They fell silent after they rang in the New Year at midnight on December 31.

After several years of absence, bellringing was re-established at St. Margaret's in 1977 and the bells have been rung nearly every week for the last 30 years, calling people to Sunday worship on more than 1,500 occasions and ringing to celebrate more than 300 weddings.

The ring of eight bells has a combined total age of 1,340 years and total weight of nearly three tons.

The tenor bell weighs 15cwt and the oldest two bells were cast by William Hull in 1686.
In the last 80 years, only one of the bells has been out of the bell tower which was recast in 1988.

The tenor bell, which is 250 years old this year, became unsafe to ring in 2006 and ringing for the past year has been on seven bells.

Six of these also now require attention, two of which quite urgently
The contract for the restoration of the bells has been awarded to the bell-hanging firm of Whites of Appleton.

The firm was founded in 1824 by Alfred White and his great-great-grandson Brian White is managing director of the company.

The project entails removing all eight bells, which took place yesterday (Monday).

The bells will first be transported from Buxted to Appleton, a village some six miles south-west of Oxford.

After fitting new headstocks, clappers, etc, the bells will be transported to the Whitechapel Bell Foundry in London to be tuned as a ring of eight bells, never heard in Buxted.

They then return to Appleton for final fittings and are expected back at St. Margaret's Church in early April.

Rector, Rev John Challis, said: 'The ringing of bells is a call to prayer and a reminder to those who are not able to be in church that a service is taking place.

'The bells are a central feature of church life at St. Margaret's and it is our duty to maintain and preserve them for future generations.'

Homer Cox, church treasurer and project co-ordinator said: 'This project will give us a ring of eight fully-restored and retuned bells, which should last for the next 100 years.

'It is without doubt a once-in-a-lifetime project and I am privileged to have been asked to coordinate it.'

St Margaret's is one of only a handful of churches in England dedicated to Margaret the Queen of Scotland.

She died at the age of 47 in 1093AD and was canonised as a saint in 1250AD, the year that St. Margaret's Church was built.