The Master of the Gild of Freemen of Pembroke, Cllr Dennis Evans, visited St Mary’s Church, Pembroke, where bells have rung since the 1760s, to present the Tower Captain, Anne Bunker, with a donation of £250 to the belfry fund.

He was accompanied by Gild members Graham Phillips and Roger Jones.

Notoriously challenging to ring and out of tune, the bells need significant work to save them and make them worthy of the historic Norman tower. The planned work will take the bells out for re-tuning, replace the out of tune second bell, rebuild the bell frame further down the tower and rehang the bells with new fittings, with two new bells being added to make a peal of ten.

The ringers and volunteers will carry out as much of the labouring work as possible to reduce costs, but some £94,000 will have to be raised and a GoFundMe Page (www.gofund.me/4eb9c503) has been established to assist in this mammoth task.

Following the presentation, the steep tower stairs were negotiated and a visit was made to the bell chamber where Anne Bunker explained the layout of the bells and how they are rung; she also outlined her work to obtain major funding for the project. Peter Hayward, Bell Restoration Officer with the St Davids Diocesan Guild of Bellringers and Diocesan Bell Advisor, explained how the required complex work would be achieved.

A visit was then made to the ringing chamber where Gild members were treated to a demonstration of the ancient art of change ringing when tower members rang rounds, call changes and a course of Grandsire Doubles.