A couple living in a 180-year-old schoolhouse have located the original bell and want to reinstall it in its historic place.

The Old School in Newton-in-Bowland was disestablished as a school in 1967 and has been in residential use since then.

Now occupied by Steven and Tracey Boswell, the couple have managed to track down the original bell and want to “restore the former appearance of the building.”

A heritage statement submitted to Ribble Valley Borough Council said: “The applicants have made significant progress to seek out the original bell and to recover this.

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“The proposal is to carry out only minimal cleaning to this, retaining and preserving the naturally aged patina as the final finish.

“A replica clapper to replace that lost over time will be forged to suit.

“Installation of the bell will require restoration of the missing elements of the rotational bar and roller bearing used to support and rotate the bell.

“Fabrication of new roller bearings will be installed onto baseplates and fixed into the new stone; the bell will be secured to a new rotational bar.”

The Old School bears a large date stone over the front doorway recording that it was built as ‘Newton National School’, and erected in 1842.

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National Schools were built with a combination of funding from local and national subscriptions, supplemented by grants from the National Society for Promoting Education of the Poor in the Principles of the Established Church, which was set up by senior members of the Church of England, to counter the efforts of non-conformist or non-sectarian schools.

In 1952, the Minister for Education approved the plan to close Newton School. The school continued beyond this until 1967 when it was sold and converted into a dwelling the following year.

To read the plans in full visit the council’s planning website.