There was an abrupt end to peals on the bells of Buckland Brewer parish church welcoming the arrival of 1978.

The team was only a quarter of the way through the peal when the rope of the second bells suddenly snapped on the bell wheel.

As it would have meant a new rope having to be spliced, the welcome stopped there and then – the first time in living memory such an incident has occurred.

But there was no denying the warmth of the welcome the New Year had already received at Buckland Brewer and on Torridgeside generally: in homes, clubs, pubs and in the streets people celebrated in traditional fashion the departure of yet another year and the arrival of a new one.

Brothers Roy and Leonard Blight and Leonard’s son David were among the Buckland Brewer ringers who welcomed in the New Year. Also in the picture – Miss Jennifer Mills, Dave Snowden and Albert Manning.

Gazette article dated 6 January 1978