Superlative Surprise Royal

On Easter Monday 1826 (which was 27^th March), ten ringers from the Parish Church of All Saints Wakefield climbed the tower steps and rang a peal of 5400 Superlative Surprise Royal. Four years earlier, nine of them had rung the very first peal of Surprise Royal – Cambridge – with one ringer from Leeds making up the number. The peal of Superlative was the second peal of Surprise Royal ever rung, and the first where all the ringers had come from one church. No one else rang a peal of Surprise Royal of any sort anywhere for another 72 years!

The Royal part of the name means it was rung on 10 bells. The Surprise part is an indication of complexity; even today Surprise methods are among the harder sequences we ring.  I guess they called it Superlative because they thought it was superior to Cambridge. To mark the 200^th anniversary, the current band of ringers followed in our predecessor’s footsteps, and on Tuesday 24^th March 2026 rang just 200 changes of Superlative Surprise Royal – a fraction of what they rang – and that was challenge enough for us! Our bells, cast in 1947, and hung on ball-bearings are much easier to ring than the old bells in 1826, which would have had plain bearings and the danger of running dry part way through. So their feat was even more remarkable for the physical effort needed besides the mental concentration.

The picture is of the peal board in the ringing room commemorating both peals.

The Cathedral ringers are always looking for new recruits, and welcome visitors to see what we do. Contact Wakefield Cathedral for more information.