St. Werburgh Delight Minor

About St. Werburgh Delight Minor - Complib

>St. Werburgh Delight sits neatly between the standard Treble Bob methods and the complex Delight and Surprise Methods having London Surprise above the treble.

St. Werburgh Delight is “merely” Vale Royal Delight Minor except that when the treble is dodging in 5-6, "Kent" places are made rather than Oxford places. That’s all it is!

St. Werburgh Delight Minor is one of a group of 5 Treble Dodging methods all having identical work below the treble.

• Norbury Treble Bob Minor (Ibid)
• Kingston Treble Bob Minor
• Willesden Delight Minor
• Wragby Delight Minor
• St Werburgh Delight Minor

As of June 2025 there were just 4 performances St. Werburgh Delight Minor on handbells.

Method Structure.

Place Notation:
36X36. 14 X 12 X 16 . 34X34 . 56, 16, Bob 14, Single 1456.

Grid:

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

Plain Course structure
The method is fairly static with triple dodges in 1-2 across the Half Lead. The 5th place half lead causes the pair in 3-4 to remain there and repeat the places work.

Learning St. Werburgh Delight Minor.

The Structure

St. Werburgh Delight Minor preserves the structure of Vale Royal Delight Minor the main blue line artefact then is the places work in the 5-6 section.
The places up are 3rds, 4ths, 3rds, 4ths
The places down are 4ths, 3rds, 4ths, 3rds

The Rules

St. Werburgh Delight Minor - the rules
Ring Vale Royal Delight Minor unless the treble is dodging in 5-6 when double Kent places are made in 3-4.

Double Blue Lines

St. Werburgh Delight Minor, 1-2

Diagram: St. Werburgh Delight Minor, 1-2.

St. Werburgh Delight Minor, 3-4

Diagram: St. Werburgh Delight Minor, 3-4.

St. Werburgh Delight Minor, 5-6

Diagram: St. Werburgh Delight Minor, 5-6.

Artefacts

The Blue Line features worth noting are the triple dodges front and back, and the places in 3-4.

Place Notation and Grid

The grid is a better memory aid than the Place Notation, however, St. Werburgh Delight Minor is a good choice of method to practice Place Notation. It combines the difficulty of London above with Kent Treble Bob places below.

Pictels

This is a straightforward structure, there is no compelling reason to chop it up into picture elements.

Goals and learning approach

What you are trying to achieve needs to drive your approach.

Ringing by structure

If you are ringing St. Werburgh to gain the skill of associating method structure with the work of the treble (valid goal), 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

It is unusual for a band to wish to achieve mastery in a method like St. Werburgh.

Ringing St. Werburgh Delight.

Track the treble

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

However, it is NOT suggested that ringers attempt to ring St. Werburgh Delight Minor simply by the rules to gain "track the treble" skills. There are better methods in which to develop that skill.

Positional Awareness

The structure, which separates bells between 3-4 and 5-6 above the treble, and between 1-2 and 3-4 below the treble, is significantly helpful in developing the awareness of place inside the change rows. This is a helpful method.

Place Notation Elements

The method only contains 5 elements (36X36, 12, 14, 16, 34X34, 56).

Place Bells, Pivot Leads, and Staging posts

For 3-4 pair, the pivot point is when the pair triple dodges together in 1-2.
For 5-6 pair, the pivot point is when they make places together in 3-4 under the treble.

164523 LE 12: Little Bob; Duke of Norfolk T.B., Bourne Surprise

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

Awareness of other bells

Because of the fairly static nature of the method, there is time to think, whilst ringing across the half lead, where other working bells will be at the following lead end.

Coursing Order in St. Werburgh Delight Minor

Natural Coursing order is not well preserved both above and below the treble, the best peresentation is in the places in 3-4.

Ringing the Method

The great benefit of ringing St. Werburgh Delight is that enables practice of "London above" as an entry point to that class of Surprise methods.

Touches.

Bobs-only touches of Little Bob work for St. Werburgh Delight.