The bells, the bells . . . ahhhh!

Poster in Mirandola (where a violent earthquake destroyed
the town's cathedral 5 years ago)

One of the things that has struck me (or my ears rather) since we crossed the channel is the ubiquity and frequency of church bells ringing. Back home we appear to have silenced  - or severely limited - many of our own church bells; My home is directly opposite All Saints CE church in Ewell and the bells ring for 10 minutes in the week on a Sunday before the main service. And that's it. Yet in France and Spain the bells have been allowed to carry on ringing freely throughout the day.

Bergamo - the old city.

Perhaps my most dramatic encounter with church bells so far was in the old city of Bergamo, Lombardy where at midday the bells of a cluster of large churches burst into sound together. Incredible.
My feelings are that church bells are a part of the cultural as well as religious soundscape and I think it's great that they have been preserved over here. Traditionally bells called the faithful to prayer or signalled an important community event such as a funeral or a cause for jubilation of some kind such as a wedding or suchlike. I know many people today are opposed to bell ringing on the basis that they are a noise nuisance and of course exaggerated usage is unacceptable. But I sense that after nearly 1400 years of ringing in England we may have  gone too far down the road of silencing bells and as a result our soundscape may well be the poorer for it.