Church bells to be restored to tune of £160,000

A town will fall silent for about six months while a set of centuries-old church bells are restored and retuned to their former glory… to the tune of £160,000.

The six heavy bells – two of which date back to 1669 - will be carefully removed from St Mary's Church, in Haverhill, Suffolk, on 12 October.

Having not undergone any maintenance for 120 years, in recent times they have become difficult to ring and therefore need to be "returned to modern standards".

The works will be carried out at Taylor's Bell Foundry in Loughborough, Leicestershire, which will also cast two new bells so the set offers a full octave.

The Reverend Max Drinkwater - a keen bellringer - said it was important to repair the worn bells, as opposed to replacing them, so their individual histories could be retained.

"Each bell tells its own story and we wouldn't want to melt those down and lose that history," he said.

"So, we're going to have them retuned with modern fittings and when they come back there'll be a brand new ring of eight.

"They will hopefully sound lovely, be much easier to ring and attract new ringers."

The "complicated" project, which will cost about £160,000 and has been funded through various means and generous donors, has been two years in the making.

On the day of the removal, the flooring of the church tower will be taken out and the bells – one of which weighs 640kg (100 stone) - will be lowered.

Using traditional and modern computer profiling techniques, the bells will have "little bits of metal scraped off" to tune them.

The aim will be to ensure their tones and notes are "clearer and deeper" and blend and "ring well together".

"It will be a very different sound and should hopefully be a new generation of the instruments," added Drinkwater.

"People will really notice the difference if they're listening outside or ringing inside."

One of those ringing the bells will be Drinkwater himself, who cannot wait to test out the new tones.

"Bellringing has a wonderful mix of physical discipline and a mental challenge as we work out different patterns to ring on them," he said.

"We'll be without that sound for six months, but then it's going to be so wonderful to be able to join with a band of ringers again."

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