Like most other methods, Stedman Triples has P-Blocks and B-Blocks. A P-Block is 14 sixes long, and the plain course is the P-Block that starts with Rounds as the fourth change of a quick six. 60 P-Blocks joined together by calls would be required to make a 5040, but, unlike Bob Triples, there is no set of 60 P-Blocks for Stedman Triples that contain all of the 5040 changes between them. 40 is the most that can be had, and composers had to invent other types of courses that harvest all of the 5040 changes once and once only, as covered in some detail on my page about different 60-course plans.

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The most popular 60-course plan - and, indeed, the most popular overall plan for peals and quarters of Stedman Triples - is Hudson's twin-bob plan of 1832. These compositions remain some of the best for many reasons. They are the easiest to ring, with all bobs always in pairs, they are the easiest to call, they don't require lots of singles, and they have remarkably few calls. 240 bobs must always be rung, with at least two singles. This is such a low number of calls and it has only been bettered recently, by Alan Burbidge with his 238-call peal on a different plan. 242 calls is so few, that the twin-bob courses are remarkably close to being P-Blocks. Because of this - and even more remarkable still - an entire P-Block can actually be included in a twin-bob composition, between a pair of singles. 13 plain sixes in a row. Peals incorporating this feature were produced by the redoubtable composers Thomas Thurstans and John Lates in the 1840s and 50s. Here is an example by Thurstans, which is probably the peal sometimes referred to as "Thurstans' One-Part," though I'm not sure if this is the original version. Here is an example by Lates, which is probably the peal he produced in 1850 (note that his first name is incorrectly given as 'Isaac,' which is a common and enduring error.)

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There are a number of more recent examples, including this very special composition by Philip Saddleton called The Climsland Peal. This is a five-part with only two singles, these being used to single-in a missing P-Block at the last possible opportunity. The 240 mandatory bobs are arranged to make this possible, by inserting five missing courses between two extra Q's in part 4, and omitting two H's in part five which subtracts the P-Block that gets rung between the two final singles. These alterations then make it possible for the P-Block to be included without falseness, as the default calling is S,H in every course.

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                                                       Adding in more P-Blocks

I was interested to find out how many P-Blocks could be singled-in to a composition, a question that appears not to have occurred to other composers, perhaps because the aim is usually to keep singles to a minimum. The most I could find was in a peal by Bob Hardy, a three-part with one P-Block in each part, making for three P-Blocks in total.

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Eventually I got round to looking in to the matter, and the results were quite surprising. First I produced the following ten-part. 50% of the parts have to be rung backwards (the 'B' sections). It would be possible to ring all ten parts forwards, but this would entail breaking up some of the P-Blocks.

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5040 Stedman Triples (10 P-Blocks)

RBP (no. 5a)

2 S H L 9 11 Q 14

s                  346125

  x x              425163|

  x x              263154|

  x x        x     612534|B

  x x x    s       536421|

        s          254316|

  x x              516342|

        4B      s (231456)

    x x            641235|

    x x            521643|

    x x         s  235641|A

s                  361524|

  x x x      x     123564|

    x x            453126|

        4A         231456

Contains 10 P-Blocks, with 22 singles.

Composed 5th February 2019.

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This can be turned into an exact five-part:

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5040 Stedman Triples (10 P-Blocks)

RBP (no. 5b)

2 S H L 9 11 Q 14

s                  346125

  x x              425163

  x x              263154

  x x        x     612534

  x x x    s       536421

        s          254316

  x x           s (453126)

    x x            613452

    x x            243615

    x x         s  452613

s                  563241

  x x x      x     345261

    x x            125346

5 part.

Contains 10 P-Blocks, with 30 singles.

Composed 5th February 2019.

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The structure for these peals is very close to the first ever twin-bob 5040 by Hudson, which is also a ten-part. Hudson's peal is made up of the basic block S,H called five times in each part. There is a missing course of S,H which is added between a pair of in-course singles, shunting the bells into a part-end in the process. My ten-part is based on the same basic idea, but is manipulated so that the missing course from each part is rung as a P-Block between two singles. The falseness and the relationship between the missing courses made it very easy and natural to produce the composition.

 

Exactly a month later I produced a six-part containing 12 P-Blocks:

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5040 Stedman Triples (12 P-blocks)

RBP (no 6a)

2 S H L 9 11 Q 14

  x        s x     362451

  x   x s    x [s (253461)

  x   x s    x]    641235

s                  425163

      x   2s       254316

        s    x     154263

  x x   s    x  s  145623

s                  463512

  x   x    s x  s (456231)

      x      x     351246

    x x      x  s (562314)

  x          x     132654

6 part.

Omit bracketed calls from parts 2,3,5 and 6.

In part 4, replace courses 2 and 3 with s2.

Contains 12 P-blocks.

Composed 5th March 2019.

 

By using an irregular q-set this can be turned into an exact 3-part, though the result doesn't add much to the six-part and certainly looks no easier to call (note, though, that the first part from the original six-part is rung in full):

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5040 Stedman Triples (12 P-blocks)

RBP (no 6b)

2 S H L 9 11 Q 14

  x        s x     362451

  x   x s    x  s (253461)

  x   x s    x     641235

s                  425163

      x   2s       254316

        s    x     154263

  x x   s    x  s  145623

s                  463512

  x   x    s x  s (456231)

      x      x     351246

    x x      x  s (562314)

  x          x     132654

  x        s x     341652

s                  462135

s                  615243

      x      x     413265

s                  125346

  x   x    s       325614

        s    x  s (413265)

    x x      x  s  152436

s                  546213

      x      x     143256

    x x      x  s (462135)

  x          x     312645

3 part.

Contains 12 P-blocks.

Composed 5th March 2019.

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I think that nos. 6a and 6b should be very enjoyable to ring. The 'CRU' part ends evenly spread out the pretty changes and the interaction of medium bells with heavy bells throughout the peal. This is clearly seen when all of the changes are displayed on paper. The P-Blocks themselves have lots of pretty sixes lurking inside them. Another great feature is the alternating between long strings of plain sixes in the P-Blocks and large clusters of consecutive calls in the other bits, making for a roller coaster ride of contrast and entertainment.

 

How was no. 6a put together? 5a and 5b use blocks of 5 x H,L as the main building block (as do many other peals), but, as explained on the page about 60-course plans, another building block that counters the falseness is 2 x S,Q. As this block comes round after two courses, more singles are usually needed to join up the blocks. I chose this building block because it is smaller than 5 x H, making it possible to replace one of the S,Q courses with a P-Block, the omitted calls at S and Q being replaced by calls elsewhere. There is a P-Block for both the omitted S, and the omitted Q, which is why there are two P-Blocks in each part.

 

After this I tried some ideas on 2-part and 1-part plans, under the impression that there would be more scope in larger part-blocks to manipulate the system ("more room to manouvre" as the excellent Saddleton expression goes.) But this did not turn out to be the case, and I wasn't successful.

 

Some weeks later I was suddenly struck with the idea to try the 2 x S,Q block on a 10-part. Why I didn't try it earlier was possibly down to an assumption that such a peal couldn't be had. After all, there are only six courses in a ten-part block, and the P-Blocks would have to be arranged to counter the falseness and work with the S,Q blocks. Amazingly, it did turn out to be possible and the resulting peal contains 20 P-Blocks!

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5040 Stedman Triples (20 P-blocks)

RBP (no. 7a)

  2 S H L 9 11 Q 14

  s                  346125

  s                  415632

 [s                  162543

        x      x  s](145623)

    x x x    s       621354

          s    x  s (456231)

    x   x      x  s (342516)

    x x        x  s  241563

  s                  453126

10 part.

In part 1, replace the bracketed calls with s2, L, Q, L, Q, s14.

In part 6, omit the bracketed calls completely.

Contains 20 P-blocks, with 98 singles.

Composed 25th April 2019.

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Aesthetically, the problem with this peal is that the 7568s and 678s always get disrupted by singles. The following arrangement gets around this problem by moving the P-blocks elsewhere and should be more musically rewarding to ring - with undisturbed "tittums course ends," etc - but the substitution in part 1 covers a larger area:

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5040 Stedman Triples (20 P-blocks)

RBP (no. 7b)

  2 S H L 9 11 Q 14

  s                  346125

  s                  415632

 [s                  162543

  s                  653214

                  s (162543)

        x      x  s](145623)

    x x x      x  s (456231)

    x   x s          345261

             s x  s (342516)

    x x        x     453126

10 part.

In part 1, replace bracketed calls with s2, s2, s14, L,Q, s2, s14, L, Q, s14.

In part 6, omit the bracketed calls completely.

Contains 20 P-blocks, with 98 singles.

Composed Thursday 25th April 2019.

Rung on handbells at St Chad's Cathedral, Birmingham on Thursday 9th May 2019, conducted by Mark R Eccleston.

 

I was very excited that this composition was possible. Not only is 20 P-Blocks a large number (exactly 1/3 of the entire peal, and half of the maximum possible number of mutually true P-Blocks) but it was surprsing that they could be crammed into a ten-part, and with all ten parts rung forwards (unlike no. 5a).

 

20 P-Blocks appears to be the maximum number that can be singled-in to a twin bob 5040. When I tried working out the possibilities for including more, the falseness demonstrated that for every P-Block included, two other courses must have calls in, meaning that only 1/3 of the peal can be rung in P-Blocks. This analysis was based on the 2 x S,Q blocks only, but it seems unlikely that another system would be able to yield more than 20 P-Blocks.

 

I went on to produce another - very different - 5040 with 20 P-Blocks, and one with the unusual number of 17 P-Blocks, but this was part of another project: twin-bob 20-part blocks that use singles internally as part of the calling. For more information, see the page about 20-part peals and scroll down to the section about new twin-bob peals.