Life will be a little quieter for people living near St Helen's Church in Abingdon when the new bells start ringing out next year, thanks to a grant from the National Lottery.

The Abingdon Society of Bellringers and the Trust for the Development of St Helen's Church are celebrating a grant of £3,000 from the Lottery Awards for All.

The grant will cover the cost of installing new sound control equipment as part of the project to replace the bells.

Bell captain Martin Crick said: "Because of possible disturbance from the sound of the bells to neighbours, practice and training has to be limited. The new system will give much greater control over the volume heard outside the tower.

"During practice and training we will greatly reduce the intrusion to local residents, allowing more effective tuition for new recruits.

"The bells will continue to be heard at full volume for public occasions such as Sunday worship and national and local civic events." Trainee Josh Dodd, 13, said, "The old bells are really hard, and I don't get very much ringing on them. I'm really looking forward to the new bells because they'll be much easier and the sound control will mean I get much more ringing."

Work on the £150,000 project to replace the 10 bells is moving ahead. Four bells have already been cast at the Whitechapel Foundry in London. In January, the clock will be removed along with some bell fittings.

Builders will begin lifting beams and removing equipment, followed by bellhangers who will start removing bells and the framework.

In February, the sound control equipment be start to be installed and final preparation work will be carried out.

Work on the new framework, by Whites of Appleton, should be ready by March with work to install the new bells due to start in May or June.