For three centuries, the peal has been the “gold standard” ringing performance and ringing peals has ranked high among the aspirations of leading ringers. The records of peals are more complete than for any other ringing, making them an important indicator of ringing activity.
Peal ringing grew erratically during the 18th and early 19th centuries and then grew much more strongly from the 1870s, rising more or less continually to the current level of around 5,000 peals per year (apart from wartime dips). The first person to ring 1,000 peals did so in 1905, since when increasing numbers of ringers have done so, with some going on to ring 2,000, 3,000, 4,000, 5,000 and even 6,000.
Bill Butler, who is a consultant to the Biographies Committee, has researched the lives of ringers who have rung 1,000 peals for publication in The Ringing World. Those that have been published are available here, more will follow.
They are presently listed in alphabetical order; in due course this list will be presented in the order in which they completed their first 1,000 peals.
Ballard, Alfred (see also entry in Biographical records)
Barrett, Henry William John (see also entry in Biographical records)
Bennett, Frank (see also entry in Biographical records)
Border, Peter (see also entry in Biographical records)
Cannon, Arthur Patrick (see also entry in Biographical records)
Cheesman, John Herbert (see also entry in Biographical records)
Coles, Charles Thomas (see also entry in Biographical records)
Cotton, Joseph William (see also entry in Biographical records)
Critchley, George William (Bill) (see also entry in Biographical records)
Fearn, George Ernest (see also entry in Biographical records)
George, James (see also entry in Biographical records)
Golden, Frank Nolan (see also entry in Biographical records)
Hart, Keith (see also entry in Biographical records)
Lewis, Cyril Kenneth (see also entry in Biographical records)
Lock, Thomas Joseph (see also entry in Biographical records)
Millhouse, Jack Leonard (see also entry in Biographical records)
Moreton, Wilfrid Farrington (see also entry in Biographical records)
Morris, Ernest (see also entry in Biographical records)
Poole, Harold Joseph (see also entry in Biographical records)
Pulling, Alfred Henry (see also entry in Biographical records)
Pye, George Robert (see also entry in Biographical records)
Pye, William (see also entry in Biographical records)
Roberts, Charles William (see also entry in Biographical records)
Robinson, Francis Edward (see also entry in Biographical records)
Williams, George (see also entry in Biographical records)
Woolley, Christopher Weldon (see also entry in Biographical records)
Worth, John (see also entry in Biographical records)
