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?

There was a woman in the next village to me,who moved in opposite the church,and proceeded to complain about the bells. The house that she moved into was called 'Church Farm' so you'd think that she might have got a clue from that.
It was over 40 years ago and locals still remember the fuss that she caused. ( She didn't like bonfires either).

Ex-bellringer here with a few thoughts:
Practice sessions should always be on muffled bells; to minimise sound in the local area and to protect the bell ringers' hearing. If your local bells aren't muffled OP you could (in a nice way) offer to help fundraise for some
More practice = better ringers so if more muffled practice can be done then the unmuffled bells will sound a lot better on Sundays / at weddings
The cacophony of sound at the beginning and end of sessions is due to ringing up / ringing down and can't be avoided but can be done quickly if well practised

This is my first mumset post and I am happy to have used the word 'muffled' so much 😀

Search ‘Avicii Church Bells’ on YouTube!

Active bellringer here. In my experience, I've never had a practice session on muffled bells. The clapper is usually only muffled for funerals, to give that mournful, quieter sound at the backstroke. I attend 2 or 3 different practice sessions a week in different areas and none are muffled. The bells in most churches are situated a floor or two floors above where the actual ringers are, so no danger to ringers' hearing.

Yes, the fast ringing at the beginning and end of the practice session is the 'ringing up' and 'ringing down' of the bells, though sometimes this is done individually.

Most practice sessions are 7.30 - 9pm on a certain day. Any 'ringing' during the night will be the automated clock chimes. If they were really troublesome, I suppose one could approach the incumbent vicar and ask if they could be silenced during the night hours, but that would be his/her decision to make.

In essence to the OP, do your research before moving next to a church. However, we are desperate for more bellringers as it's a dying art. It's a really sociable hobby, challenging to learn, interesting and it's quite addictive - and if you think of it, where there's a church, there's usually a pub! Come and join us, you'll be made most welcome and then you won't hate the bells!

Practices should never be muffled. Fully muffled is reserved for the death of a monarch. Half muffled for significant funerals, Easter Friday and Remembrance Day. These would lose their significance if they were the norm.

clappers on bells can be tied (and are when learners are at the early stages) to make the bells silent, but ringers will never improve from practicing on silent bells.

As a pp said, bellringing is brilliant fun. I strongly recommend it for the mental and physical challenge, and a great way of making friends wherever you live. Plus if you’re ringing you won’t be bothered by the noise(which is much, much quieter inside a tower than outside).

I love the sound of church bells and stayed in an airbnb next door to a church it was blissful and was so relaxing listening to them!

@ThankGodForDancingFruit English church's do t generally play tunes. Some have Carillions that do. But it's normally Change ringing.

The thing is, you didn't say that at the beginning. I completely get that for you, this is not ideal. I didn't know it was a no choice scenario. Can you get on a swap list with the HA?

My answer is in the same category as people who

1. send their kids to a church school then moan about them praying or taking part in church related activities.
2. buy a house near school then moan that people park when dropping kids off. Why the fresh hell did you buy a house near a church, you can't really moan about it.... it was there before you. If you sent like it move house.

90 minutes twice a week is hardly excessive. YABU.

I’m not a fan. The nearest church is over half a mile away but I can still hear the tuneless clanging.

Luckily it’s just once a month now as the services rotate between parishes.

You're a joy.

I live 10 minutes walk away from the local cathedral. It has bells, frequently, and bell ringing practice. I've lived here for 15 years. The cathedrals been there for 1,000. Move somewhere else.

I know it's not for everyone, but I would be so sad if our church bells didn't ring every week. To me it's a sign of optimism and a vibrant community.

In a world where there are so many intrusive noises (you see it on MN all the time - next doors music, strimmer or hot tub, the traffic noise from the nearest motorway etc), the joyous sound that's been ringing out for a 1,000 years across our country seems something to embrace.

The good thing about churches is that whilst two or three times a week they make a noise they are silent neighbours most of the time. Between me and the church tower all my neighbours are sleeping peacefully underground.

This has made me crack up laughing. Thank you.

Welcome!

The village is mostly Methodist. That church is I believe still fairly well attended. They have no bells of course.

The Cof E one is dead on its feet. It's down to about 10 elderly regulars and a "messy church" attempt to pull in the young families. It isn't working.

That's something that happened to us once. We lived next door to a newspaper office and they printed there too, their windows were about a metre off our bedroom windows and it was a hot country so they were always open. The first few nights were terrible, friends likened the noise in daytime to standing on a tube station a the train came in. The only night they didn't print was Saturday and we quickly got used to the noise and slept through, however when it was a holiday on Monday so no printing on Sunday night the lack of noise woke us up. When our baby arrived she coped brilliantly too with the noise, thank goodness.

I love church bells.
I moved from a small town with a bell ringing church to a village with no church bells.
I really miss hearing them

That’s easy solve so. All the best.

I love people saying "why did you move near a church"

Church buildings are extremely common in the uk. In most villages there will be be one slap bang in the middle & the noise carries. The bells were intended to be heard!

The question is - does it continue, in an increasingly secular society, to be reasonable for churches serving only a tiny number of attendees, to make excess noise that would not be tolerated/permitted by other organisations on such a regular basis?

Oh and church bells have no link to the community any more! Church attendance is at an all time low.

Our local church (congregation: sub 20 geriatrics, they've had no children there in years) has a group of elderly ringers who like to go and ring the bells, no one else is paying attention

I love, love hearing the bell ringing from the Minster not far from me.

You won't get 4-5 hours of ringing for every celebration in every church. A full peal last around 3-3.5 hours, and relatively few ringers actually want or are able to ring those as they take an awful lot of stamina and concentration. I guess you might get different groups of ringers coming to a church to ring so it seems like a lot in one day, but that will be pretty rare and will obviously mean fewer people ringing elsewhere.