CentralNotice From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation , search Bell ringing practice in Stoke Gabriel parish church, Devon , England Change ringing is the art of ringing a set of tuned bells in a series of mathematical patterns called changes . Change ringing differs from many other forms of campanology , in that players make no attempt to produce a conventional melody , but instead ring the bells in a set of permutations . Today, change ringing can be found all over the world, performed in a variety of media, but it remains most popular in English churches, where it was developed in the 17th century. Such a church's bell tower typically contains a set of a few large church bells , known as a ring of bells , rigged to swing freely for slightly more than one revolution. The considerable inertias involved mean that each bell usually requires its o...