WHEN the church bells toll out across town to celebrate the newlywed couple, it can be taken for granted that the joyful sounds are made simply by pulling ropes.

However David Robinson, from Llandrillo, who has dedicated decades to the old practice, knows only too well from teaching beginners that it is just as easy to make by passersby cover their ears in horror.

Mr Robinson, 65, a civil engineer, took up the activity in 1998 because he was fascinated by the “unique sound” of church bells and now holds weekly classes at St Trillo Church in Llandrillo.

The set of four bells there were established in 1878 and still have the same wooden frame.

But their age makes them vulnerable to damage and, when one of the bell’s headstocks cracked and went out of use in 2012, Mr Robinson decided to commit the following five years to having it restored.

He said: “Bellringing has been part and parcel of churches for as long as we know. It is a part of village life and identity.However a lot of churches in towns and villages play recorded sounds these days.”

Bellringing has been a part of Christian history since the religion’s early missionaries and became common by the year 750, when the Archbishop of York ordered all priests in Britain to toll them at certain times. Before modern technology and communication was invented the bells would call dwellers to wake, pray, work and gather as a community.

Today, the sound of church bells ringing is harder to find and Mr Robinson says that recordings are “a far cry” from the real thing.

He wants the tradition to continue in Llandrillo and raised £724 to purchase a new headstock from John Taylor and Sons Bell Foundry, Loughborough in 2017. The sum was raised by fees from ringing at weddings and donations, including £150 from the North Wales Association of Church Bell Ringers.

He raised a further £400 in donations from the Denbighshire Voluntary Services Council and Dudley Arms pub to acquire four brand-new bell ropes from the Loughborough bellfounder, which took six months to make.

“Having completed the work and being able now to get all four bells ringing again,” Mr Robinson said. “It opens the opportunity to increase the ringing ‘methods’ where bell ringers change places in the sequence to make different sounds.

“Bellringing is a difficult process and complex arrangements can take two years to get to grips with. It can be a bit like using a car clutch when making a hill start; the timing and control has to be right.”

Mr Robinson recently started teaching beginners aged 19 and 70, and remains hopeful more people will take up the practice.

“Bellringing can bring people together from all backgrounds and builds trust between people, though teaching beginners is not easy. I have to muffle the bells so that passersby can’t hear the sounds we are making!

"However, as it is commonly said, ‘you can’t make omelettes without breaking eggs’.”

Contact your nearest church to get involved in bell ringing.