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?

It's the clock chiming, not the bells ringing. I think the point is so you know what time it is. Ours does it, every fifteen minutes, 24 hours. I've got used to it, though it doesn't help me tell the time because it's always wrong somehow!

Church bells ringing YABU
Clock chiming overnight YANBU

Separate the two issues and you might get taken seriously if you take it higher.

So would the clock have always chimed 4 times an hour? If so the OP is being unreasonable. But I understood from her OP that it is a new thing for them to ring four times an hour in which case the vicar should at least listen to her neighbours and see if there is a compromise.

I lived in an inner city area where there was trash collection twice a week and recycling twice a week - different days which meant people went through trash barrels for cans around 4 in the morning - very noisy -and then there was the actual noisy trash pick up. After the first week I hardly noticed it.

Seems a little extreme every 15m and all through the night

Esp as that wasn't the case

Def speak to vicar or go higher

The bells aren't rung, the clock chimes. The strong likelihood is that the PCC decided to restore a function it had originally but which stopped for a time. I agree it would make sense to stop it chiming overnight, but it's true to say that most people living near to that sort of church get used to it very quickly.

What exactly is the relevance to this issue of the vicar being female, OP? Or how she prepares her sermons?

Totally unacceptable to be at it all night stopping people sleeping! Report it to your local council (in many areas this is provided by the county Regulatory Services) as noise pollution.

@CheeseCakeSunflowers unfortunately i wasn't at home last night to hear them practicing but next week I will definitely listen to them properly to see if I can figure out if they are playing correctly or if they are just in need of lots more practice (making it sound like I know what I'm on about, I clearly have no clue 😂)
They have been playing the same tune on practice nights the whole time I've lived here so I would have thought by now they should be pro's!

People who live near bells and "got used to it very quickly" how??? During the day yes of course. How could you possibly get used to it every 15 mins all night long? How does it not wake you up every time? Sounds like torture.

Of course they need to bloody we'll turn it off overnight. Who is it even FOR? Or "for whom does the bell even toll?" if you will.

I don’t k ow how. But from being initially horrified, I just stopped noticing. Our kids never once woke up

YANBU if it was normal bell ringing practice etc bit every 15 mins and on the hour that's nuts. It's not always been like that and the new vicar changed it so not unreasonable to ask for a happy medium

Exactly this. Very rude responses from @Elisi Shameful actually. She sounds so entitled and angry, like 'me me me me me!' The irony of her accusing others of being rude and sharp, and then being rude and sharp herself is breathtaking. As is her entitlement to get her own way.

As a pp said, what her grandparents and great grandparents did means shag-all. The fact is, she has moved next to a Church, and is now whining like a baby about the clock chimes and the bells. Pathetic. 😐

You are not going to endear yourself to the people in this village @Elisi If ANY village at all actually.... You would certainly not be welcome in ours if you whinged like you're doing on here, with the same unpleasant and rude attitude. ALSO, the vicar, and the parishioners would laugh at you if you complained. And I do not believe the Church bells are super loud. You're exaggerating. They're just Church bells. And as many posters have said, the bells only go off on special occasions, the other 'chimes' are just the clock FGS!

Get a grip, get over yourself, or do yourself (and everyone else) a favour, and MOVE. As a pp said, you seem unreasonably angry and annoyed at very little! AND, as some posters have said, you seem to have an irrational disliking of the FEMALE vicar too. Why is that?

I agree. It would be unreasonable to want the bells permenantly silenced, but every 15 mins is totally excessive and it is wrong to put that in place without consultation. They should also never ring after 9pm.

I love the sound of church bells and would rather hear them than a lot of other noises! If you don't like the sound, why not move? You're not obligated to stay.

Move near a church and then complain about church bells 😆 As a bell ringer I can also call out the 3 hour practice lie. It's absolutely knackering and a very fit person would be hard pressed to do more than an hour at a time.

I think we need to hear the bells. Maybe op can video them and upload

I live in a village and our church bells have a similar pattern to yours OP. I don't live quite as close but we have got used to it, I don't hear them at night anymore, sometimes in summer when the windows are open but they don't wake me.

We recently had a family move in near the church and they have complained, they didn't get very far. There are houses all around our church who seem to manage just fine. As others have said the church was there before you (12th century for us) and it is something I would have thought of when I moved in 75 yards away from a church. Even if they weren't in use at the time it didn't mean they wouldn't in the future. I think you have to accept it or move.

Why? There's not that much variation in terms of the sound of church bells. It will depend a bit on how many there are and how large they are, but the volume is pretty uniform unless muffles are put on. Presumably it's

Hmmm, MN's spiffy new picture links links mean you can't have a word link any more. That should have said "Presumably it's something like this."

Sorry I meant how long /annoying we're they every 15m

I know what bells sound like 😂

I think there are laws against bell-ringing at night ánd for hours (practice)! Bell-ringing is and should always be linked to a religious service, it's not the speaking (ringing) clock! Imagine Imans chanting all day and night on every mosque! It's only the hours of prayer announced and that's how it should be for every religious practice!

Bellringer here. No sympathy. Don't buy a house near a church, which has been there for hundreds of years, then complain about the noise. The clock chimes could possibly be silenced at night, but the bellringing on Sundays and weddings is a dying art. Perhaps you might want to learn to ring. We are very short of bellringers these days and it's a very sociable hobby!

The overnight ringing is the clock chiming. Since when were clocks linked to religious services?

The relevant law is linked above and OP's situation would not contravene it.

Bellringing in itself is not necessarily linked to religious services. It generally happens in churches because, with very few exceptions, that's where bells are, and therefore bellringers frequently do ring before or after services, effectively as a thank you to the church that is hosting them. However, they certainly couldn't ring unless ringers had an opportunity to practise separately, independently of religious services. There is no requirement that ringers be religious, and many are atheist or members of non-Christian religions. If they were limited to ringing for services, they would have little or no opportunity to learn methods and ring quarter peals and peals, which would mean that few ringers would stay and the entireEnglish bellringing tradition would die out. OP notwithstanding, I think that would be a major pity.

OP's explained that: at quarter past the hour it's one stroke, at half past it's two, at quarter to it's three, and on the hour it's four plus whatever number the hour is. I agree it should be stopped overnight, but it's not even as much noise as standard Westminster chimes.

Of course they need to bloody we'll turn it off overnight. Who is it even FOR? Or "for whom does the bell even toll?" if you will.

😂