The bells rang out again at St Mary’s Church in Walmer as the congregation gave thanks for the completion of the tower roof repairs and bells restoration.

A special service was led by the Rt Rev Trevor Willmott, Bishop of Dover, on Sunday, September 10.

The event also included baptisms, confirmations and re-affirmations of faith.

Bishop Trevor spoke about the “wonderful” community support behind the church tower work.

He said: “As these candidates are saying ‘yes’ to Jesus in their lives today, so the community has said ‘yes’ to St Mary’s Church by contributing to the tower.”

The £35,000 fundraising drive, backed by The Mercury, was launched last autumn.

An appeal team ran events and applied for grants to fund the work, and members of the church’s congregation made generous personal donations.

The main supporting roof beam of the 19th century tower had rotted due to decades of leaks.

Work to lift the roof and reinforce the beam started in April and was completed by the end of May.

The Rev Seth Cooper, vicar of Walmer, said: “We are so blessed to have so many supportive people in the life of our church and from the community. Ringers even came from Canterbury and London to help ring the bells. It was amazing!”

Mr Cooper used a DeLorean car – as featured in the Back to The Future film – to highlight the church’s fundraising, posing in the vehicle to drum up publicity for the campaign.

The 1980s film franchise features a town hall clock tower which, when struck by lightning, produces enough power to send Michael J. Fox’s Marty McFly back to the future – in 1985.

Mr Cooper said he had no such ambitions to time travel, but added that he and his congregation wanted to take the church tower back “into the future”.

If you are interested in bell ringing, call 01304 366605, and for more information on Walmer Parish churches visit walmerparishchurches.org