The Bells at St Bartholomew have been silent for some time.The reason was due to a Health and Safety inspection which found the bell ringers were putting themselves in danger. They were standing on wooden stools so that they were almost above the wooden parapet. The report said that the 40-year-old rope that stretched across the front to stop them falling was not suitable or safe.Not to be thwarted the PCC set about investigating alternative methods on how we could hear the bells once again. Christ Church Brockham have bells that are struck by hammers. It was decided that we would see if this could be implemented at St Bartholomew. There is a system that would allow the bells to ring out by using a hammer system. This has now been installed after applying for the legal Faculty. This has taken over eighteen months to get. The beauty of the new system is we can now hear the bells once again. The next stage is get permission to have a safety balustrade made of toughened glass. The sort that is used in lot of public buildings.Investigations are ongoing, and hopefully we can get a new faculty for this. The new system allows either the bells to be chimed or at the turn of a switch the old way of bell ringing could take place with the bell ringers. We will have the best of both worlds.
