THE sound of the bells at Holy Trinity Church, Weston, can be heard again drifting across the village and surrounding countryside. The six bells were removed in October. Two - the largest cast in 1682 and the other cast in 1867 - were melted down and re-c

THE sound of the bells at Holy Trinity Church, Weston, can be heard again drifting across the village and surrounding countryside.

The six bells were removed in October. Two - the largest cast in 1682 and the other cast in 1867 - were melted down and re-cast after being found to be flawed, and the others were re-tuned at the Whitechapel Bell Foundry in London's East End.

It is the first time the bells have been silent since five of the bells were removed in 1927 for minor adjustments to the clappers. The sixth bell, a treble bell, was added in 1978 to mark the Queen's Silver Jubilee.

The cost of the current work is around �30,000 which has come from grants, some of which have come from the County Association of Change Ringers and the Parochial Church Council.

"It is wonderful to have them back and hopefully it will be several hundred years before they have to be removed again," said tower captain Richard Clements, 62, who has been ringing the bells at Holy Trinity since 1963.

"The foundry has done a wonderful job on the bells as well as getting them back to the church and putting them up again.