THE bells rang out for Christmas - thanks to a mechanism in a Bridport church tower.

The bells at St Mary's Church were rung during the morning service on Christmas Day.

With Covid-19 restrictions putting a stop to the bell ringers meeting, the group made use of a rare bell ringing system in the church tower called an Ellacombe apparatus. The device, named after Reverend Henry Ellacombe, is designed to allow one person to ring all eight bells in the tower using a rope which is connected to a series of hammers which strike the bells.

On Christmas morning, tower captain Bob Hardwick and bell ringer Tony Wakeling took turns to ring all of the bells using the hammers of the Ellcaombe apparatus.

Prior to 2020, the device had not been used for many years, but has continued to be maintained by bell ringer Sam Dunn. For this reason, the group has decided to renamed the device 'the Samathon'.

Mr Hardwick said: "The name of the device is somewhat clumsy, so in honour of our long serving bellringer Sam Dunn, I have decided to rename it the 'Samathon'. Sam has lovingly maintained the equipment over the years, so that it is still there for the church and the town, and still there for us to use.

"We hope to learn more and more how to use this amazing and rare system we have brought back to life, so bit by bit, our lives will return to normal, along with the lovely sound of St. Mary's eight bells."

Although there will be no service on New Year's Day, Reverend Deb Smith has given her blessing for the bells to be rung at 10am, and the Samathon will be put to good use again.