Villagers are fighting to save their church’s bells from falling silent for the first time in hundreds of years.

Campaigners hope to raise £100,000 for works to be carried out on the tower at St Margaret’s Church in Bethersden, near Ashford.

Poised at the heart of the village for more than 1,000 years, the church’s unique chimes can be heard up to two-and-a-half miles away.

But their 250-year-old timber frame, which supports seven bells including the oldest in Kent, has succumbed to wood rot and insect infestation.

Fearing the decay could lead to “sacrilegious” silence in the area, many villagers hope restoration would allow the bells to “sing out across the parish for centuries to come”.

Alastair Boyd, chairman of the bells fundraising campaign, explained: “The bells are part of the village’s life. It sets the background of a village community and it’s part of the history.

“The frame that’s in there now is wooden. It was put in in 1759. It has had a bit of restoration in the 1800s – now it is suffering from wood rot and insect infestation.

“Although we do ring them, because the frame is so decrepit as it is, it binds the bells and means that those ringing them have to work jolly hard to keep them working.”

The group hopes to raise £100,000 so the bells can be removed and transported to a foundry for cleaning.

A new hanging system complete with bearings and pulley wheels would be fitted while, to help reinforce the tower, a cast iron and metal frame would be built.

Mr Boyd says £24,000 had already been raised via “very generous trusts and benefactors” – while a crowdfunder page has already been set up.

St Margaret’s hosts seven bells, ranging from one of the oldest in Kent cast in 1335 to several from the 1600s and one from 1952.

They weigh 2,844kg in total and are held up by a timber frame built in 1759, with only some light restoration work in the 1800s.

The parish council, local bellringers and rocking horse makers the Stevenson Brothers have clubbed together to raise money.

Earlier this month, the Bethersden Bellringers received approval from the Church of England’s local Diocesan Advisory Committee in their bid to replace the frame, and now need to raise the funds.

Cllr Boyd said: “If we can get local labour and transport and accommodation for the bell hangers it would reduce costs as well. We’ve got people willing to house people and such.

“If we don’t do this then the bells will be silent because it will deteriorate to such a point.

“Whoever subscribes to it is subscribing to something that could last three or four hundred years – well past our sell-by date.”

The Stevenson Brothers, who have made rocking horses for the Queen and Royal Family, have joined in the fight to save the bells.

They have created a rocking horse called Bethersden Belle, which they are auctioning with a starting bid of £10,000 to contribute to the cause.

Alan Bourner - who has been ringing bells for decades and teaches the local bell-ringing group - is also involved in the campaign.

Mr Bourner told of how the bell-ringers’ weekly practice is now usually held at a church in the neighbouring village of High Halden instead, due to the state of the bells’ frame.

“If we don’t do something now and put a decent frame in within the next 18 months or two years we won’t be able to ring them at all because they’re deteriorating so badly,” he added.

“If we do the job that we want the £100,000 for, then they’ll be ringable for many centuries because new frames will be up there just as long as the wooden frames: these are quite unique bells.”

He also spoke of the distinctive sound of the instruments: “They’re slightly off-tune if you like so it makes them sound different, and plus the earlier bell is a slightly different shape and so it sounds out differently.

“It’s not like tuning a piano – they’ve all got their own distinctive sound. When you put them all together and you ring them properly, you know it’s Bethersden and they sound beautiful.”

To allow the bells to fall into disuse “would be sacrilege to be quite honest”, he added.

“[It would be] an absolute disaster if we don’t get this, because they would just fall silent and then in 10-15 years time people just won't be interested.

“To keep it sounding like Bethersden is why we want to do it.”