My other Triples pages have been about the technical aspects of getting peal compositions, but this is about the aesthetics of the method instead. Hereward Bob Triples is a tricky method, but is delightful to listen to. It produces the changes in a sound and pleasing way. It is structurally very close to Double Oxford Bob Triples, the only difference being that Hereward omits the extra dodge on the front that makes Double Oxford a double method. Consequently, Hereward and Double Oxford are course splicers of each other - like Cambride and Primrose Surprise Minor - as both methods have exactly the same 70 changes.

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But which of the two methods is better? I would say that Double Oxford is probably better in spliced, whereas Hereward is probably better rung on its own. In March 2014 we rang this quarter peal composition.

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Hereward has a brilliant feature that can be exploited for touches and quarter peals. If you start from Rounds and call a bob at the next lead end, the lead end after that will end with xxxx768. Repeat the process and you get another xxxx678. And then you can repeat the process again.

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Excitingly, this feature can be used to produce lots of 468s, or 748s, in quick succession, lasting for long periods. An extract of such a section could look like this:

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  357246

- 743625

  725364

- 567432

  532746

- 245673

  273564

- 362457

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As you can see, every other lead end has bells 4 and 6 together at the back, and as Hereward has lots of dodges at the back, this produces many 468s in sections like this. And this block can be tripled by replacing any of the plain leads with a bob, which leaves 4,6 unaffected.

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The day after we rang our first quarter of Hereward, I came up with the composition below to exploit these blocks of alternating bobs. The composition, which has quite a strongly palindromic structure, is based on all four blocks of 468s and 748s. It was quite difficult to shoehorn this into a quarter peal length, the completed version being 112 leads (1568 changes), but can be reduced to 1344 changes by shortening one of the 748 blocks.

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1568 (1344) Hereward Bob Triples

RBP

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  267453     - 563274*      257364     - 246753

  253746     - 375426     - 762435       253674

- 342675       326547       735246     - 372465

- 273564     - 643752     - 547623     - 263547

- 362457       652374       523764     - 342756

  357246     - 276435     - 365472       356274

- 743625       235647     - 573246     - 673425

  725364     - 542763     - 345627       625347

- 567432     - 265374       327564     - 546732

  532746     - 572436     - 763452       532674

- 245673       536247       752346     - 275463

- 572364     - 645723     - 247635     - 562347

- 265437       623574       235764     - 245736

  237546     - 376452     - 562473       236574

- 742653       352647     - 275346     - 672453

  753264     - 243765     - 542637       653247

- 367425     - 362574#      537264     - 346725

  325746     - 273456     - 765423       325674

- 543672       256347       723546     - 573462

- 375264     - 642735     - 347652     - 365247

- 563427       635274       352764     - 543726

  527346     - 576423     - 263475       526374

- 745632       523647     - 372546       574632

  732564       547362       346257       532467

  764253       562734     - 653724     - 265743

  753426     - 235476       624375     - 542376

- 327645       276543       675432     - 275634

  345762       243657       632547       234567

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Reduce to 1344 by replacing the bob at the lead marked * with a plain lead, which produces #. This was composed on 31st March 2014, after I had come back from a trip to London to have another look at my new University where I would be starting in September. I well remember having the images of Kensington Gardens on my mind while I was composing this, so whenever I think about this composition I always think of Kensington Gardens, and the spire of Christ Church, Lancaster Gate.

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Hereward Bob Triples is a great method and well worth ringing.

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