Edit: ...and I should add: Sayers was quite reactionary, preternaturally English, and writing in the 1930s, so I wouldn't be at all surprised if it wasn't true that change ringing was uniquely English.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veronese_bell_ringing
So unless you have another reference...? (You did say "something similar" to be fair)
There are a fair few videos on YouTube as well.
The reality is that someone writing in Harper's in 2025 and using a Dorothy L. Sayers Peter Wimsey story from 1934 as a supporting source is presenting a hopelessly outdated and fictional picture of the world and is going to come up for starters against the Australia and New Zealand Association of Bellringers, founded in 1962.
There's even a few change ringing towers dotted around parts of Africa, Australia, some of Europe. Just few and far between.
But when compared to England, where practically every town can be relied upon to have at least a 6 bell tower where change ringing can happen, it's no comparison.
Change ringing is a branch of Group Theory and is mentioned in Knuth. The Steinhaus–Johnson–Trotter algorithm for efficiently generating permutations was published in the early 1960s, but has been known about by change ringers since the 1600s. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steinhaus%E2%80%93Johnson%E2%8...
So if you like old detective stories and this article tickled your interest, perhaps give "The Nine Tailors" a whirl.
I know many composers were and are very in tune with the mathematics of music. But the “tend to” makes me wonder: were most of them in tune, or is it that pleasant sounding music will inevitably display mathematical patterns?
The move to a framework system where we can all ring what we like and just describe it within an agreed upon nomenclature is a great improvement rather than the legacy Decisions. Having strict rules always seemed quite dated to me - the ringing police after all do not show up if you ring a "banned" performance. But agreeing on names makes communication possible - a good role for a central body.
Jump changes are fun too, but I don't think I agree with the article that allowing them has really led to a revolution. The top performances on BellBoard are of commonly rung non-jump methods. In fact I don't think I've seen a jump method be featured at all. Philip himself doesn't seemed to have published a performance of "Jump" anything since 2013. For many I think it remains an interesting novelty.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006sgsh
Which normally segues into the Shipping Forecast
•3h ago