Bell removed for first time since 1736 by Nigel Baudains, Guernsey Weekly Press, UK
‘We found that it had become structurally unsafe as one of the oak beams that supports the bell inside the tower had rotted and the bell had actually dropped in its frame,’ said Mr Dyke.
A scaffold was erected around the cupola, which can be seen from the lower end of Market Square.
Mr Dyke said death-watch beetle had caused the rot problem in a relatively small section of an oak beam and the bulk of the original support frame would be put back.
‘We want to put things back as untouched as possible,’ he said.
Brocard, of Lorraine, France, cast the nine bells that are housed in the Town Church in 1736. In 1994, eight of them were recast with additional metal added to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Liberation and they chimed again for the first time on 9 May the following year.