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?

N467 I'm a bellringer, it could be that you have a band of ringers who are struggling with their striking. As mentioned above, if there are 6 bells then perfect striking would comprise of 12 evenly spaced strikes of different bells, a slight pause then another evenly spaced 12 strikes. Perfect striking is very hard to achieve as depending on the size and weight of each bell they will take a slightly different time between pulling the rope and striking, they will also be changing position in the order they ring each time so although the idea is for the listener to hear an even rhythm the ringer is constantly changing pace to achieve this. If you are hearing two or more bells striking together or long pauses breaking the rhythm then that is poor striking. Practice night is all about learning how to strike well and learning new methods (tunes) so there will be mistakes but for Sunday service we try to stick with easier methods we can strike well.
I do feel that the OP's ringers sound like they are pushing their luck a bit, 7.30pm-9pm is usual practice time in my area once a week, then Sunday service ringing and the occasional special occasion. More than that is a bit unreasonable. The 15 minutes sounds like a clock chime which is automated and very different to change ringing.

I think the extra- long current practices may be to do with ‘ring for the King’ and/or building up the band again after a long break. They may well shorten after the Coronation.

Bell ringing practice, Sunday service, weddings etc all fine and part of living near a church!

Bongs every 15 minutes through the night is NOT ON and actually, completely antisocial. Complain to the vicar, The Parish Council and then the diocese if they won't shut them off

You’re not being unreasonable.That bell regime is ridiculous!
I live near a cathedral and don’t have to tolerate anything like that.

For those saying they moved next to a church sl should suck it up - reas the OP. It clearly states it was different under the previous vicar. Bells are lovely but shouldn't be going all night. Our local church stops at 11pm. Starts again sometime before 9 (never bothered me so have never paid attention). Definitely take it higher as it's not reasonable at all to have them going in the small hours. Rehearsals likewise should be at a reasonable time.

We have the chiming at the quarter and half hours, and the strokes of the bell on the hour

we also have an automated carillon that plays tunes at 1am and 5am (it plays at these hours during the day as well).

when we first moved in, it drove me mad. Very soon, I didn’t even notice it. We live on the same road as the church, btw

I live a street over from a church, and have done for most of my life.. The bells ring very rarely, thank fuck.
The constant ringing would drive me to distraction.

Not that easily done in every bell tower, as it tends to require some intrepid soul to climb up above the ringing chamber and tie the muffles on, and then of course they'll have to be taken off when they need the bells to sound properly.

The quarter hour chimes will be automatic, no-one will be ringing them.

I guess you could. If you want to give the officers in that department a good laugh.

I have fond memories of the church bells in my childhood village. I am not sure about 9.30 at night but I think I wouldn’t mind the rest of the time.

Apart from the overnight chiming, there is nothing in what OP describes that would contravene the provisions of this Act.

But aren't you actually hearing the church clock chime? The small village I was born in had a similar clock. I actually found it very comforting if I woke in the night and heard the clock chiming. Sorry but I think you are being unreasonable. You knew the church was there before you moved. It's like people who complain about the smell of cows, pigs etc when farmers have those animals. That's just what the country is like.

No other post since the goady first post, but I'll bite..............

First comment nailed it. ^ What a ridiculous thread, and a ludicrous 'complaint.' Imagine being so 'hard of thinking' and obtuse that you move into a house 75 yards away from a CHURCH, and then whinge about the clock chimes and bell ringers, to the point where you COMPLAIN to the vicar! 😂

I bet the vicar and the villagers are pissing themselves laughing at your ridiculous behaviour @Elisi 😆 Here's the answer........ MOVE!

For the record, pretty much ALL Church clocks chime every 15 minutes, and they ALL chime 11 times one minute after 10.59. WHY KNEW? 😜

Oh and I do NOT believe these bells, and clock chimes have never rung before!

@Redebs

All those generations of bell ringers pulling the ropes every fifteen minutes...

Do their arms get stretched by the exertion four times an hour, like glass blowers' cheeks?

Oh fucking hell. 😆 You don't actually believe this actually happens do you?! OMFG!!! 😂You're joking right???

I really doubt that the bellringing (as opposed to the clock chiming) is anything to do with the vicar. No vicar can just magic up a band of experienced, committed bellringers overnight just because he fancies it, and in fact many bellringers have little or no interest in religion so wouldn't come just because a vicar summons them anyway.

I suspect the reality is that the bellringers were there before - especially given that OP says they used to ring for weddings, which is not something they could have done without practising. Possibly the current band are rather more committed than used to be the case, or for some reason OP was just less aware of them pre-covid.

For the record, pretty much ALL Church clocks chime every 15 minutes, and they ALL chime 11 times one minute after 10.59. WHY KNEW? 😜

That really isn't true. Not all church clocks chime, and where they do they normally have limiters on that stop them chiming at night in built-up areas at least.

At a weekend, churches are often in use for weddings on a Saturday afternoon. Nobody wants a ringing practice going on while they exchange vows.

But brides and grooms often want ringing at some point, usually right at the end of service as they leave the church. However, it won't usually be for more than 20 minutes at most.

People about 1/4 mile away from the church I ring at complained about the noise of the bells. Muffles were installed on the belfry and now the bells can only just be heard outside the churchyard.

The people next to the church are now complaining because they can't hear the bells.

Church bells being rung for services and practices are one thing but a bell linked to a clock mechanism that chimes every fifteen minutes and resounds on the hour night and day is another.
Speak with the church wardens and ask for this to be taken to the PCC. If that does not work contact your diocese office and seek further advice from the archdeacon in charge. TBH I cannot imagine a sane member of the clergy being unsympathetic to bells being an issue at night….and I am married to a priest who has a church with keen bellringers…..the clock was disabled possibly by a warden whose sleep kept being broken by it in the past. His local parishioners did not mind bell ringers but could not cope with the insane clock chimes. I for one do not blame them.

Yes of course. But a previous poster was suggesting that ringers could practise during the day at weekends, rather than on weekday evenings, and I was pointing out why practising for a couple of hours on a Saturday afternoon might be impractical.

PrettyMaybug If you'd bothered to read my post before thinking 'Oooh, is my one brain-cell up and running?' and making a stupid reply, you would have read that I lived just outside the town and have all my life. Think, child. Outside town. All my life. My great-great-great-grandparents bought our farm here, THREE YEARS before the church was built, so all you people saying that the church, built in 1872, was here first? Guess again. Secondly, I also mentioned that the community has lived in harmony next to the church forever, thanks to instinctive good manners, and it's the new vicar (who preaches from her mobile bloody phone, using all sorts of 'woke speak') who has disrupted a small town who were previously completely happy with the bell-ringing agenda. So, before you get all feel-good about having been nasty, read properly to begin with. Sheesh.......

Do you mean bellringing, or clock chiming OP? It’s clear from the thread that they are very different - clock chiming is automated, for one thing - ad is who you might address the problem through.

@triballeader Thankyou for the advice. Quiet town, new 'woke' female vicar who reads 'woke' stuff from her mobile during service, if the bells had been a problem previously then obviously I wouldn't have chosen to buy here x

You sound quite odd Op!

Leave the bells alone and the new vicar'