A LOVING wife has made sure her husband's 60th birthday will be very appealing - by arranging for the village church bells to be rung more than 10,000 times.

Veronica Colling, of Jarvis Street, Eckington, bid for the quarter peal of bells at an auction of promises held at Eckington School.

Eight people, led by Andrew Evans, will ring the bells at the Holy Trinity Church in the village at 8pm this evening to mark her husband Gerald's birthday.

Mrs Colling is treating him to a trip to the cinema during the evening but they will return to their home - a stone's throw from the church, in time to catch the chimes.

Each person will ring one bell more than 1,200 times. The quarter peal of bells is a unique sequence in English ringing and is expected to take about an hour.

"We love listening to the bells. They play them twice a week and I just thought it would be nice as a special treat to have them dedicated to my husband's birthday," said Mrs Colling, a teaching assistant at Eckington School.

The bell-ring was one of a number of "promises" sold off at the auction, organised by the Friends of Eckington School.

The event raised more than £5,500 for the school. Other items that were bid for included dog-walking, hamster sitting and planting of hanging baskets, as well as breakfast for 10 on top of Bredon Hill.

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