As you know September came and went with no sign of bells. It was not until January that we heard that the re-installation would start on 2 March 2026.
Monday dawned surprisingly sunny and warm. The van and crane lorry had such a free run that they arrived before the organiser with the tower key! With a full turn-out of volunteers, boarding sheets from the van were soon laid over the tower floor and a runway across the churchyard. New clappers, wheels, sliders, brackets were unloaded. Then the crane lorry lifted each bell, starting with the treble (the smallest, weighing 300kg) into the churchyard as far as it could reach for manual transfer into the tower.
The trickiest part was getting the tenor (heaviest, over 700kg) through the doorway which had to be widened back in June. All went so well so that the bells were safely inside by 2.30pm.
It took longer to get the door back on its hinges! By 3pm after a cup of tea the lorry was on its way home after carefully reversing down Church Hill.