RICHMOND residents enjoyed the sound of the historic bells at St Mary’s Church for the last time at a special session over the weekend.

The church bells, which date back hundreds of years are soon to be replaced and to mark the occasion they were pealed for around three hours on Saturday.

Bell ringer Liz Foster, who also leads a local history group researching the bells, said it was a a ‘very fitting’ farewell for the instruments.

She said: “We had a lot of people attend, townspeople and parishioners who were really excited and quite moved by the event.

“I think it helped people concretely realise that these bells are going in a couple of weeks’ time and they won’t be hearing them again.”

A team filmed and recorded the bells’ final peal and the footage will contribute to a Heritage Lottery-funded project to create an exhibition in Richmond centred on the artefacts.

Workshops will also take place in schools across the area to teach pupils about the art and history of bellringing.

The eight original bells will be replaced in stages over the coming months.

The new bells have been specially designed to hang on one level in the tower making them much easier to ring and safeguarding the tower structure.