A SERVICE will be held to celebrate the success of a project to bring a set of Cotswold church bells back into use.

Thanks to the work of a dedicated team, the bells at St Mary Magdalene Adlestrop have been rehung after last being rung in the 1970s.

The project was completed earlier this year, and the bells rang out for the first time in May and then in June on the Village Open Day.

The PCC of Adlestrop Church is now planning a bell dedication service for those involved in the restoration project.

The work began after Ralph Price, who winds the church clock, decided the bells should be brought back into use after they were deemed unringable in in the 1970s.

Mr Price, whose grandfather had previously run the bells, contacted former schoolfriend Chris Povey and the pair formed a project team.

The group received two grants from the Gloucester and Bristol Diocesan Association of Church Bell Ringers and the Four Shires Guild of Bell Ringers, along with donations from village visitors and former residents.

A pair of donors funded three new lighters bells to complete the set.

Whitechapel Bell Foundry, of London, was awarded the contract to rehang Adlestrop’s bells.

The three new bells were cast at the foundry in July 2015, in the presence of their donors.

The old bells were removed from Adlestrop tower in February and were taken to the Whitechapel Foundry.

The bells, new and old, were returned to Adlestrop and were soon fitted into a new steel bell frame constructed by Whitechapel.