Church Bells?

[Hoplikeabunny]

I have recently moved house, and my new house is one road along from the village church. I have lived this close to churches before, and have never experienced this, but the church I live near to now seem to ring the church bells at odd times of the night?! Every Tuesday and Thursday they ring the bells constantly from 8pm-10pm (it seems like wedding bells practice or something?), which is a bit annoying, and later than I think is acceptable really, but ultimately not the end of the world, although they have woken my DS up a few times. However, they also ring them really late, and in the early hours of the morning. For example, last night at 11pm they rang (rung...not sure which word is correct here!) them 11 times at 11pm. Then on Monday they rang them at midnight 12 times. I have also sleepily heard them in the small hours of the morning a couple of times.

I don't particularly mind, it's not the worst noise in the world, but it just seems odd, and is a bit annoying?! Also, for some reason church bells at midnight feels a bit creepy, I don't even know why! It is a bit frustrating as my 2yo doesn't sleep that well, and it has woken him up before, but i guess this is my issue.

Am I being unreasonable to find this a bit odd, or is it standard practice in village churches? Maybe i'm just not accustomed to village life yet!

I appreciate that in the grand scheme of things, this is a non-issue!

I love the sound of bells. Nothing beats them. yabu as you bought near a church. Bell practice and a chime on the hour. What about joining bell practice as they always looking for ringers. Its on my wish list, although i am tone deaf and my timing would be poor.

But why not learn to ring, OP? You'd probably enjoy it and would get more out of the sound of bells when others ring.

MaidofStars, you can't ring tunes with normal church bells. They are usually extremely heavy and the most you can do is ring them slightly slower or faster.

I was ready to say YABU, but having read the times they've been ringing, YANBU. 11pm is late, as is 12pm obvs.

I imagine they're doing practice from 8-10, but anything after that is fairly antisocial.

And yes, I live in a village with similar practice times. however we've had people complain and subsequently move because the sheep baa!

Icimoi So it's a deliberately tuneless cacophony?

Coincidentally, I work in a building that is opposite a church, with bells ringing daily at 5pm. They have a tune - their own tune, but a rhythm/pattern nonetheless. Is this automated then?

Are they change ringing in the early hours? That does sound really odd and I can imagine it would be a bit creepy. If tis it has a clock then you might be hearing that, our town church clock chimes the Westminster chimes every fifteen minutes.

Sorry but am PMSL at the bells ringing 11 times at 11pm, 12 times at 12 etc. Its a puppet clock.

Hearing the church clock chime at night is comforting. Unless you can't sleep then it's pure torture mocking you with every dong!

No, it's not deliberately tuneless, nor is it a cacophony. Bells are rung to specific methods: because you can in essence only ring slightly slower or faster, they are rung in order but with different permutations. Have a look at this

I recommend reading Dorothy Sayers "The Nine Tailors" for more information (and a very good detective story).

Ach, I was being a bit tongue in cheek

CatchIt, please tell me you don't seriously think a band of bellringers solemnly troops up the bell tower at 11 p.m. just to ring one bell 11 times and then come down again, only to repeat the performance at midnight with 12 bongs?

Do they were monk-type habits with hoods up as they do it? Someone say yes.

I have relatives who live right by a huge cathedral, which rings the quarter hour and all the chimes throughout the day and night. We stay in an attic room with single glazing, and the first time we stayed, I might as well have been in the bell tower, they seemed so loud. but you very quickly get used to it, and now I don't even notice them

Try watching DVDs with your mates writing an essay in your student room that is within spitting distance of a huge cathedral on bell ringing practice night .

My Granny lived by a church that rang every hour through the night. When I was very small called my bed in her house the "ding dong bed" as though it were something special and the bells could not be heard form any other bed. I loved the comfort of snuggling into the tightly made beds with piles of eiderdowns :)

I'm a ringer. Join - seriously, it is the most engaging and social hobby ever. Depending on the strength of your local tower/branch/association you can take it as far as you want, it's a genuine life-long hobby if you want it to be.

Church bells are tuned, if a church has more than one bell (and the pursuit of bell ringing as a hobby generally involves a group of people using a set of bells). However, it is a fine pursuit for the tone deaf as each individual rings a single bell each, and you just have to keep track of when you need to ring your bell.

That said, it probably is fair to say that bells don't play 'tunes' in the typical sense. Bells ring 'changes' which are in effect very gradual variations on the base ringing order.

I love church bells... OP, move. It's the only solution.

Paleantologist, that's lovely, 'ding dong bed'

Thanks for the Dorothy L Sayers recommendation, Icimoi, I like detective fiction very much.

Aside from the fact that I am a heathen atheist (and would probably get struck by lightening if I even attempted to enter a church!), I don't really have the time to take on a hobby unfortunately. So no bell ringing for me!

Sadly I think I'm stuck in the house for a while seeing as we bought it a year ago and have literally only just moved in after having spent all of the banks our money renovating it. Looks like I'd better get used to the bells!

Haha, okay on reflection perhaps it was dumb to highlight that they ring the bells 11 times at 11pm etc, but I'm just highlighting that it is a different sort of ringing from the practice ringing!

It's downright rude. I would report them to the council for ringing so late at night- no other neighbours would be allowed to make such noise at midnight- what gives the church the righ to disturb the peace.

Propelus, it's a church clock. It's probably been chiming the hours for centuries. If people can't cope with that, they have the option not to move within its vicinity. If OP tried to report it she would achieve nothing other than giving her local Enviromental Health Department a good laugh.

It's the dongs of the time. So eleven dongs for eleven o clock

Is the church above the law? If I wanted to honk my car horn 12 times at midnight ever night there would be complaints- and quite rightly.The church also has to comply with the law. There have been complaints to environmental health ( who have taken cases seriously) and churches have been ordered to keep their bell ringing to acceptable times. It is not without precedent.

I don't give a damn if it's jesus himself singing the hail marys- I would still complain.

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/2120100/Church-bells-are-a-nuisance-say-locals.html

www.iwcp.co.uk/news/news/church-bells-silenced-after-noise-complaint-63053.aspx

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2211116/Historic-church-bells-silenced-140-years-local-council-receives-just-complaint-noise.html

www.bristol.anglican.org/parish-resources/buildings/church-bells-law-and-public-relations/

What everyone else said, though admittedly some churches' bells stop chiming the hours after a certain time of night. I think ours don't chime between midnight and six am, probably after generations of village squabbles. Ringing practice is eight to ten on Wednesdays and before the main service on Sundays, and on a Tuesday night in two neighbouring villages, when, if you're walking in the high fields, it sounds rather wonderful coming from two different directions on the wind.

Having said that, one friend in another village cracked when a visiting bell ringing team kept at it until almost 11 one night and woke her hyper three year old repeatedly, and climbed into the belfry apoplectic with rage. They never returned.

What you're hearing is the church clock, I think. Ours chimes every 15 mins day and night.

The actual bells should only be rung for services and once a week for ringing practice and not after 9pm (except for New Years Eve). There are strict guidelines about this. When we practice on other nights we do it silently (clappers on the bells to stop them ringing).

And yes, if you express even the slightest interest in the bells you'll be signed up for the team. I still don't know quite how I found myself ringing but I think a lot of wine was involved . It's great fun though and I heartily recommend it as a way of integrating yourself into village life.

Propelus, those links you post prove nothing. In the first there was just a general whinge about ringing practice, and in the other two churches voluntarily stopped clocks from chiming without any court order being made, so it was never established that they were acting in any way illegally. Your final link is the standard commonsense guidance to churches dished out by Bristol and many others - it doesn't say you shouldn't ring, it just says you should be considerate.

Campanology itself needn't have any link with religion. Plenty of ringers are atheists and non churchgoers.