TO SOUND AGAIN

Taranaki Daily News, 14 October 1930, Page 7

TO SOUND AGAIN

CENTURY SILENT BELLS. After a. silence which has lasted for over 100 years, the bells of the ancient church of Southfleet, Kent, will peal again. The three bells, among the oldest in the country, were cast in 1010, 1705 and 1736, and the parishioners recently established a fund for their complete restoration (says the Daily Mail). Southfleet adjoins Watling Street, the road laid by the Romans. It was also the site of a great Roman camp, and the galleys used to make their way up the little river, which has now practically dried up,- but part of which has been used for many years as watercress beds at Springhead. A member of the firm of Barimar’s, Ltd., who are carrying out the repairs, told the Daily Mail:— The repairs to the bells have been very successful, and we hope to rehang them within the next three weeks. Many previous attempts have been made to effect repairs, but without success, for the whole trouble lay in the staples fixed inside, which had become rusty with age, swelled, and split the metal across the top. The bells should now last for another three or four hundred years without further repairs being necessary.