The bells of St Mary’s Church, Mirfield will be rung for the final time to welcome people to worship on Easter Sunday, April 5, before a £77,000 restoration project to create a new ring of bells .
The final ring of the 10 bells of St Mary's will take place on Easter Sunday at 2.30pm when the Yorkshire Association of Change Ringers will be ringing a quarter peal lasting approximately one hour .
It will be an historic moment as the existing bells have sounded for the past 144 years. They are housed in a tower which was designed by the famous architect Sir George Gilbert Scott to accommodate a ring of ten bells with ropes that have Yorkshire ends. Now, the bells along with the tower itself are in serious need of restoration and recasting.
During the restoration of the Tower, funded in part by a Heritage Lottery grant, scaffolding will be erected around the Tower, giving experts the opportunity to install a lifting beam in the Ringing Chamber of the Tower for lowering and raising the bells.
The total cost of the project will be £87,000 - the bellringers have raised £65,000 by running a Saturday cafe and other events in three years of planning and fundraising.
Once the bells have been lowered to the floor of the church they will be transferred by a lorry provided by Taylor’s Foundry, down the M1 to Loughborough and church members hope to arrange trips to the foundry to watch some of the new bells being cast.
The bells are expected back in the autumn and the first ring of the new bells will be a very special occasion for all concerned. Updates and news of the progress being made with the bell restoration will be published regularly on the team parish website: www.mirfieldteamparish.org.uk
Said the vicar, the Revd Hugh Baker: "Three years of planning and fundraising is now nearly coming to an end with a huge 'Thank You' to everyone who has given their support in one way or another.
"We anticipate the new bells will ring out calling the people of Mirfield to worship and to celebrate weddings and other joyful occasions at St Mary's for another 140 years."