CHURCH bells will call people to worship in Brinkworth this Christmas 12 months after they were taken down from the church tower for the first time in more than 350 years.

They were brought back to the village on Monday, repaired, retuned and ready to provide the sound track at celebrations and services for many decades to come.

Rector of the Woodbridge group Stephen Wilkinson was pleased to see the return of the bells seven months after they were lowered from the tower at St Michael and All Angels in a delicate operation that revealed a pin holding one of the bells on its bearing was sheared off, leaving only a tiny stub.

“There were some white faces when that was discovered,” he said.

They had been silent since summer 2015 because their bearings were breaking up, making them increasingly difficult to ring.

“It has been a couple of years that we haven’t been able to ring them and that has been quite disappointing for people at weddings,” he said. “We have provided a recording which is quite convincing, but it’s not the same.”

He praised the village for supporting the bells and the £60,000 project. Some even paid for dedications on the headstocks, including Brinkworth Butterflies. Tower captain John Tuck and curate Mike Graham, who was ordained earlier this year, were also given inscriptions.

The task of returning the peal of six to their rightful place at the top of the tower and making sure they are ready to ring once more is expected to take a couple of weeks.

In the meantime plans are being made for a special service of dedication and blessing by a senior figure in the church, although Rev Wilkinson gave them a quick blessing shortly after their arrival.

Villagers and youngsters from Brinkworth Earl Danby’s School were also on hand to welcome them back – the children delighted to find out when they touched them that what looked like grey paint was in fact graphite.

They were originally due back from Taylor’s bell foundry in Leicestershire earlier in the summer, but they were delayed when they were at an ultrasonic welding company.

Five of the bells were cast in 1663, while another was added in the 1920s. Then in 1897 a clock was installed to mark Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee. Hand-wound since then, it is going to be converted to electricity and moved to a slightly different position.