THE Consistory Court of the diocese of Blackburn has granted a faculty for the removal of a ring of eight bells from the tower of the closed Grade II* listed church of St James’s, Church Kirk, in south-east Lancashire, so that they could be rehung in a new bell frame in the tower of St Cuthbert’s, Over Kellet, in North Lancashire.

The petition for the faculty was brought by Jennifer Read, senior church buildings officer for the diocese of Blackburn, because St James’s had been closed for public worship in May 2016. The eight bells had originally been cast in London in about 1865, and were installed at St James’s in 1989 after a fire in 1983.

The usual public notices had been displayed on two principal external church doors at St James’s, and they generated 13 separate objections, although none of the objectors elected to become a party opponent to the faculty proceedings. The Chancellor, the Worshipful David Hodge KC, said, however, that he had taken all the objections into account in reaching his decision.

The main objections were that the bells were acquired as replacements for those lost in the disastrous fire of 1983, and that was an important moment in the history of St James’s. The replacement bells were a highly significant asset. They were part of the heritage of the church, and helped to tell its story, the objectors said. They also expressed a wish to reinstate regular bell-ringing, which was stopped by the closure of the church. The objectors had a vision to have the bells ringing out across the area, drawing attention to the building and helping to promote it.

The Chancellor was not satisfied, however, that the removal of the bells would cause any harm to the significance of this closed church as a Grade II* listed building of special architectural and historical interest. The bells were introduced into it only relatively recently, and formed no part of the original fittings or fabric of the church. They were not in place when the church was first designated as a Grade II* listed building. The removal of the bells would present no threat to the church building’s present listed status, because all of the features identified in the listing particulars would remain, even if the bells were removed.

By Canon, every church must be provided with at least one bell “to ring the people to divine service”. But, in addition, the Chancellor said, “the ringing of a full peal of church bells is a means of announcing the presence of a worshipping congregation to the church’s local community, and of celebrating great events in the life of the church and the nation.” Bell-ringing was, he said, “inspiring and pleasing to the ear”.

The effect of the proposal would be that a full peal of eight bells would be removed from a closed church to a fully functional church, albeit some distance away, but in the same diocese, where they could be heard and enjoyed, not only by a new local community, but used to encourage and grow a new generation of bell-ringers

Even if the bells were to ring over St James’s, Church Kirk, they would no longer be to call people to worship because it was now closed for public worship.

In his judgment, the Chancellor said, “the Consistory Court should favour a proposal that will lead to bells being rung to signify the presence of a worshipping church in the community, and to invite local people to worship there, over one that does not.”

Since St James’s, Church Kirk, was no longer being used for ecclesiastical purposes, the ecclesiastical exemption from the requirement for the local planning authority to give listed building consent before any work could lawfully be carried out, no longer applied. Listed building consent was therefore required for the removal of the church bells. Since the building remained subject to the faculty jurisdiction, however, a faculty was also required.

A faculty was granted for the removal of the bells, but it was subject to the condition that the faculty would not take effect unless and until local authority listed-building consent had been obtained for the bells’ removal.