Church Bells and bell frames
The maintenance, conservation and restoration of bells will often involve the work of specialists, such as bell hangers and bell founders. Since the bells and associated bell frame are often built into the church fabric, works to bells may involve structural engineers and should be notified to your inspecting architect, who should be notified of any proposals that are not of a routine nature. Where the installation is of particular historic interest an assessment of its significance will be a necessary precursor to proposals for substantive works and will definitely assist you in works that require a faculty.
The Church Buildings Council has produced a Code of Practice for the conservation and repair of bells and bell frames. This advisory document aims to provide workable guidelines, recognising all viewpoints and interests, and balancing the needs of conservation and bellringing practice.
The 2007 web-based edition of the Code of Practice is available here in pdf format*:
The Conservation and Repair of Bells and Bellframes
If you are interested in the legal element of bell ringing and how to manage complaints about noise you might find the following guidance note (in pdf format*) helpful:
To find out whether your church's bells and bell frames are of historical significance you can search the Database of Historically Significant Bells and Bell Frames on this website.
*If you don't have a (free) Adobe Acrobat PDF viewer, you can get one from http://www.adobe.com/.
November 2007
