THE bells of an Overton church rang out in memory of two longstanding bell-ringers over the weekend.

On Saturday (September 4), the bells of St Mary's rang for 45 minutes in remembrance of Reg and June Jones - a couple who had rung the bells there for many years.

Six ringers from three local churches attempted a rarely-heard quarter peal based on a complex method called Plain Bob Doubles, comprising 1,260 changes of sequence.

Ringers were successful and, as such, the performance will be recorded on a ‘BellBoard’ – a database of all quarter and full peals around the world.

Reg and June Jones, who died in September and November 2020 respectively, were longstanding bell-ringers at St Mary's and the quarter peal on Saturday was witnessed by their sons, Richard and Gareth.

Rev Peter Mackriell was on hand to say prayers before the quarter peal took place from around 10.45am.

Tower Captain Clare Morris, who described Saturday's event as 'successful', added: "It is hoped that we can follow this up next year with a full peal at St Mary’s Church – something not heard in the village since 1971.

"A full peal involves thousands of changes and takes around three hours to complete."