A TREMENDOUS village effort means that Burton-in-Lonsdale will be able to join in a bell ringing event to bring in the new millennium.

The six Victorian bells in the belfry of All Saints' Parish Church have been removed and taken to Derbyshire for renovation by a specialist bell hanger.

The work is expected to take four or five months, and means that the parish will have bells in a fit state to ring in the millen-nium.

A national peel is being planned on January 1 2000 when church bells throughout the country will be rung.

In just a year, the village, which has a population of just 583, has raised an impressive £10,000 towards the bell restoration appeal.

Grants have been obtained from the National Lottery and other sources, as parishioners have succeeded in raising the cash to finance the work.

"It's a tremendous effort," said David Asquith, of the bell restoration appeal.

"This has been a very effective team effort. We have had plenty of people concerned with what we have been doing and they have all been pulling their weight.

"We have had a large number of fund raising events. There has been tremendous interest in the village. We are delighted with the result," he added.

The bells were installed when the church was built in 1870, and this is the first time they have left the belfry since.

In fact, it soon became apparent to those taking the bells out that their Victorian installers had not thought about any future attempts to remove them as there were no trapdoors in the church tower.

"We had a bit of difficulty getting them out, but we managed in the end.

"We also found some Victorian sound-proofing. The space between the two skins of the belfry floor was stuffed with a mixture of wood shavings and dried leaves," said Mr Asquith.

Nowadays sound proofers use fibreglass and other man-made substances, and when the bells go back, the belfry floor will be modernised.

The church bellringers will always welcome new members, and Mr Asquith urged anybody interested in joining in the millennium peel to contact their local church and start learning bell ringing in good time.

"It does take some time to learn," he said.

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