AN EDEN village church's new bells have been blessed by the Bishop of Penrith.

The six bells were garlanded with flowers for the hallowing service at St Patrick's Church, Bampton.

Parishioners and sponsors attended the "memorable and moving occasion", led by the bishop, the Right Rev Robert Freeman, and the Rev Alun Hurd, vicar of the High Westmorland parishes, which include Shap, Bampton, Orton, Tebay and Ravenstonedale.

The service was yet another milestone for the parishioners who launched a £90,000 appeal for the new ring of six bells back in October 2016.

The bells - named Bampton, Bomby, Burnbanks, Butterwick, Knipe and Lowther to reflect local geography - have now been lifted into the church tower. They are to peal out across the parish on Sunday, December 17 before the 6pm Christmas carol service.

The new bells were cast from molten metal at Britain's last remaining bell foundry, John Taylor and Co in Loughborough.

Among generous benefactors who sponsored them are Bob Eastham, aged 96, and his late wife.

Mr Eastham lived in Burnbanks, near Bampton, as part of the Haweswater dam-building community. He was eight years old when he arrived in 1929 with his parents, from London, and his older sister.

The young Bob attended Bampton school and worked on the dam and in the village until joining the RAF in 1942.

Mr Eastham is now in residential care in Leicester, near his son Les, who arranged for him to visit the foundry to see the Bampton bells.