THE historic bells at Dunterton Church rang out over the surrounding countryside for the first time in living memory last week.

But it was a double first for the small church, when its congregation heard its new organ for the first time too.

There are, unusually, three bells in the ancient tower. The treble was cast in 1620, before even the invention of the telescope by Galileo, said Lamerton organist Peter Bazley, who has spent the last ten years renovating them.

'It started as a hobby, I just started tinkering with them,' he said.

Since then the one-time Plymouth engineer has developed a full-time business renovating bells.

Originally, the plan had been to sell one of the bells to pay for the renovation of the remaining two, but a curious thing happened to convince Mr Bazley to keep all three together.

He said one day he had gone up into the tower to get his tool bag. There was a single candle burning in the church as he climbed up, but when he came down a moment later three were alight — and no one was around.

'I took that as a sign,' he said.

The project took ten years in total, but cost very little because Mr Bazley cannibalised parts from other bells. Now Dunterton's bells have been re-hung, they have new clappers, headstocks and wheels and ring out over the countryside to call the faithful to prayer.

Mr Bazley was also able to procure and rebuild an organ from the Providence Chapel in Coryton, which was being demolished. Previously the accompaniment at Dunterton had been provided by an harmonium.

'I took it out and rebuilt it from bits and pieces and I built lots of new bits. We also added an electric bellows,' he said. 'It was a project for the church and I had a lot of fun out of making it and I learnt a lot.'

This too was a new departure for Mr Bazley, who learnt by trial and error over the 12 months it took to restore the instrument.

'I built it up in my workshop first of all, but then it had to come to pieces again because I couldn't get it through the church door!'

Local vicar the rev Greg Stanton said: 'He took on the job and worked for years to put them right — a wonderful job — nobody knows the last time the bells were rung a hundred, maybe 200 years ago.'