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?

Put a fan or some other sort of "white noise" in the toddlers room. That will cover the sound of the bells. Certainly works for DD with regards to the noise from the birds/dog walkers we have going past our house from 5am onwards.

I honestly thought it was illegal for this to happen. Not so long ago, there was a bellringer on the Chris Evans breakfast show when I was driving into work and I'm sure he said that they were now allowed to ring after 11pm at night. You could check it out with the council, I'm sure.

YANBU - it'd drive me mad, especially as there's no apparent reason for it. I can understand that in the days before alarm clocks it might be necessary, but what's the reason for it now? It must be even harder if you have to get up with your DS2 at 5am.

Sorry, should have said 'not allowed' in second sentence.

This vicar has only been here a couple of years while i've been here 12 years, he is wrong they haven't always rung on the hour so the tradition argument doesn't stick anyway. I spent many night time hours awake last summer when ds was newborn and they weren't ringing then either. I was joking about the toddler ear plugs btw!

Caurnie, do you leave a fan on all night?

I imagine that many church clocks are not programmable to chime only at hours deemed convenient by the local population. I suspect that in many cases the clocks are kinda oooooold, so it's probably every hour 24/7 or not at all.

Ha ha ha. I live next to a railway station. The passenger trains stop about midnight but the freight trains go right through. DS was almost literally born to it and we are used to it but it is a completely different matter with the windows open. We just shut the windows at night and sweat. The trains at night are worse than the day ones and you don't get a wink of sleep with the windows open. I'm feeling your pain. Although I'm not complaining to anyone.

Church 200 yards away here and doesn't bother me

I always think this is the wuestion: who was there foirst- you or the Church?

If it was you then YANBU

If it was the Church then bad luck, you should have checked.

DH used to ring Church bells and it was stopped when new poeple moved to teh area and didn't like the noise so started a campaign. Bloody ridiculous.

Am waiitng on DH for an answer about how amendable the clocks are he will be here in a mo

Sometimes you just need a moan! The little watsit would probably wake me up at 5 anyway if the bells rang or not.

Course you do

but AIBU is a place for asnwers not random moans with no comeback replies

Sounds bloody annoying if you ask me.

DH tells me that most are old water / mechanical driven systems that can't be set so specifically- if you have a new clock 9and you may, they do get renewd) then mayhap but otherwise, no

YABU we used to live right next to a church and it struck the hour every hour, I always found it quite comforting that no matter what was going on it kept ringing the hour. In fact one of my main memories of the night my mum died is my dad taking me and my sister to lie in his room and all of us just lying there listening to the bells counting down the hours until the morning. Nothing to do with your post but I am rambling!.

For your baby I would say that id he wakes with church bells he will wake with something else, traffic noise, a bird or whatever happens to make a noise that morning so church bells or not 5am is when he tends to wake.

Aw Boofin.

I rememebr doing that in very diffeent circs- the day ds4 was born downstairs, went up and lay tehre watching him listening to teh bells.

sanctimoanyarse, it has actually served more purpose than just having a moan. I was keen to hear different opinions, especially as the other people i talk to in the village are mainly parents and 'newcomers' to the village. There does seem to be agreement that for the first time this year the kids sleep is being disturbed (although most seem to be complaining about 2 hours of practice once a week that starts as the kids go to bed at 7.30 on a school night). Not having lived near a church before i didn't know if it is unusual or if i should just expect on the hour chiming. So now i know!

Don't assume that the chimes were always there or as loud. Since the turn of the millennium a lot of vicars have been raising money to put in horribly loud, mechanised, amplified bells, some of which ring every 15 minutes through the night.

In most places this has nothing to do with tradition. I was brought up in a village about 100 years ago and I can assure you the bell was only rung when a bloke was available to go up the tower and pull the rope, ie 10 minutes before a Sunday service. And it isn't just a "village" or rural thing, whatever the press or vicar might claim - noisy church bells are in towns too.

Even if the bells were there first, you can take the vicar (yes, it is he who is liable) to court using Section 82 of the Environmental Health Act. The Council might tell you that you won't get anywhere complaining about a noisy church/it's not a nuisance. This is because they don't want to touch such a politically sensitive issue.

I live opposite an old church, and it frightened the life out of us the first Sunday Morning when they peal at 8am

Again, we are desensitised now, but on a Wed evening, the "Practice" for a good 2 hours, and if you sit in the garden you hear every mistake!

I lived in a converted coachhouse for a while which had a clocktower on its roof that chimed through the night. Soon got used to it and miss it now that we don't live there anymore.

Was quite handy to know the time by counting the bongs especially when my dd was little and bfing through the night

As a PS, and I have no financial or vested interest in this organisation, you might like to call Sanctum Consultants, a firm of noise advisers who are ex-enviro health officers. ASBO vicars beware--these people will tell you your rights and you may find that the law is strongly on your side. They will also tell you frankly if you are being "unreasonable". You may well find you are not. I used them for a similar problem.

[random memory]

I remember camping as a child beside a church tower in the Cotswolds. The bells there rang the full Westminster chimes on the quarter and then at 12am and pm you got the full westminster plus the 12 and THEN a full verse and chorus of Oh Worship the King. By the time that was all finished you were closer to the quarter past than from the hour.

I wonder if that church still does that. I hope so.

Oh I absolutely adore the sound of church bells - I lived near a church my whole childhood, was always within the sound of chimes when I left, even when I moved away to Gloucestershire I moved near a church. The past 18 months is the first time I didn't have a church going ding dong within hearing.

It doesn't make any sense probably as I am a committed atheist, but I think church bells chiming on the hour is as fundamentally English as hedgerows, and as important to preserve.

I do not know why people would complain, it really is not that intrusive, wherever I have lived the bells have just chimed the hour after midnight, and rang the quarter hours from 6am onwards.

I think there's a TV series in Bellapig's vicar-busting noise squad...

YANBU. I have just moved to a street not far from a church and I resent the imposition of noise. The church near me doesn't even have proper bells, weird automated ones, early on a Sunday morning. I don't chose to take part in religion, we don't need the Church to wake us up early on a Sunday morning, some of us like to have a lie in on the rare occasion if we get a chance.

This Church isn't an old one either, so the 'it was there before you' argument doesn't count. Not that I think it counts anyway. Bugs me to hell.

Poppy I moved from church bells to having the west coast mainline at the bottom of the garden of the oppostite house (say about 70M away).

I much prefer having a trainline near, than the sound of a busy road. I don't hear any road noise at all (live next to a graveyard in a cul de sac) and I find the sound of the trains comforting.

There is a mosque down the road which used to have a muezzin calling the faithfull through a loudspeaker, I liked that as well, it reminded me of Tunis.

One l in faithful.