Bells have rung from the tower of a Walthamstow church for the first time since a major renovation project.

Ringers at St Mary’s Church, in Church End, treated passers-by to the first peal from the tower in more than a decade on Saturday (March 18).

The bells had been out-of-action for more than a year after volunteers raised £15,000 and received a further grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) to return the tower to its former glory.

St Mary’s tower captain, Katherine Marshall, said: “It was terrific, people just stopped and listened and when the bell ringers finished, there was a round of applause, which was a wonderful feeling.

“We hope the bells will be seen as something for Walthamstow to be proud of, the local community all helped to fundraise with us.

“It has been a long slog, there was a lot of fundraising that we had to do before we could even apply for an HLF grant.”

“Saturday was the end of a lot of hard work and it was great to hear the bells ring out.”

A peal sees bells rung continuously in more than 5,000 different sequences without visual aids, a feat that was almost impossible to achieve at the church before restoration work.

Saturday’s performance at St Mary’s lasted more than three hours, in 5,021 different combinations.

The performance was staged in honour of Dennis Hewitt, a former tower captain at the church who died in 2014 and had formed St Mary’s bell ringing club in 2008.

Work on the bells is the first to be carried out on since 1896 and is expected to keep them ringing for at least another century.

Bells were refurbished at Taylor’s foundry in Loughborough, before returning to the church in September last year.

New shutters have also been fitted in the tower so ringers can practice without disturbing the church’s neighbours.

Fundraising is now underway to complete other renovations works inside the tower.