I have wondered in the past about rafters ringing, but never bothered to look into it until now. It seemed wrong to me - it should be 'it's just the rafters ringing'.

So I went searching and here is the explanation.

Note the third para regarding the toono, and then scroll down to where the toono is described. Scroll down further and you will find that the toono, (or the rafters' ring) is a hole to let the smoke out. It strikes me as being a lovely piece of imagery when juxtaposed with the remmembered voice of Big Jim Larkin.