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Landbeach church receives new bells to mark the King's Coronation

Royal Eijsbouts Bell Foundry Two new bronze church bells inscribed Community and CoronationRoyal Eijsbouts Bell Foundry
The bells were cast in the Royal Eijsbouts Bell Foundry in the Netherlands

Two new church bells made in a Dutch foundry to mark the King's Coronation will be delivered to a village church.

The bronze bells will join three older bells, one dating back to the 1520s, at the Grade II-listed All Saints' Church in Landbeach, Cambridgeshire.

They have all been retuned in Bridport, Dorset, and will be hung back in the church's tower by specialists.

Parishioner Angela Brown said the bells would add to the heritage of the village.

Barbara Le Gallez Tudor-era tenor bell outside the church and being hugged by a woman, LandbeachBarbara Le Gallez
The new bells will join four older ones, including a tenor bell that dates to Henry VIII's reign

Ms Brown paid tribute to the "energetic commitment" of the bell tower captain, Barbara Le Gallez, and fellow parishioner, Ray Gambell, for getting the project going.

She added: "The bells are so important to the village, not only ringing out for religious events, but also for civic things that make up British cultural life, like the Cultural Olympiad, Queen Elizabeth's Jubilee and the King's Coronation."

"The villages just north of Cambridge are at a point when they're being engulfed by development and we hope that they will also offer something of hope at a time of rapid change."

The new bells weigh "about half a tonne (500kg) each", she added.

John Sutton/Geograph Exterior of All Saints, Landbeach, on a sunny dayJohn Sutton/Geograph
The bells will ring at a choral concert on 27 April and be dedicated by the Bishop of Ely the following day

The bells were cast at the Royal Eijsbouts Bell Foundry in the Netherlands, with one commemorating the King's Coronation and the other inscribed with the word "community".

Three of the existing bells were recast in the 1920s, while one dates to the 1520s and was made by William Culverden in Aldgate, London.

Ray Gambell The top of four church bells hanging down in a church tower, LandbeachRay Gambell
Specialists from Nicholson Engineering of Bridport will supervise the rehanging

The project has been supported by 25 people and other groups, who all have helped raise about £70,000.

The figure covered the cost of casting and the bells' retuning by Nicholson Engineering of Bridport, who will be responsible for rehanging them in the church at a later date.

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