To HATE the church bells?

My answer is in the same category as people who

1. send their kids to a church school then moan about them praying or taking part in church related activities.
2. buy a house near school then moan that people park when dropping kids off. Why the fresh hell did you buy a house near a church, you can't really moan about it.... it was there before you. If you sent like it move house.

The thing is, you didn't say that at the beginning. I completely get that for you, this is not ideal. I didn't know it was a no choice scenario. Can you get on a swap list with the HA?

@ThankGodForDancingFruit English church's do t generally play tunes. Some have Carillions that do. But it's normally Change ringing.

I love the sound of church bells and stayed in an airbnb next door to a church it was blissful and was so relaxing listening to them!

As a pp said, bellringing is brilliant fun. I strongly recommend it for the mental and physical challenge, and a great way of making friends wherever you live. Plus if you’re ringing you won’t be bothered by the noise(which is much, much quieter inside a tower than outside).

Practices should never be muffled. Fully muffled is reserved for the death of a monarch. Half muffled for significant funerals, Easter Friday and Remembrance Day. These would lose their significance if they were the norm.

clappers on bells can be tied (and are when learners are at the early stages) to make the bells silent, but ringers will never improve from practicing on silent bells.

Active bellringer here. In my experience, I've never had a practice session on muffled bells. The clapper is usually only muffled for funerals, to give that mournful, quieter sound at the backstroke. I attend 2 or 3 different practice sessions a week in different areas and none are muffled. The bells in most churches are situated a floor or two floors above where the actual ringers are, so no danger to ringers' hearing.

Yes, the fast ringing at the beginning and end of the practice session is the 'ringing up' and 'ringing down' of the bells, though sometimes this is done individually.

Most practice sessions are 7.30 - 9pm on a certain day. Any 'ringing' during the night will be the automated clock chimes. If they were really troublesome, I suppose one could approach the incumbent vicar and ask if they could be silenced during the night hours, but that would be his/her decision to make.

In essence to the OP, do your research before moving next to a church. However, we are desperate for more bellringers as it's a dying art. It's a really sociable hobby, challenging to learn, interesting and it's quite addictive - and if you think of it, where there's a church, there's usually a pub! Come and join us, you'll be made most welcome and then you won't hate the bells!

Search ‘Avicii Church Bells’ on YouTube!

Ex-bellringer here with a few thoughts:
Practice sessions should always be on muffled bells; to minimise sound in the local area and to protect the bell ringers' hearing. If your local bells aren't muffled OP you could (in a nice way) offer to help fundraise for some
More practice = better ringers so if more muffled practice can be done then the unmuffled bells will sound a lot better on Sundays / at weddings
The cacophony of sound at the beginning and end of sessions is due to ringing up / ringing down and can't be avoided but can be done quickly if well practised

This is my first mumset post and I am happy to have used the word 'muffled' so much 😀

There was a woman in the next village to me,who moved in opposite the church,and proceeded to complain about the bells. The house that she moved into was called 'Church Farm' so you'd think that she might have got a clue from that.
It was over 40 years ago and locals still remember the fuss that she caused. ( She didn't like bonfires either).

I grew up in a house right next door to the church. Not only could you hear the bells but it was so close you could hear the church organ and hymns being sung on a Sunday. Because of that hymns and organ music make me fancy a roast dinner. Pavlov would have something to say about that.

I'm sure the local children are used to them and sleep fine. You'll probably barely notice them in a few weeks.

I'm with you, OP. I lived in a badly insulated, single glazed house opposite a church for a couple of years, and it was incredibly loud. In fact, it was so loud that I couldn't hear the TV. I wouldn't have minded if it was an actual tune, but it was two notes over and over again! I could never get used to the clock going off every 15 minutes either.

I love Church bells- and I am fine with bell ringing ractice one evening a week for about 1 hour.

Our local Church however, rings 4 bells for every quarter, and 1 bell for each hour. At midnight that means 4 x 4 = 16 + 12 = 28. And on through the night.

I think it would be fair to stop the bells after 10 or 11pm, and start again st 7am. A good common sense solution.

Well you moved to an area where you can hear church bells so suck it up buttercup

whoosh

Jesus. Do people really believe that housing associations offer a Rightmove-style selection of homes? I mean, I think this should be the case - in reality, you wait months and months for an offer (I was living in a relative's box room) and, if you turn down two offers, they decide you're not serious about it so you don't get any more offers.

"No, I can't take this tiny but generally okay flat because it's too near the church" is not a wise response 😂 My first offer was damp with mouldy ceilings, and the back door opened on a woodland path cluttered with used syringes. Church chimes are nothing compared to that! I just wish the rest of you would stop telling us we shouldn't have chosen our noisy homes 🙄

They were there long before you, get used to them or start planning another move.

No, it's not. I posted earlier about my local church's AUTOMATED chimes, which not only peal every quarter of an hour 24 hours a day but ring random tunes, thwarting your brain's efforts to predict and screen them out.

This thread's become a nice little club for posters claiming to live in Enid Blyton's fantasy world where church bells are only rung by teams of expert campanologists, only a couple of evenings a week, and are always high-quality instruments broadcasting twice-weekly concerts of charmingly traditional music through the sleepy village air.

At least with a mosque, the calls are only five times a day!

@ShyPearlMoose

did someone put a gun to your head and make you move there?
dis you do the reasonable checks of noise at different times of day before you moved?

if no your fault.

suck if up or move. Unless the bells were installed after you moved in.

be lucky you have a roof over your head.

I love the sound of church bells.

I adore church bells! They make me think of weddings and Sunday mornings.

People really don’t want to be impeded on by the outside world at all now do they?

😂

Are you sure that's not just the clock chiming every hour? 😆 Seriously though, along with the 'bells go off at 7am EVERY DAY' poster, I just find this unbelievable. I am not calling any of you a liar. I wouldn't do that, but it's just that I have NEVER known any Church have its bells ringing - on the hour - EVERY hour. How long for? 5 minutes? 10? Half an hour? Or - as I said - are you sure it's not just the clock chiming!!!

To the OP @ShyPearlMoose wait til the Church gets a new Vicar or Reverend, or there's another Coronation, or the anniversary of D-Day, or VE Day, or some other kind of celebration or memorium. The bells on the Saturday or Sunday of that celebration weekend go on for 4-5 hours then ... Just constantly.

And whilst they do have bell ringers at our Church, they have a recording of the bells too, and they just switch it on and fuck off home, then return 5 hours later to switch it off! 😆

Looking forward to your thread of rage then! Also, you saw a Church near when you were going to live, and didn't realise there would be Church Bells ringing? Really? REALLY?!

I bet you would move next to a Dairy farm, and then claim you didn't realised cows mooed.

I love them! We live right across from the village church and I absolutely love sitting in the back garden on a sunny evening listening to the birds and the bell-ringing practice. Also on a Saturday morning if there is a wedding it's lovely. To me the church bells remind me of happiness and community and good times! The rest of the time our village is very peaceful with just the sound of wildlife and birds so it's perfect really 😊

I used to live in a really busy, built up area and the only noise was traffic, sirens and people and kids shouting - never again!