St Mary the Virgin Church in Harby receives nearly £80,000 funding from National Lottery for church bell restoration
A church has received nearly £80,000 in funding to promote bellringing in the area.
The National Lottery Heritage Fund has granted £77,293 to St Mary the Virgin Church in Harby to promote the art of change-ringing, as well as create a local ringing service to teach and progress bellringers.
Reverend Paul Towns, vicar of Harby, said: “We now have an excellent opportunity to augment the bells at Harby Church and upgrade their mechanics, thanks to National Lottery players and the heritage fund.
“A local hub for teaching new bellringers will use modern technology to progress existing bellringers, whilst increasing awareness of bells and bellringing through community involvement and events.
“It will be a real joy for the local primary school children to be involved and to visit the foundry in this ‘once every hundred years’ event.
“The bells project marks the first stage of preserving our church for use by the community and future generations.
“It has been the centre of Harby for centuries, and continues to be a valued public resource for celebration, prayer and comfort, impacting positively on the lives of our village community.”
The project will see a complete restoration of the church bells by Loughborough Bellfoundry, the addition of a sixth bell and the installation of two new training bells, a simulator and specialist software to teach bell ringing.
The work is due to start early next year and the bells will be out of the tower for around four months.
A public engagement programme will then run until March 2027, including stalls at local events, a talk on the history and heritage of bellringing by a local historian, trips to Taylor’s Bell Foundry in Loughborough, as well as tower open days.
The project has also received donations from The Leicester Diocesan Guild of Church Bell Ringers, The Framland Society of Ringers, Harby Harlequins Community Chest, as well as from the local community.
