Epwell community find church bell on Ebay so worshippers on St Helena can ring in Christmas

Andrew and Nicola McHugh, right, and church warden of St Annes Epwell, Alasdair Lowe with the bell

And the parishioners hope the church bell they have found for a small church will arrive there by Christmas.

Members of the parish responded to a plea from Bishop Dale Bowers, the Bishop of the islands of St Helena and Ascension Island, for a bell for St Andrew's Church in a community called Half Tree Hollow.

Epwell church members Andrew McHugh and his wife, Nicola led the effort to satisfy the unusual request. The couple lived on St Helena for two years when Mrs McHugh was running the island's School of Nursing and Mr McHugh was studying for a Masters Degree in health systems management with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

The replacement bell at St Mark's Church, Longwood - made out of an old acetylene gas cylinder

The British island was the place of imprisonment of Napoleon by the British from 1815 until his death in 1821.

Mr McHugh said: "Bishop James Johnson - former Bishop of St Helena - lives in Bodicote and is a personal friend.

"My wife Nicola and I lived, very happily, on the Island for two years. We both became involved with The St Helena Diocesan Association on our return to the UK.

"We recently had our Annual General Meeting on Zoom when the Bishop mentioned the bell in St Mark's, Longwood - very close to Napoleon's House - was broken. I volunteered to see what I could do to source a bell.

A map showing how isolated St Helena is in the South Atlantic sea

"We contacted all the parishioners in Epwell who were delighted to help and we found one on eBay. We put in a bid and won the auction. In the meantime the Bishop came back to say that a local craftsman had made a new bell out of an empty acetylene cylinder.

"This left us with an unwanted bell. We then received a message from the seller of the bell to say it had been stolen from his shed and he would reimburse us - which he did very promptly.

"This almost seemed like divine intervention but then, a few days later, Bishop Dale came back to say that St Andrew's Church in Half Tree Hollow on the island also needed a bell and so we went about sourcing another bell."

With a suitable bell purchased, the hugely heavy package starts its journey to the South Atlantic this week via DHL parcel delivery to the docks in Bristol from where it will go by boat, firstly to South Africa and from there to St Helena.

Nicola McHugh and the bell that is destined for St Andrew's Church, Half Tree Hollow on St Helena

"We hope it will get there in time for Christmas," said Mr McHugh.

The bell will not be the only connection between Epwell and the island. Mr and Mrs McHugh planted a gum tree in the St Helena Millennium Forest as a gesture of friendship from the Epwell Gardening Club.

According to Wikipedia St Helena is a remote volcanic tropical island in the South Atlantic Ocean, belonging to the United Kingdom. The island lies some 1,950 kilometres (1,210 m) west of the coast of south western Africa and 4,000 kilometres (2,500 m) east of Rio de Janeiro on the South American coast.

It is one of three British Overseas Territories grouped as Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha. St Helena measures about 16 by eight kilometres (ten x eight miles) and has a population of 4,534. It is one of the most isolated islands in the world and was uninhabited when discovered by the Portuguese in 1502. It was an important stopover for ships sailing to Europe from Asia and Southern Africa for centuries.