Church bells

[Elisi]

I grew up just outside the quiet market town I live in, so I know it well, obviously. Got married, had children (the 3 absolute loves of my life) and we moved into town. Couldn't believe we'd got it at the time 😁Thing is, we live 75 yards from the church. It used to be that on occasional Saturdays someone would get married and the bells would happily ring out. Occasionally. New vicar and oh my goodness. We (our neighbours and us) all loved the Covid lockdown, 2 years of blissful peace. Those effing bells now ring every 15 minutes plus the hour. For example, at 10.59pm it will ring 4 times, plus 11 strokes. Then at 11.15pm it'll ring once. 11.30pm, twice. 11.45pm, 3 times. Midnight, 4 times plus 12. And this goes on 24hrs a day. Worse though, the effing bellringers. 3 hours between 6.30pm and 9.30pm every Tuesday, bell-ringing practice, it is absolutely deafening. Nobody's children can sleep, and they start again between 9am to 10am Sunday morning. That's not including when they have their mates over for bell-jollies, it has become an absolute living hell. Vicar has been spoken to and we've all basically been told to suck it up. AIBU to try and take this further?

The church was there first. You knew the church was there when you bought the house. You wouldn’t have bought a house next to a farmyard expecting no animal noise, or next to a road expecting there to be no cars. This is no different.

That said, it is possible to have a night silencer for the bells at night.

This made me smile - sorry I am the wrong person comment . I have 3 antique clocks because I love the ticking noise and they all chime every 15 mins 😀

I voted VABU, unless of course the church has been erected since you purchased the property?
Bells have been in churches for very many centuries.

You cannot be serious.

Ridiculous for them to be going on all night.
Yanbu about that.

When the church built...when you move in..if church build before you moved in yabu ..if church build after you moved in yanbu. Anyone moving near a church knows the bells ring...I love us...it's so reassuring that the world is safe.

The church was there before you were. Saying that the chimes on the quarter hour are a bit OTT. Vicars don't really run churches, they do the God/spiritual side, the material stuff is dealt with by the Parochial Church Council. I don't really believe the new vicar changed it, most Vicars just want to get on with people and pretty pragmatic, so

Honestly... I think you being both reasonable and unreasonable.

Sundays... church bells are normal.

Practices... ask if they can move it forward a bit? Finishing by 8/8.30 would be less annoying.

The clock... many are silenced at night

Competitions... its a normal thing.

Sounds like a nightmare, literally! However I used to live opposite a church that rang loads and got used to the bells surprisingly quickly; never woke up from them after that even though the noise was deafening.

I used to be a bell ringer. A guy bought a hotel near the church and complained about the bell ringing and the clock chimes. He said they sounded like someone throwing scaffolding poles off the tower. So he purchased a night time silencer for the clock mechanism to stop the chimes after 10pm and before 7am. He sold the hotel and moved away. He took the silencer thing with him.

AIBU to try and take this further?

If you want the story to be picked up by the press and to look like a complete twunt yeah, go right ahead!

Go and learn to ring the bells. It is a great skill, challenging, fun and very social.
I have just come back from our weekly bell practice. A cross section of people from 20 to 94 tonight. Always come home on a high!

Everywhere I have rung the practice stops at 9pm. Usually 7.30-9.

Otherwise you had better buy earplugs - we will all be ringing for the King in 10 days time!

Bought a house next to a church and complain about the bells 🙄

We have a bell ringing church near us too, Sunday mornings fine doesn't start till 9am
Odd practise from 5- 7pm
Saturday weddings at 1-4pm

That's it, our town would be in up roar if it went on like that.
Maybe go higher than the local vicar?

So yes tell the PCC that you are getting disturbed. They won't stop the ringers practising though they might muffle the bell after 8 or so (our ringers muffle for the newby
ringers) or the Sunday morning deal but they may stop the quarter hours.

That’s the risk you took moving to 75yards from a church. You’d have the call to prayer if it were a mosque. Or the cow bells & 3am harvest tractors if a farm.

People like you make me cross. The church has been there hundreds of years, unlike you

you get used to it

or by Earplugs

or move

I spent a few years within 20 meters of an Abbey. I loved the bells, it never occurred to me to ask them to stop something that had been happening for hundreds of years.

Haha. I think I've stayed in your town. Every 15 minutes through the night!! I was constantly waiting for and trying to get to sleep before the next dongs. You have my sympathies.

Reminds me of this pub sign

Bell ringing is becoming a lost art! Sunday service bells, wedding bells, practices, peals etc are all fabulous. Moving so close to a church and complaining about the bells is wild.

I get the point but how do you know the church has been there hundreds of years? A village near us has a monstrosity of a Catholic Church that’s definitely 20th century.

I think we have approx 5 churches in my town and none ring the bells every 15 mins - that’s insane.

YANBU the church may have been there for hundreds of years but the on the hour 24 /7 bell ringing is a modern concept due to an automated bell ringer.

The church would have to invest in a new system. They might not be willing to do this.

YANBU....you bough a house next to a church that had OCCASIONAL bell ringing, special occasion bell ringing, now the new vicar has basically set up a practically constant noise......it's not on to change the established dynamic so massively!!