An abattoir worker who silenced his village’s church bells after 150 years with a noise complaint says he has been receiving threats of violence on Facebook.
The Devonshire community has been left furious after the council spent £2,000 silencing the chimes, which sounded every quarter-hour through the day and the night.
They have now been limited to just one toll every 15 minutes during the day.
The complainant – who works in an abattoir and lives 30 meters away from the historic church – says he has lived within five miles of Witheridge all his life but could not take the noise any longer.
A bell ringer himself, he moved into his rented home four years ago when the bells’ mechanism was broken, and claims not to have known about his noisy neighbour before it was fixed.
He now says he has recieved threats of violence because of his complaint – with most of the villiage mourning the loss of the quarter-hour chimes.
‘When we moved here, we didn’t know they rang every 15 minutes. I tried to put up with it for six months. Come December, I couldn’t take it any more. I phoned the vicar,’ the abattoir worker, who did not want to be named, told The Times.
The Devonshire community has been left furious after the council spent £2,000 silencing the chimes, which sounded every quarter-hour through the day and the night. Pictured: St John the Baptist Church, Witheridge
The complainant – who works in an abattoir and lives 30 meters away from the historic church – says he has lived within five miles of Witheridge (pictured) all his life but could not take the noise any longer
‘If he had been slightly different, my actions would have been slightly different. His exact words were: ‘You’ll get used to it.’ That meant: f*** you.’
The complainant says that he asked the parish council to limit the noise from the bell tower – but said he did not mind the chimes being hourly through the night.
He even offered to ‘put money in’ to solve the problem and change the mechanism – at a cost of £3,000, which he was happy to pay entirely.
But he decided to raise the issue higher when they deemed it not to be a nuisance. His fury only grew whem he found they had not recorded his offer to pay for the new mechanism.
He continued: ”So I thought, I’m going to make it a nuisance. I phoned environmental [health at North Devon district council] the next morning.’
The man also claimed that he was not the only neighbour who had complained.
In a statement, the vicar told The Times that he thought the decision to fit a silencer to the bell was a ‘good compromise’ and that it is ‘lovely’ to have the bells sounding again.
Residents set up a Change.org petition, which has since garnered a total of 395 signatures.
A bell ringer himself, he moved into his rented home four years ago when the bells’ mechanism was broken, and claims not to have known about his noisy neighbour before it was fixed
The complainant says that he asked the parish council to limit the noise from the bell tower – but said he did not mind the chimes being hourly through the night
A spokesman for North Devon Council, which issued the noise abatement notice, said it had decided that the noise was ‘likely to wake or disturb the sleep of the complainant’.
Witheridge parish has now installed a £2,000 silencer on the clock, which means the bells are restricted to chime every 15 minutes between 7am and 11pm.
Jacky Harvey, chairman of Witheridge Parish Council, said: ‘We were served an abatement notice and there was no way we could appeal, so it was just a question of closing the clock down.
‘It was announced in church and people were furious that the clock had to be stopped – it’s like taking away an icon.
‘We are using Parish Council money which we could use on other things which is a problem.
‘It’s rate-payers money and we’re really very upset about it.’
Jan Spier, a 78-year-old retired resident, who has lived in the village for 20 years said the money was unnecessary.
‘What concerns me is the Parish Council have paid £2,000, which has to come from somewhere,’ she said.
A notice was served by the council, and the bells stopped on January 5, locals said, leaving the vicar ‘disappointed’
‘If they’re using money to pay for the silencer, that’s £2,000 less that will be spent on the village. It amazes me that it was allowed to happen.
‘If you don’t like the bells, buy yourself some earmuffs. I think the whole thing is absolutely pointless.
‘The church has always been the centre of village life – it’s reassuring to hear it when you’re out walking, or if you wake up in the night it’s nice to hear them.
‘It’s a tradition that’s been going on since the church was built, it’s absolutely beyond comprehension that anyone could complain about that.’
A notice was served by the council, and the bells stopped on January 5, locals said, leaving the vicar ‘disappointed’.
David Gale, a 75-year-old retired musician, physicist and resident of Witheridge, started the petition to prevent the bells being silenced.
He added: ‘We’ve been able to hear it chime in the dead of night – it’s fantastic and atmospheric.
‘Loads of residents speak about being awake in the night and hearing the comforting sound of the bell.
John Hariris 82, and Gail Rose-Harris, 80 outside St John the Baptist Church, Witheridge
‘If somebody lived near Big Ben and they decided they didn’t like the noise, they wouldn’t be able to do anything about it.
‘It’s just the unfairness of one person controlling what the rest of the whole village has been used to for years – the clock has been ticking away.’
John Harris, the 82-year-old organist at St John the Baptist Church in Witheridge, said: ‘The bells are a lovely chime, a typical clock sound with a beautiful ring just like an ordinary clock.
‘They were cheerful with a lovely tone. To my mind the whole thing was stupid.’
Vicar Reverend Adrian Wells said: ‘The clock’s original purpose was to call people in from their work in the fields, so I accept it is probably quite loud.
‘It is lovely to have the chimes and bells back during the day, the clock is a real focal point for the village. It is so nice to have them ringing again.’
The silencer was installed by the Cumbria Clock Company, the same company which restored Big Ben recently.
Managing director Keith Scobie-Youngs, 60, fitted the silencer on Friday.
He said: ‘The problem is, it’s all about noise abatement.
‘I’ve been a clockmaker all my life specialising in church and public clocks and I feel that that should be allowed to strike through the night like they have for over 100 years.
‘It’s a shame, I’m hoping the rules change, so that clocks that have been there for a long time can continue to strike and chime.’
A spokesperson for North Devon Council, said: ‘The noise level from the clock bell was assessed by qualified and experienced officers of our environmental protection team.
‘They considered the loudness, the frequency and duration of the noise. It was considered that the chime every 15 minutes was likely to wake or disturb the sleep of the complainant and other residents nearby.
‘The level was such that is was determined that it was a ‘Statutory Nuisance under Section 79(g) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990.
‘In line with the legislation we served a ‘minded to notification’ on the persons responsible – in this case the parish council – which gave them seven days to contact us and discuss how this could be resolved without the need for a notice.
‘However there was no contact and therefore a notice was served in line with the requirements of the Act.
‘The Abatement order requires the chimes from the clock to cease between 2300 and 0700. This notice included the appeal provisions that gave the recipient 21 days to appeal if they believed there were grounds to do so.
‘The council has been contacted by other residents expressing disappointment at the silencing of the clock bells. However, most of these were not in close proximity to the bells and unlikely to be significantly impacted by the noise.’