2 weeks Ago
The electronic chimes of the turret clock at St Mary’s Church in West Rainton have been silent since earlier this year after they began ringing erratically, including at night and were silenced to prevent disturbance to residents' sleep. For more than 20 years the chimes usually rung out every quarter hour between 8am and 9.45pm and were the subject of a campaign to raise £4,700 needed for repairs.
Annabel Burns, secretary of the parochial church council at St Mary’s Church, said: "The chimes of the church clock have been part of the fabric of our village for many years and they’ve always helped local people keep their days on track. "The community is really missing them and we’ve had lots of questions from residents about when they might be coming back. "The work required to repair them is very specialised and therefore comes at a significant cost, but with all the other restoration work that’s ongoing and planned at St Mary’s, we simply didn’t have the money in the bank to pay for it straight away.
" Most read Get the latest news, sports, and entertainment delivered straight to your device by subscribing to The Northern Echo here - now only £2 for 2 months! Now, a £2,000 grant from the Banks Group’s Banks Community Fund has now taken the campaign past its target. The clock is set to be serviced by a specialist repair business in Cumbria, with the chiming mechanism being removed and restored before being reinstalled and restarted. "The support we’ve received from the Banks Community Fund was a huge boost to our campaign and has helped us hit our fundraising target much sooner than we expected," Ms Burns said.
"Hearing the clock chimes ring out again across the village will be a fantastic way for us to start the new year and we’re hugely grateful to the Banks Group for making this possible." St Mary’s Church is currently undergoing a major programme of work to repair and repoint the stone walls, which will help to safeguard the building’s long-term future..
