A QUIET Worcestershire village was alive with the sound of music - after a loving wife arranged for the church bells to be rung more than 10,000 times for her husband's 60th.

Veronica Colling bid for the quarter peal of bells at an auction of promises at Eckington School, for Gerald's birthday.

They were rung for about an hour on Thursday evening at the village's Holy Trinity Church.

Mrs Colling, of Jarvis Street in Eckington, treated her husband to a trip to the cinema on the big day but they returned home - a stone's throw from the church, in time to catch the chimes.

"We love listening to the bells," she said. "They play them twice a week regularly, and I just thought it'd be nice as a special treat to have them dedicated to Gerald."

The bell-ring was one of several 'promises' sold off at the auction, organised by the Friends of Eckington School, which raised more than £5,500.

The children's part of the auction raised an additional £440, which will be donated to deaf-blind charity Sense.