Well, it seems neither the local newspapers nor the BBC is interested in the village bells debacle in my village.
It’s no longer newsworthy.
This is probably because the silencing of church clocks chiming is now commonplace all over the country. More of that later.
You’ll recall from my blog post of 18 March that the church clock stopped its hourly chiming, just two days after it was repaired.
A village resident complained about the hourly chiming – possibly having moved in when the clock wasn’t working – so the church stopped it completely.
The parochial church council has now reached a compromise solution to fit a silencer so that the clock chimes only between the hours of 6am and 9pm. This will be at a cost of around £800 rather than the original estimate of well over £2,000.
‘The feeling by many members of the PCC that, although the aim of the Church in the village was to “make Jesus known,” it was not felt necessary to remind everybody of his presence throughout the night,’ the PCC said in a statement.
So all’s well that ends well. Or not, as many local people are still unhappy that one complaint can stop the village clock chiming at all.
Without getting all Wicker Man and pitchforks at dawn – and there are far bigger problems and threats to democracy in the wider world – it can seem like rural life is under threat when some newcomers complain about things like the sound of church bells, animal smells, mud on the road and farmers working through the night.
The chiming of church bells is an ongoing problem. There was a similar issue recently in Witheridge, Devon, and also just down the road in the same county at Kenton in 2021.
All over the country, the church powers-that-be are worried about being slapped with noise abatement orders by their local councils. More and more clocks in towns and villages have stopped chiming .
I’ve just been contacted by a woman in Sandwich, Kent, where the night-time chiming of the bells was stopped in 2017 after one complaint by a neighbour.
June Summerhayes saw my blog and asked me to support her petition to the government calling for clock chimes to be exempt from noise abatement regulations.
I’ve signed it and told her I would help publicise her campaign. Understandably, she’s rather dismayed that, at the time of writing, only 85 people have signed so far.
You can add your signature to the petition here.
Mrs Summerhayes says: ‘Recognise the special place that clock chimes have in British life and history. Many churches have had to silence night time clock chimes because a single person, or a few people have complained. We believe this is unjust if the majority support the chimes.
‘We want noise abatement regulations to be amended so that they do not apply to clock chimes. This should also mean that any previously issued noise abatement orders in respect of clock chimes cease to have effect.’
At 10,000 signatures, the government will respond to this petition. At 100,000 signatures, the petition will be considered for debate in Parliament.
Maddie Grigg 