English village church bell silenced after 177 years over noise complaints

Christianity in Britain is pathetic.

I'm in the UK. To be honest I would find it difficult to cope with bells sounding every quarter an hour during the night. It's only between 11 pm and 7 am that they are asked to be stopped. For people who need to sleep, and get up for work the next day, it's an understandable request. imo.

They should be glad it wasn't a mosque

timothyu said:

They should be glad it wasn't a mosque

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Yes, lol! But, do they call the faithful to prayer during the night?

timothyu said:

They should be glad it wasn't a mosque

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Being it's the UK, if it was a mosque, the ones complaining would probably have charges brought against them.

rebornfree said:

I'm in the UK. To be honest I would find it difficult to cope with bells sounding every quarter an hour during the night. It's only between 11 pm and 7 am that they are asked to be stopped. For people who need to sleep, and get up for work the next day, it's an understandable request. imo.

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Believe it or not, you get used to such, whether it's bells or a train or a clock in a house chiming quarter hours. Once lived near RR tracks, and those first nights woke with every train that went through. Then got to where I didn't notice it. Same for a house clock chiming quarter hours. Have heard the same from someone who went to college where the town had a bell that rang the hours.

Tuur said:

Believe it or not, you get used to such,

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Agree. If the neighbour's dog was as consistent with a timetable, I wouldn't hear it either.

Ignatius the Kiwi said:

Christianity in Britain is pathetic.

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Britain is no longer a Christian country.

I do not see this as necessarily anything to do with Christianity. Most churches do not have clocks that chine on the hour let alone on the quarter hour. This is nothing to do with the Christian faith and all to do with a local tradition. Many towns have a clock tower. Often they do not chine because the local authority lacks the money and interest in maintaining the clock. A few weeks ago I passed a village church at the start of a walk. It had a clock showing 11.55 (at 10.30 am). Returning later afternoon, its was still showing the same time.

If the complaints did think this was an attach against Christianity, then it has backfired, as an online petition against stopping the chines has attracted more than 1,500 signatures.

Sign the Petition

If someone moves and then discovers that there is a clock nearby that chines every hour, then that is their problem. It's like people who buy a house next to a farm and then complain about cows mooing as they are driven in at 6am for milking, or noise from heavy farm machinery, or being woken by a cockerel crowing. Yes, this does happen.

However, this seems to have been an ongoing issue, and according the Halifax Courier (nearest medium sized town) it looks to have been resolved:

Bells set to soon be ringing again from church in Mytholmroyd after row saw them controversially stopped

"The Town Council doesn't own the clock, but it does have the power to maintain and service the clock. Following a further complaint about the noise, it was agreed at a meeting of the full council to agree to spend up to £2,000 for work to silence the clock between 11pm and 7am.

"As soon as these works are completed the clock will resume chiming throughout the day."

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"to silence the clock between 11pm and 7am"

Will the night owls cry discrimination, or have to find other means of telling time? Tradition is just that, but purpose often finds itself left behind as progress marches on. Perhaps a 'pulse' will revive appreciation of the old frequently "cancelled" ways. They would at least know the time as their own runs out from dependence on digital instead of analogue.