Church bells

[Isxmasoveryet]

Am i being unreasonable to think churches should not be aloud to ring those damn bells for hours on end a few times a week it not very christain disturbing neighbours etc for several hours

Could someone please explain to me why they need to practise this much?
Are most UK bells still rung manually? Are any rung automatically with electricity?

Gotta love MN. Half a dozen threads complaining about Muslims and loudly declaring what a threat they are in a Christian country, whilst whining about the ringing of church bells.

You mean “allowed”.

You are being completely unreasonable. It’s a Christian country.

I'm not sure I believe you that the bells are rung continuously from 8-11 on a Sunday. Their arms would fall off. Do you mean they are rung at 8am, 9.30am and 11am to call people to services?

Many towns only allow one church to ring bells so you are unlucky if you're close by. It's pretty usual though and signals that a service is about to start.

because it is really difficult to learn to ring bells. I’ve been doing it for 10 years and still think of myself as a learner.

99.99% are rung manually (I don’t actually know of any that aren’t, but someone will).

Nothing you can do about it so no point moaning.

Almost all towers would welcome with open arms any visitors who want to pop along to a practice, or even 10 minutes of a practice, to see what happens.

The comments we always get from visitors are ‘it looks a lot harder than I expected’, ‘can I go flying up in the air’(no), and (from older people) ‘it’s nothing like the Mars Bar advert’.

YABU. Church bells are a beautiful sound. You're lucky.

Guessing the church and its traditional were already fully established before you moved in ?

I very much doubt that practice goes on for several hours routinely. They might occasionally have special events when ringers from other areas are invited along to try the bells, but there just aren't enough dedicated ringers around to sustain that on a regular basis.

Likewise. No-one wants to piss the neighbours off so much that the vicar has to stop ringing from happening, and frankly after a day's work no-one really wants to be out that late or ringing that long.

Usually down the pub by then...

You would miss the church if it got pulled down.

Again, I'm really sceptical that that was happening most nights and going on for hours, and also for hours at the weekends. The movement of bells puts quite a strain on the structures they are in because they can weigh several hundredweight; Parish church councils restrict how long people are allowed to ring for; and there just aren't that many keen ringers. Plus on Saturdays and Sundays they tend to be using the church for weddings and church services, and they definitely don't allow ringing whilst services are going on.

Have a look at these instructions for ringing Bob Doubles, which is probably the first and most straightforward method that most people learn. Each of those numbers represents the order in which one of the ringers in the team has to ring their bell - they don't show the 6th bell because that always rings last.

Perhaps that illustrates why a lot of practice is needed?

Exactly! Half the point of getting together for ringing is buggering off to the pub in good time before they close.

Maybe if you talk to the church there might be some sort of way they can do something to help if it is causing you a problem.
They would probably be able to change the way the bells ring.
The church near me rings the bells to let everyone know what the time is.
The one in Luton town centre chimes a little tune every fifteen minutes.
Sorry to hear it is causing you a problem.

Mumsnet is full of scumbags nowadays, who don't bother to read threads and post as nastily as they can.

Yet to reframe your thinking about them, seeing as you can’t influence the situation any other way. I enjoy hearing church bells. They remind me of my childhood: the welcoming call to run to Sunday school while my Mum went to church, weddings, festivals, the feeling of relief at the end of a church service when I’d been sitting still and behaving for what felt like an age, but could now get up and run around. English church bells are unique. It takes a lot of skill and a lot of practice to make that quintessential sound.

Kick someone while they're down, why don't you?

Ummm that would be the CLOCK CHIMING! 😂

Okay .... the bell ringing stops completely - will you then be happy? No, because I'm guessing there'll be something else that irritates you. You have other issues in your life, and that's a shame - but stop trying to blame it on the church bells. You're being very unreasonable.

I live near a mosque and the call to prayer is several times a day, every day. Starting at 5am. Just put up with it or move.

If it upsets you so much why not move?