£165,000 project aims to help bells ring out (From Gazette & Herald)

£165,000 project aims to help bells ring out

HARDWORKING fundraisers will be ringing the changes as a £165,000 restoration project gets underway.

Villagers in Middleton, outside Pickering, face the giant task of improving St Andrew's Church, which dates back to Saxon times and is in need of urgent repairs.

The first job is to remove Middleton's four bells ready for a complete overhaul of the tower - including re-pointing work, new bell framework and new flooring.

Churchwarden John Arthur, leader of the bell ringers at St Andrew's, said that substantial grants meant the parish would be able to look forward to a more musical peal of six bells when the work is complete.

Cash from the Foundation for Sports and the Arts, Yorkshire Association of Change Ringers and the Central Council of Church Bellringers has been put towards a new bell.

The Keltek Trust has donated one bell and a secondhand bell has been found for the tower.

"We have saved quite a bit of money along the way because each of the bells costs over £2,500 and the hangings and fittings are £1,500," he said.

"A lot of the ringers and some of the parish have been helping with the preparation ready for the foundry to come along. People have been working through the night."

The new bell is being cast by John Taylor of Loughborough, who cast the clock bells for York Minster in 2000, and the bell restoration is due to be finished in November, in time for St Andrew's patronal festival.

Mr Arthur said: "The fact that this scheme is going ahead is a tribute to the tremendous support given to the bell ringers of the church.

"With six bells we can have 720 changes, with four there are only 24. It means that we can have a much more musical ring both for the bell ringers and people listening outside."

Updated: 10:44 Wednesday, July 30, 2003