutter. If the pump stops working the reservoir overflows.
We needed something to catch the water and avoid it causing damage, and fortunately we had something to hand – the plastic containers we keep on top of the rood screen to catch water when the nave roof leaks – so we borrowed them.
We look forward to the end of 'Grandsire Dribbles' very soon.
John Harrison (June 2025)
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