For many of us who grew up in the countryside, the regular ringing of church bells was part of the soundtrack of life. On Sundays, they would ring to call the local churchgoers to Sunday service, and during the week there would be practice where the local bell-ringers would ring peals and chimes in a musical interlude to the other sounds of the rural idyll. As church attendance has dropped off however, many bells across the country have fallen silent, and the old traditions have started to fade.

In some places local church administrations have turned to other solutions to either prevent loss, or to restore the merry sounds of old England. The latest example of this comes from Dobcross in Oldham, where the local church team have started discussing the installation of an electronic bell system, a modern solution to an older problem. The discussions are actually a postponed pre-covid endeavour, and back in 2018 according to local press reports parishioners gathered to listen to example chimes, ranging from “ favourite hymns, to rousing anthems, tempered by music suitable for nuptials or more sombre occasions”.

The local rector is now in discussions with the Diocese to secure their agreement, and are expecting that they will need to undertake a public consultation on reintroducing the sound of bells. Curiously, this doesn’t seem to be a strict requirement of either statutory or church law, so any consultation they do will be a voluntary one. Given the arguments that can arise over church bells however (which can get somewhat vicious and unpleasant as this thread demonstrates) it’s probably a good thing to do- to stave off later accusations and threats of nuisance claims against churches (interestingly the Government had promised back in 2018 to stop nuisance claims of this sort- thought I can’t actually find any evidence of them doing so).

In many ways, it’s a somewhat strange state of affairs. Often when we see something that is likely to have a significant impact on people’s day-to-day lives we expect some sort of obligation to consult. Sometimes prolonged periods of loud noise in neighbourhoods usually do fall under this category, often being handled via various planning procedures- church bells seem to be exempt from such a thing. As Church of England guidance says, much about bellringing is “a matter of custom”.

Whether any consultation done on installing new bells would be challengeable by law is also an interesting question. Generally of course only public bodies, or those performing public functions can be challenged by JR. The Church of England occupies an interesting position here- as an established church, it’s not exactly a private body, but I think it’s arguable that it also doesn’t strictly exercise a public function, certainly not in the same way it may once have been perceived to have done.

Whilst that remains a largely theoretical conundrum for now, this is a good example of consultation being used as essentially a public relations exercise. It’ll be interesting to see what the results are, and if it staves off any local criticisms.