Skipton Delight Minor

About Skipton Delight Minor

Skipton Delight Minor has the fluid hunting work above the treble of the NELSON Treble Bob Minor Group.
Below the treble the 5ths place Half Lead keeps the pairs in 1-2 and 3-4 whilst they enjoy backward place making and dodging.

4ths place bell is the pivot bell and with the 6ths place lead end, the calling sequence for 6ths observation is as per Double Court Bob Minor / Sandal Treble Bob Minor.

Skipton Delight Minor is one of a group of 3 Treble Dodging 3rds Place Delight methods all having identical work below the treble.

• Knutsford Delight Minor
• Skipton Delight Minor (Ibid)
• Beeston Delight Minor

In August 2025 Bellboard had just 4 handbell performances that included Skipton Delight Minor.

Method Structure.

Place Notation:
X 36 X 16 X 12 X 36 .12X34. 56, 16, Bob 14, Single 1456.

Grid:

Diagram: Skipton Delight Minor, plain lead, change-rows and grid.

Plain Course structure
This is a fluid method above the treble with static work below.

Goals and learning approach

What you already know and what you are trying to achieve needs to drive your approach.
Skipton is perfectly suited as an exercise in Treble guided structural ringing.

Ringing by structure

DO NOT learn the lines, learn the structure, ring, make mistakes and learn from them. Track-the Treble skills, Place Notation skills, coursing order skills can all be developed in this manner

Performance Level

If you are wishing to achieve 720s, Quarters, or peals:
start with the structural ringing as above, add in the bits that are natural to you.
Study the lines.
Practice a lot.
Achieve some performances .

Method Mastery Level

Mastery of Skipton Delight is perfectly feasible.

Learning Skipton Delight Minor.

The Structure

The course structure is as per Sandal Treble Bob minor.

The Rules

Skipton Delight Minor - the rules
Ring Knutsford Delight Minor but with 6ths place Lead Ends.

Double Blue Lines

Skipton Delight Minor, 1-2

Diagram: Skipton Delight Minor, 1-2.

Skipton Delight Minor, 3-4

Diagram: Skipton Delight Minor, 3-4.

Skipton Delight Minor, 5-6

Diagram: Skipton Delight Minor, 5-6.

Artefacts

Apart from the leading back and hand in 1-2, Skipton is well behaved.

Place Notation and Grid

The pictorial grid emphasises the structure of the method better than the Place Notation.

Ringing Skipton Delight Minor.

Track the treble

Awareness of the position of the treble is a key skill for most bellringing methods, and is the major key to ringing Skipton Delight Minor. Some hints and tips for developing the skill are given in the techniques section.

Positional Awareness

Skipton Delight Minor is highly fluid above the treble. Transition into 1-2 is one bell per lead, so the distinction between 1-2, 3-4 and 5-6 places is quite clear.

Place Notation Elements

The method only contains 7 elements (X, 12, 34, 36, 16, 12X34, 56).

Place Bells, Pivot Leads, and Handrails

156342 LE 16: Double Court Bob; Sandal Treble Bob, Hull Surprise

1-2:1-2, 1-6, 1-3, 1-4, 1-5, 1-2
3-4:3-4, 4-5, 5-2, 2-6, 6-3, 3-4
5-6:6-5, 3-2, 4-6, 5-3, 2-4, 6-5

The pivot bell (4ths pb) makes 5ths at the half lead.
For 3-4 pair, the pivot point is when they dodge together in 1-2 at the Half Lead.
For 5-6 pair, the pivot point is when they work together in 3-4 at the Half Lead.

Handrails

Once mastered, the long work in 1-2 is a handrail.

Awareness of other bells

2nds place bell and 6ths place bell work together in 1-2, it's tricky to get the change over into and out of backward hunting crisply. Associating the start and finish of backward places with treble in 5ths is valuable. Having a bell in 1-2 and a bell iin 3-4 is cruel and needs careful learning.

Coursing Order in Skipton Delight Minor

Skipton Delight Minor exhibits some natural coursing order.

• The lead ends exhibit Natural Coursing Order.
  
• The bells working in 3-4 at the half lead are a coursing pair.
  
• The three bells in the coursing order starting with 2nds place bell are important; if the coursing order is abcde, a is 2nds place bell, b is the pivot bell and makes 5ths at the half lead, c works with 2nds place bell and eventually dodges with the treble 1-2 up. d then becomes 2nds place bell
  
• d and e are the coursing pair that dodge together in 3-4.

Ringing the Method

Skipton Delight Minor gives good practice at associating a piece of structure with a piece of Treble work.

Bobs and Singles.

Bobs replace the 6ths place at the Lead End with 4ths. This causes the bell that has just made 3rds to make the bob, make thirds once more.

Singles Singles are rarely used in Treble Dodging Minor.

Touches of Skipton Delight Minor.

Skipton Delight Minor has the same lead-end order as Sandal Treble Bob Minor.