A historic Anglican church in a small English town has silenced its bells after 177 years following noise complaints, prompting outrage from local villagers who claim the move has upended a long tradition.
St. Michael’s Church in Mytholmroyd, West Yorkshire, was told by the borough council in April to stop its bells from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. because of complaints from three local villagers, according to the Daily Express.
The bells of the historic 19th-century church had marked every quarter-hour since 1848.
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A device costing thousands of pounds is required to regulate the hours when the bells are silent, for which reason the church has stopped ringing the bell altogether for now. The move has reportedly upset many in the small hamlet of approximately 4,000 people about 25 miles west of Leeds.
One villager named “EJ” explained the gravity of the situation in an online petition, which has garnered more than 1,500 signatures as of Friday.
“Growing up in the heart of Mytholmroyd, the sound of St. Michael’s church bells ringing through the village has been a cherished part of my life,” the petition reads in part.
“These bells have chimed since 1848, long before any of us were here — a symbol of continuity and community for over a century. My family’s roots run deep in this village, and for us, as for numerous other residents, the chimes are more than bells; they are the soundtrack of our community’s daily life.”
The petition states that the local government’s abatement order “does not reflect the desires of most Mytholmroyd residents, who love and appreciate the historic sound that these bells provide.”
Some commenters on the petition dismissed the order as “ridiculous” and an interruption of “the soundtrack of our community’s daily life.”
One commenter advised the three annoyed villagers to buy earplugs if they can’t withstand the noise.
“Three objectors should not be allowed to influence whether the bells ring or not. 177 years is an amazing length of time for them to have been rung. It’s part of our history. Find somewhere else to live or buy earplugs!”
Roy Wrathall, who has served as the church warden at St. Michael’s for years, acknowledged the complexity of the bell debate, according to The Telegraph.
“There’s very much two sides to it. There’s ‘I’m awake in the night, there goes the clock that reassures me’ and ‘I can’t get to sleep because I keep hearing that clock every 15 minutes’. It’s not an easy one to resolve,” he said.
Other churches in the British Commonwealth have lately made headlines for complaints over bell-related issues.
Last month, St. Augustine’s Church in Sydney, Australia, prompted a flurry of complaints for requesting to increase the number of its bells, according to The Daily Mail. The 119-year-old Roman Catholic church expressed hope that the bells would offer a sense of community in “an era of increasing digitalization and detachment.”
Parish priest Father Peter Smith remained skeptical of local concerns about the bells being too loud, noting how the church is next to a pub that remains noisy into the early morning hours.
The bell of Beith Parish Church in Ayrshire, Scotland, had rung every hour for 200 years until the Church of Scotland decided in 2023 to keep it quiet between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m. after a single resident claimed to local environmental authorities that it was disturbing their sleep. The church’s action drew local backlash and a petition.
Jon Brown is a reporter for The Christian Post. Send news tips to jon.brown@christianpost.com
