The Friends of St Thomas Church (FRoST) and the Kingswear Parochial and Parish Councils have announced that the three new bells for St Thomas Church, donated by local people, will be arriving by train at Kingswear Station on Sunday September 15 at 2.35pm.

They commemorate the Platinum Jubilee of Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, the Coronation of HM King Charles III and the third Bell is the Thomas William Lewis Peace Bell.

They will be in the Guards Van of the train and will be unloaded onto a truck when the train comes into Kingswear - and then brought up to the church.

It was hoped the church would eventually be blessed with six bells, but the outbreak of WWII put an end to that wish and the three existing bells remained in place for the next 80 years.

The three new bells will be put on display inside the church, in the Lady Chapel, from about 4pm on September 15 and over the next few days, as one by one the bells are hung in the 12th century Norman church tower by the bell manufacturers - Taylors of Loughborough.

They will be hung alongside the existing three bells, two of which date back to the 1500s.

The church will be open daily and will stay open later than usual until 7pm on the Sunday, Monday and Tuesday and everyone is welcome to come and see the bells before they go into the tower.

It is hoped the first “test ringing” of the bells will be on Thursday and/or Friday September 19/20 - so you can listen out for the sound of the six bells ringing out over the River Dart from Kingswear for the first time since the Tower was built in 1173.

This is all thanks to the generosity of people of Kingswear and the fund raising of FRoST, the non- denominational local charity.

They are especially keen to recruit people interested in learning how to ring the church bells.

You don’t have to be a church goer and if you are interested, please contact Stephen Pearson on 07771-857140 or at [email protected].