When choosing somewhere to live what do you consider? Location, price, size, the view, outdoor space, access to public transport? Does it ever occur to anyone that they might be woken up at the crack of dawn by the outrageously loud bells from the neighbouring idyllic rural church?

No, sadly it didn’t occur to us either, and luckily when the windows are closed, it’s just quiet enough to avoid a rude awakening, but when we make the mistake of opening the door to let some air in during the night, like we did last night, at 6.30am on the dot we are jerked awake to the most deafening peal of bells. Now bells which tell you the time I can just about cope with, but these bells have no rhyme nor reason, they are random, disjointed and go on and on for far too long.

Who decided that 6.30am was an appropriate time to start the dawn chorus? What percentage of the general population is up at 6.30? Who wants to be woken up to a noise that loud? And not just weekdays, Saturdays and Sundays too.

Honestly, I’ll think very carefully next time I move house, and be extremely wary of those idyllic, rural, picture-postcard village churches…