worshippers, church staff and bellringers are celebrating after a collective village effort enabled their church bells to be saved — despite covid.

The historic bells of Milton Abbot church of St Constantine have been rehung and retuned and are now peeling out beautifully, thanks to a £97,000 appeal during the pandemic.

The bells have a high reputation among bell ringers and church historians as being one of the rare full collections intact, in terms of numbers and physically, since they were cast in 1769 and previously rehung in 1902. Now they are in high demand again from visiting ringers (or towers as teams of ringers are known) for their new clarity and appreciated by worshippers and newly weds.

Village priest the Rev Andy Atkins said: ‘I’m constantly thinking it’s all a dream that we not only have newly hung bells on a strong long lasting metal frame, but also a completely retuned set of Pennington bells. They are historic and we are proud of them even more so now for their clarity and tune.

‘It’s fantastic that so many people, backed by the church staff and family managed to raise this large fund throughout the pandemic.

‘It’s only down to the dedication of the St Constantine team that inspired the huge community show of love for our church and congregation.

The bells were precision tuned by a computer-programmed lathe and rehung and the frame built by Taylors of Loughborough. The poor state of the bells and the wooden frame on which they hung was revealed when the church team looked at possibly building a cafe. The wooden frame was rotten and a survey led to the bells being silenced.

The Rev Atkins said: ‘The bells are more than sources of lovely music, they are at the centre of the village and serve to unite us all at significant moments in national local life such as during the Queen’s funeral, Remembrance Sunday and at Christmas. They call out to everyone, not just to churchgoers.’

Liz Padmore, church warden, said: ‘There couldn’t have been a worse time to launch a fundraising campaign than just before the pandemic but we captured the imagination of the people and probably the need to do something positive as a community at a difficult time. It’s an amazing achievement.’

The parish held a sponsored walk and lockdown virtual prize draws and bingo, while generous donors include the church treasurer Pat Lovell in memory of her father Bob who used to lead the bell ringers Another donor was the late bellringing father of Jeremy Burnham.

Worshipper Denise Sleep helped with the bell project and said: ‘The retuned bells were not signed over to the church in time for my daughter’s wedding — so no bells but one bell was rung at my mum’s funeral. The workmanship has been incredible. I would like to say what Pat and Liz have done to achieve everything is amazing.’