The rural idyll of a close knit Perthshire village community was threatened last week in an unholy row which could have come straight out of an Archers plot.
A light sleeping resident of Errol who inquired if the church bells might be silenced at night can’t have foreseen the hornet’s nest they were prodding.
The minister took to social media to warn his parishioners of the threat to the bells, provoking an immediate call to arms.
A petition was raised with opposition to any attempts to silence the bells expressed in the strongest of terms.
Two centuries of tradition was not going to be swept aside if the good citizens of Errol were going to have anything to do with it, and robust defences were launched as battle lines were drawn.
As with all the best Archers storylines, peace was quickly restored to the village when the anonymous complainant (no doubt sheepishly given the furore they had unleashed) withdrew their request and the threat receded.
The church minister, the Reverend John Macgregor, was heartened by the level of support for the church and no doubt hopes it is reflected in a steep rise in his congregation numbers.
“I most certainly did not expect to get 400 or so people writing to back the bells,” said Mr Macgregor. “That is almost the entire population.”
The episode reveals the depth of feeling that a village community has for venerable institutions and the lengths they will go to in order to head off a threat to their traditional way of life.
The people of Errol – well most of them anyway – will be able to sleep soundly at night, secure in the knowledge that a real community spirit is at the core of the village, ready to leap to the defence of those things they hold dear.
