THE bell of St Elian’s has dropped a clanger. In fact it fell out into the churchyard.

Now the search has started for funds to restore the bell back to its original condition sitting atop the tower of the church in Llanelian.

Canon Bellamy, who is responsible for the church, said: “The bell has been here since the 1780s and it has rung across the village through all those years until this year when at the end of May during the village spring fair, the bell was being rung and suddenly it stopped.

“We discovered why when we found the clapper or clanger down on one of the grave stones, it had come adrift, its bracket had sheared away.

“The bell has to be taken to the bell foundry in Loughborough which will completely restore the bell, they will fix the clapper back and repair a small crack in it and renew the headstock which is made of solid oak.

"It will then be bought back to the church, hopefully to ring again for another couple of hundred years or so.

“It will cost a great deal of money, it will probably be in excess of £10,000. We are hopeful we will be able to get some grants to do a lot of the work, and hopefully a few generous parishioners might contribute to the bell fund.”