BANDS of bellringers from all over the country are ‘queuing up’ to ring the newly-restored bells of Nevern Church, it has emerged.

It follows an extraordinary fund-raising effort by the community which enabled the bells of historic St Brynach to deliver their first 10-bell Full Peal in 120 years.

Nevern is now the only church in Wales to home 10 bells apart from the cathedrals.

And on Easter Monday a brief dedication ceremony will take place at 2pm in acknowledgment for the support which saw £500,000 raised in the midst of the Covid lockdown.

“It’s a sort of thank you for everyone who contributed to this amazing fund-raising drive,” said Maggie Campbell, secretary of the Parochial Church Council.

“We are so very grateful for the generosity of everyone who rallied to our cause.”

“The project has been a huge success,” Duncan Fitzwilliams, chair of the Nevern Church Tower and Bell Committee, told the Tivy-Side.

“Maggie has proved a real driving force, while Hywel Davies, head of the works committee, was also a key figure in all this.

“Our local band of ringers are being trained up from scratch and are coming along in leaps and bounds – in Peter Tombs, of Cilgerran, they have an excellent Tower Captain.

“Visiting bands of ringers are queueing up to come and try out the Nevern bells.

“They are comparatively lightweight and therefore much more easy to handle compared with, say, the bells of a cathedral.

“This will provide a good income for the church and bring people into the area.”

“Once completed, our donor board will bear the names of over two hundred contributors including HRH The Prince of Wales.”

And Mr Fitzwilliams revealed a visiting band of ringers from Cheltenham achieved a Full Peal during their visit to Nevern last week.

“It was a magnificent noise,” he reported. “A couple of friends of mine said they could hear it from the top of Carningli.”

Nevern’s Tower includes the Agatha Christie Bell as one of the major donors is The Colwinston Trust, a charitable trust set up in 1995 by the author’s grandson, Mathew Prichard.