The bells ring out

After a silence of 21 weeks (yes! I’ve been counting!), Kildwick’s bells will ring out again this Sunday.

We restored the clock chimes a few weeks ago, but this will be the first time that they have been rung properly for some five months.  The ringing won’t be “normal” though.

First, the ringers need to socially distance themselves (and wear a face mask).  The ropes fall well within the two metre distance – and so we can only ring alternate bells.  We’ll see how it goes.  This week we will ring bells 2, 4, 6 and 8 which at least sound musical.

Next, we are only permitted to ring for 15 minutes.  That’s where we may come unstuck as this isn’t a lot of time to raise the biggest bell into its ringing position, then ring a piece and then get it down again into its safe position.  We’ll see how it goes.

All being well, we will try to ring, now, for all of the morning services in church; that’s two out of three Sundays if the current rota remains in place.  If a band isn’t available, then we’ll probably announce the service on our Ellacombe Chimes – a system that allows one person to sound all eight bells.

They don’t sound so good, though…