Village bell tolls for no one as tourists complain about disturbed sleep

FOR more than a century, the nightly chiming of the church clock in the village of Coniston has passed unremarkably, keeping steady time as the years rolled by.

But the bell of St Andrew’s Parish Church will now be silenced overnight, after visitors to a local pub complained that it was disturbing their sleep. The Lake District village was investigated by the council’s environmental health department after the owners of the pub opposite protested that they and their guests were disturbed by noise they likened to “Big Ben”.

The decision has caused “sadness” among villagers, with complaints about “offcomers” to the area who had “no respect for the locals, and a sense of entitlement that their view should prevail”.

The church is the last resting place of John Ruskin, the Victorian Romantic thinker, artist, poet and architect.

Jeff and Susie Hart, who took over the Yewdale Inn in 2013 after moving to the Lakes from Lancaster, said they had received several Tripadvisor complaints from customers because of the chiming. One reviewer wrote: “The hotel is next to a church which rings the bells every hour even during night so this & it being very hot disturbed our sleep.”

In November 2016, Tripadvisor published

‘As for the church bells, this has been with the church to rectify for some time and should be dealt with soon’

a response from owner Mr Hart, stating: “As for the church bells, this issue has been with the church to rectify for some time now and should be dealt with soon. Most of the locals have accepted this for years as one of the ‘quirks’ of a small, quiet, Lakes village.”

Mrs Hart claimed they had been in talks with the church about the bells since 2013, and had been happy to contribute to costs, but the sum quoted was more than anticipated. Finally, they wrote to the parish council and to the environmental health department at South Lakeland district council (SLDC) about the noise. The bells were then monitored by environmental health officers, and must now fall silent overnight.

The automated church clock was installed a decade before Ruskin’s death in 1900, at the request of the villagers. Once a timing device is installed, the chimes will not be heard between the hours of 11pm and 7am.

Some locals have expressed dismay at the decision, questioning why what they consider part of village life had become an issue after so long.

Local councillor Anne Hall said the feeling in the village was one of “sadness” and they had wanted to keep the bells ringing through the night.

A spokesman for SLDC said the bells had been monitored, and it was accepted that they did constitute a nuisance but all the parties involved were working towards a compromise.