Should church clocks strike all night?

IT IS a sad state of affairs when a village church clock can be silenced by two complainants to the county council (Mail) when a petition signed by 400 locals and backed by the parish council asked for the chimes to remain. In this case the complainants were locals, but all over the country there are examples of people moving into rural homes and not liking rural traditions.

n. sMiTH, Blandford Forum, dorset. I CAn sympathise with Cyrus Metcalfe, who lives in the Devon village of witheridge and couldn’t sleep with the church bell chiming every quarter of an hour.

I spent a week at a hotel in Conwy, north wales, two years ago and was surprised to find earplugs on my bedside table.

The first night I realised why. The church clock banged out its chimes every 15 minutes all night, with twelve rings at midnight. The earplugs made my ears hurt and still allowed the sound in. I was walking round like a zombie all week, crippled by lack of sleep. Apparently the vicar had asked for them to be silent at night, as he couldn’t sleep either. As they were a tradition, this was refused. norMA lATHAM, Brentwood, essex. FOR ten years I lived above a pub only yards from Derby cathedral. The bells chimed day and night, every quarter of an hour, which I found comforting and reassuring. The only times I ever lost sleep were when I happened to hear the quarter-past chime during the night. Then, not wanting to open my eyes, I would be forced through curiosity to lie awake patiently for the next 45 minutes, just to hear which hour it was quarter past.

niGel BArKer, Birmingham. I onCE had an overnight guest who, at breakfast the next morning, complained about the racket from our rookery. I reminded him that he lived in Chiswick, under the western approach to Heathrow.