John David Mini Ring

History

The John David Mini Ring was bought from Matthew Higby & Co in 2015 by the Wellington Ringers. A Mini ring is a scale model of regular tower bells, but due to their size, they lack certain features of regular tower bells such as stays and sliders, which are used to hold the bells in the upright position between sections of ringing. They are also much easier to learn bell handling on (most people pick it up within 20 minutes) and for this reason it is often used for demonstrating and teaching ringing, but is also frequently used for practices and quarter peals. 

It was bought from Matthew Higby & Co in 2015 by the Wellington Ringers. Donations towards the cost were made by many ringers, by the Australia and New Zealand Association of Bellringers (ANZAB), and by Wellington City Council. The bells were made in the UK - cast by Mark Prior and tuned by Matthew Higby and Co. The ring is named after two members of the Caldwell family, four generations of which have been ringers in New Zealand. David Caldwell was a ringer at St Matthew's, Auckland and Hamilton Cathedral. His son, John, learnt to ring. John died at a relatively young age. John's son, Andrew, learnt to ring at Wellington Cathedral, becoming the fourth generation of Caldwells to ring.

Initially, the ring had 6 bells. Each bell is named after a donor - bells 4-8 are named after past and present Wellington ringers Rei Ngatai, Christopher Jarman, Terry Barrett, Pleasance Purser and Gerald McIlhone. The third is named Gill, after Gerald McIlhone’s wife. In December 2015, two additional bells were ordered to augment the ring to eight. Delivery was somewhat protracted, and the ring was finally received in September 2017. Generous donations made the augmentation possible, particularly one from Lian von Wantoch, who was an American diplomat based at the American Embassy in Wellington for a period. She is a ringer and donated money for the bell as a thank you for her ringing welcome in Wellington. The new second is named Harvey, after her father, Harvey von Wantoch. The new treble is named Nathan, after the grandson of Derek Williams, a Wellington ringer.