The church bells are still silent in Lush Places.
Meanwhile, I’m in France where the church bells in our village chime the hour twice, every hour (it’s about to strike three o’clock and they’ll go dong, dong, dong. And then a break and then dong, dong, dong again).
But the bells here do shut up at night. However, during the day, at noon and at seven o’clock, they chime until they’re fit to burst, calling in the workers from the fields for lunch and evening meal respectively.
Last week, a former colleague reminded of a notice I’ve seen in many French villages, drawing outsiders’ attention to the perils of rural life.
This is the country where village signs up and down the land have been turned on their heads. This latest farmers’ protest alludes to having their own lives turned upside down by contradictory instructions. See the BBC story here.
I hope a solution can be found to the silencing of our village bells back in Dorset.
And wouldn’t it be wonderful if, in addition to the automatic hourly chiming being restored, a new team of bellringers steps forward to pull the ropes on Sundays and high days and holidays?
The bells aren’t rung on a Sunday at the moment because there’s no tower captain nor regular team of ringers.
It would be lovely if the positive outcome of the silence of the bells story was that volunteers joined forces for bellringing to happen once again.
Maddie Grigg 