Maurice Halifax from Melton will chime the bells to mark 75 years since the start of WW2

Available for over a year

A man who claims to be one of the last people to ring a church bell in Leicestershire before the breakout of the second world war will later this morning take to the bells once again. At 11am Maurice Halifax from Melton will chime the bells of Lowich Church in Waltham on the Wolds to mark 75 years since the start of the conflict. He was taught how to do it by his father aged just five, and at the age of 7, he could ring them all by himself - but under supervision of course. Then on the 3rd of September 1939 he heard on the wireless the Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain declaring war with Germany. It meant that him ringing the bells just seconds before hand, might actually make him the last church bell ringer in Leicestershire before war broke out. Well Tower Captain John Matthews took our reporter Jo hollis up into the steeple to talk more about it.