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Our final Sunday morning in England, I had one more opportunity to listen to English change-ringing. Even an amateur, like me, was able to tell the difference from Bath to Birmingham (St. Martin in the Bullring) to London. Each was better than the last, with crisper, faster sequences. The cities, obviously, draw from a larger pool of potential bell-ringers and can put on the flashier show. Bell-ringing, by its nature, though, is a joyous experience any place in Britain. If you want a sound track for this post, choose one of the BBC episodes of Bells on Sunday.
As I was taking these photos of Trafalgar Square, I listened to the bells of St. Martin-in-the-Fields.
Fountain in Trafalgar Square in front of the steeple of St. Martin-in-the-Fields
Another view of St. Martin-in-the-Fields with one of four lions at the base of Nelson’s Column in Trafalgar Square
One of the four bronze panels at the base of Nelson’s Column, with a young couple
This military band marched past Nelson’s column while I was there.
The Fourth Plinth on Trafalgar Square holds a temporary contemporary art piece (the other three plinths have conventional generals and kings). When I was there, the display was Hahn/Cock by Katharina Fritsch. A new sculpture was revealed just last month.
I was surprised how easily the bells were drowned out by modern noise pollution — with traffic, a jackhammer, and that marching band — the bells could only be heard a block or two away. Amazing to think that they used to call entire regions to church.
More photos from Trafalgar Square and the rest of our England trip on my Flickr photostream. I’m going to a travel photography workshop this weekend. The ten Trafalgar Square photos are among the ones that I sent in for review, so I’m interested to see what else I can learn from these.
