After a long time of silence, Schoonoord’s church bell sounds again. In 2019 it was decided to sell the church from 1866, because the reformed congregation could no longer afford it financially. Since then the clock has stopped. Until yesterday.
Jan Lageman decided to buy the church in 2021 and to give the national monument a residential destination. One of the tenants who moved in in 2022 is Nico Westerhof. And he wanted to redecorate the church tower with the bells.
Westerhof received permission from the municipality and the inhabitants of the village. And with money from the village budget, a specialized clock company could get to work. “That inspected everything and made sure everything worked again,” he says.
“Everything was covered in bird droppings,” says Westerhof. “Nets have been hung in the tower so that this does not happen again.” There were also all kinds of cables loose. “We didn’t know if the engine was still working properly. But the mechanic came upstairs and recognized the engine. It seems that their company installed it about eight years ago. So the engine was renewed and that was very lucky.”
Everything works again now. The clock is digitally controlled and will automatically chime for one minute every weekday at 12:00 am. “As a sign that the people on the field who used to work there can go home to eat. And Saturday afternoon at 1800 to say that the working week was over.” The bell does not ring on Sundays, because there is no church service anymore.