A £70,000 appeal to fix the church bells in St Peter’s Church, Ugborough is to be launched in May at the resurrected village flower festival.

After an 11-inch crack appeared in number six early last year, an inspection of the historic church’s eight bells and associated equipment found a major restoration was needed.

The bells in the unusually large village church – often referred to as the cathedral of the South Hams – were last rehung in 1911, when the supporting wooden frame was replaced with a cast iron one. Since then, no major work has been carried out, even though the bells themselves date from between 1762 and 1931.

Although church members have not yet decided which company will be tasked with the work, the cost is expected to be around £70,000.

Bell captain Anthony Lugger, wife Jacqueline and bell restoration secretary Francis Douglas explained the work involved. The cracked bell, weighing nearly a tonne, along with two others will be welded, and all will be retuned.

Repairs will be made to the wheels, and the ’headstocks’ – massive timbers attached to the top of each bell, and bearings will be replaced.

The consequence, according to Anthony, is that the bells will become much easier to ring. He said: ’There’s no particular one component that needs to be replaced, but everything together is creating a lot of friction that makes the bells very heavy to ring.

’We’ve got a good team of ringers that practice every week. In a lot of towers, the bells go silent through a lack of ringers, but it would be a shame if we had to stop.’

In order to keep Ugborough’s bells ringing, villagers have decided to hold a village flower festival over the weekend of May 20, 21 and 22.

The event is being organised by Jacqueline, who said: ’The flower festival is running from 10am to 6pm every day on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The church will be full of flowers from lots of different arrangers, and we’re launching the appeal at 6pm on Friday, May 20 with a party with street food, beer and wine.

’We’d like to get across that this really is a community project, not just a church one.’

If anyone would like to help with fundraising, or in any other way please contact Anthony at [email protected] .