to be completely fed up with the church bells ringing on the hour through the night.

[jollyma]

I live in a village about 500 metres away from a church. Since the windows have been open this summer we have heard the bells ring through the night. When they ring at 5am they disturb ds2 and it is then morning in our house.

I bumped into the vicar today and asked him why this had started to happen and he says it always has "church bells always ring on the hour". I am tired and grumpy about this and feel like going and ringing his doorbell at 5am. AIBU?

The church near us strikes the hour every hour. Will do twelve bongs soon

haha, i think YABU tbh. i live in a market town with a clock tower on the bank, rather than on a church. some second home owner complained about the bell disturbing her every 4th weekend so no between the hours or 11pm and 7am it plays a recording of the dinging, at a lower volume ridiculous. one new years eve at midnight someone climbed the tower to try and ring it properly.

try and embrace it, i used to live next to a scrap yard and was awoken by scrap metal being dropped from a height every morning.

I'm far less bemused by the OP's concerns than those of a poster of another forum I take part in. There, the poster, who lives in a semi-rural area, was complaining about the excessive noise,... and I kid you not.... of cows mooing!

YABU. For all the reasons pointed out. I grew up in a village next to a church and it never bothered me one bit as a child. But in recent years, newcomers to the village kicked up a stink and now the bells have been muffled so that they still chime, but more quietly . I find it v annoying that an ancient tradition is being abandoned because Mr Trumpington-Smythe from Chiswick wants his beauty sleep.

YABVFU, the church has probably been there hundreds of years.

YABU

It's sad that church bells (and roosters) all over the country are being removed/muffled so that new dwellers don't have their beauty sleep disturbed. Bloody daft to move next to a church if you don't like the bells!

(and I am a complete athiest - the church bells are the best thing to come out of a church IMO).

I was chuffed when I booked my holiday in KL to find, on the first morning (having arrived in the dark) that my room was right next to the 'bell tower' of the 'Mosque' so 4am became the new 7am!!! But it would have been childish and churlish to complain - it was there first and it didn't ding on the hour either!!

Yes YABU, but thanks for making me laugh, you numpty

I am SO glad that I no longer live in the UK. "If the noise made is proved to be a statutory nuisence they will act upon it" - are you people for real! If I wasn't already howling with laughter I'd cry.

why do church bells ring every hour (or even 15 minutes)? What's the point?

I will be the lone YANBU, that would drive me nuts.

chime
suppose they chime rathe than ring

So was it the community clock in the old days or is it supposed to remind you that your life is ticking away and you should get ready for the next world because you are running out of time?

You're being unreasonable - the church was there long before you were and no doubt you moved into the village for the ambience... which was added to by the quaint little church sounding the hour at 3pm when you viewed the house.

We can hear our church chime during the night, I like it.

Did you not read the bit where the op said it wasn't a little quaint village with a pond emptyshell? A large village with a big road running through it doesn't grab me as having much ambience... (sorry op!)

My fathers house is about 1.5 metres away from the church bells (Greece)

when they ring the whole house vibrates and you cannot have a conversation it is so loud
Sunday mornings are pretty grim if you have been out the night before!!

Easter and other special holidays they basically ring non stop and at Christmas they play 'jingle bells' about twice and hour

It's like people living near a train station and then complaining the trains wake them up in the night

LOL I have a huge clock that does the Westminster Chimes every 15 mins. I get twitchy and wake up if it doesn't chime.

Don't move near a church if you don't want to hear bells?

YABU, they will have always chimed the hour. You aren't related to the lady who moved into the village I grew up in and complained to the farmer that the sheep were making too much noise are you?

YANBU at all, I can't see any reason for the church to chime at night, we don't have to rely on sundials or slow wind-up clocks any more so we do actually know what the time is without it! If it was a call to prayer or something then fine, but it's just a relic of a tradition from a bygone age and presumably kept up because some people like it. But others don't, so I don't really see how that holds up as an argument.

I think it's fair game during the day though, and I love hearing church bells after a wedding, I think it's lovely to ring out to the community that a couple has just married. So I'm not anti-bell at all. Just can't see why it's so essential at night that disturbing people's sleep is necessary and justified!

it's strange, cannot really see the point in the bells chiming through the night.

It's also quite strange to muffle the bells or replace them with a toned down recording of bells chiming. Why not just not chime them through the night? It's like it is important to have the bells ring every hour so let's just make them quieter if they disturb people. Why are they chiming at all though? I don't get it.

Thats right rockbird there is zero ambiance here just traffic! I really am not complaining that they ring just dont get why they need to in the early hours! I agree that moving near a church then complaining about sunday bells or daytime ringing would be unreasonable. If any other member of the community made the same noise there would be uproar so why is it ok for a church to disturb peoples sleep?

The ear plugs suggestion is a good one, anyone know where i can buy them for a toddler?

why do they ring in the night? surely this should be stopped