Over many years, Canon K W H Felstead put together the most complete set of tower bell peal records in existence. The records consist of one or more handwritten 8" by 5" cards for each tower where at least one peal has been rung, and are considerably less detailed than the peal reports published in the Ringing World as they consist of only the date and the method(s) of each peal.
Canon Felstead bequeathed his peal records to the Central Council of Church Bell Ringers. After Canon Felstead's death the records were meticulously maintained by David Dearnley. Despite the excellent service which David provided to peal researchers, this index was not easily accessible to the general ringer. In 1994, the Central Council Administration Committee asked the then Computer Coordination (now Information and Communication Technology) and Peals Analysis Committees (now Peal Records Committee) to investigate the possibility of computerising the Felstead records. This web site shows a possible way in which the records can be made available to ringers world-wide.
Volunteers entered the data from photocopies of the Felstead records; there were over 275,000 peals which took several thousand hours to enter, shared between approximately 100 volunteers. As towers were completed and the data files returned to the organisers, they were added to the site. This work is now complete, barring corrections.
Please email details of any errors or problems to <felstead@cccbr.org.uk>
Responsibility for the Felstead database is shared between the Central Council's Information and Communications Technology (I & C T) and Peals Records Committees. The I & C T are responsible for the website, database and the addition of current peal data (peals rung after 1/1/1990). The P A C are responsbile for the content of the database and in particular peals prior to 1/1/1990.
The original Felstead website was implemented by Don Morrison. This second version of the Felstead website has been implemented by Andrew Craddock on behalf of the I & C T Committee.