To HATE the church bells?

[ShyPearlMoose]

I have just moved to a new area and I am so annoyed by the church bells ringing. They ring from 7:30-9pm on Tuesday and Wednesday nights and they are SO LOUD. I'm trying to wind down by this time but cannot get any silence so they're really bothering me. I know it's people practicing but does their hobby really have to disturb the entire town's evening for 90 minutes twice a week?
I can only think how annoyed some parents might be when trying to get their children to sleep on school nights.
Anyone else annoyed by them?

You need to talk to the vicar about whether they can get them turned off at night. There's usually a way to limit the mechanism between certain times.

Church buildings with a full ring of bells, however, are certainly not "extremely common". It really is pretty easy to avoid living near the sound of bells if you don't want to.

Nowadays bellringing is more of a hobby than a religious practice; I suspect a very large proportion of ringers, possibly the majority, never go to church for other purposes. You can certainly ask whether people should be allowed to practise a hobby that involves making a noise, but is it "excess noise"? It's usually for a pretty short space of time, and many people like it. Contrast that with, say, living near a big football ground, or by a busy road, or near an open concert venue. Surely we can all live and let live when a noise really doesn't impinge on people's lives that much?

Try joining the ringers. You might find you enjoy it.

YABU, not because I enjoy church bells either, but perhaps you might have thought about it when you moved there - not sure they will stop just to suit you!

I suppose if you're very close to the church, a twice weekly 90 min session will be intrusive.

our church does a Wednesday practice session for about an hour 6-7pm which I understand is not only for the campanologists to keep up their skills but also to ensure the bells are kept in good order as part of an ongoing maintenance regime. They don't need to be rung that frequently, once a month is reasonable. We are on edge of village so it isn't intrusive and we enjoy sitting outside for dinner in the summer with the bells in the background.

could you contact the Parish Council and see what the regs are regarding permissible noise levels - it may be possible to negotiate a reduction in the 90 mins and the start and end times. If you're only on a Short term let, it may not be worth doing.

You may well zone out the noise sometime soon, but I think practice twice a week IS unreasonable. There's a fashion for 'ringing centres' at the moment as a way of recruiting and retaining new ringers, which tends to mean more weekly practice nights. That's not fair on the affected neighbours, so you could request via the PCC or Churchwarden that one of the weekly practices be 'tied' ie silent.

I'm a former bellringer.
Practice is usually 1.5hrs - 2hrs per week
Ring for services, weddings & special occasions.

At this time of year bellringing teams often visit other churches to try out different bells.

You are being so unreasonable it's laughable

Oh good grief. So you did little research about your new house and are annoyed by a traditional village practice. YABU. Daft and selfish.

This is the same as people who complain about school noise when they choose to live next door to a school!

YABU, the church was there first. And the types of churches that have these sorts of bells are hard to miss. It's not their fault you didn't do your due diligence.

Personally, I love listening to church bells, but I grew up just down the road from a busy village church, so perhaps I'm just used to it.

🙄 it’s bell ringing practice for goodness sake. These are the people who move next to the village green and complain about the cricket. So bloody selfish.