Bed and breakfast or self-catering cottage close to village church

Not exactly in the area you mentioned but we stayed in a cottage in Ludlow that was close to St Laurence’s Church which has a long interesting history. We could hear the church bells from the garden. It left an impression on me as I found the church to be very welcoming - we were greeted and offered a free tour by a very friendly parishioner.
Ludlow is a lovely town to stay in, nice pubs and restaurants, independent shops, a market and of course the castle.
The cottage (one of a row of attached cottages) was at 19 Upper Linney. Note it is small, but we found it comfortable.

Thank you!!

We enjoyed staying at The Volunteer Inn at Chipping Campden in the Cotswolds.

Still, can't help you on the church thing.

In Bath, we enjoyed The Brooks Guesthouse.

are you after a church with a good ring of bells, or are you just after the history and age?

Good question! Preferably both, but I am really interested in the bells and in fact was hoping to be in the vicinity of a church or cathedral when the bellringers are practicing!

Several years ago I received a mis addressed email from someone in Scotland advising of a change of time for the church's bell ringing practice. Oh, how I wished I could have attended.

Good luck in finding your temporary home!

We spent 5 weeks between Norfolk and Cornwall this spring. Because of one of our city’s great bells and educational ringing center, I got interested in this. I found the Dove online listings to be super interesting. You can get maps of these large and small churches by region. It lists their number of bells, practice times and special events from the “black hole” of a drill down type of website. Follow the little link at the top that says Bells. https://dove.cccbr.org.uk/. Enjoy your research when you find your next area to explore.

The problem in some ways is that a local's definition of the Lake District varies very significantly from that of the forum, also you are looking for a village as opposed to a town.
In the Diocese of Carlisle there are 60 towers with ringable bells of which 43 are regularly rung.
But few of them match the other parts of the specification. Some are in lovely villages which are well off the tourist trail.
The ones which seem to match are Langdale (Chapel Stile)- Wednesday 6pm. and Crosthwaite (Keswick)- Wednesday 7pm. Now Keswick isn't a village but I would suggest staying in Portinscale across the bridge.
Two examples of fringe villages are 1)Cartmel 2nd and 4th Friday. That is in easy reach of Great Urswick Thursday 7pm.
2) St Bees- Wednesday 8pm. In easy reach of Whitehaven St James Friday, Irton Monday, Moresby Tuesday, and Cockermouth All Saints Wednesday. All interesting churches. Moresby is usually locked in the week.
At Moresby you could also stay or dine at Moresby Hall opposite BUT no-one would describe Moresby, Parton or Lowca as picturesque. Moresby also has the site of a Roman fort beside it.
Moresby's bells are interesting as they were recast 8 years ago from bells from a nearby closed church, one is a modern WW1 memorial. They are rung from the ground, access to the bell frame is a tight squeeze!

Fantastic information, thank you all very much. My fantasy for so long has been to be in a peaceful village, close to an old church, and hear the bells. I can't wait to look into the suggestions offered so far.

I've just been looking at Northumberland, and am amazed there are only 18 towers of which 4 are unringable.
The stand out option which fits you to a T is Rothbury. Because I'm solo and travelling on a budget I've only stayed in the boring option at Rothbury- one of the village pubs, but I know the village has far better and more interesting places to stay.
From there Ponteland, Alnwick, Embleton, Berwick on Tweed, Bamburgh and Morpeth towers are all easily reachable. On here people tend to focus on Bamburgh Castle, and not so much on the Church which has its own rich history.

The other really nice option I'm seeing is Allendale. Well within reach of Hadrians Wall, Killhope Lead Mine, Teesdale, and Alston Moor, but also the bells at Hexham Abbey, Corbridge (a much under-rated town), Ovingham and Wylam- the latter two being the neglected part of the Tyne Valley, by tourists.
At Allendale the Kings Head pub would be my go to place to stay with my profile, but there are probably other options.

Doves is a brilliant resource for finding bells. Also tempting is a broadcast on BBC Radio 4, available on BBC Sounds app, at 5:34am on Sundays of around 3 minutes of bells pealing around the country and world. I listen every week, on the app. There are some pretty melodious towers in smaller towns, but most villages have fewer than 6 bells.

https://www.winchcombeparish.org.uk/the-bellringers/

Unfortunately where a I stayed is no longer available.

Liked Winchcombe as it’s not well known as a tourist spot.

Found Sudley Castle of interest.

Did the hike up to Bela’s Knap and back. Saw only cattle.

Enjoyed meals at the White Hart, The Lion Inn and coffee from the bakery.

Also with a car did drive to Broadway. Then hiked up to the Tower. Then enjoyed a meal at the Swan Inn.

So many interesting ideas! I truly appreciate everyone's posts. Thank you!

Painswick has a beautiful church, Stow-on-the-Wold and Castle Combe then there is a small village in Kent, Smarden has a beautiful church.

at 5:34am on Sundays of around 3 minutes of bells pealing around the country and world. I listen every week

Nigel, that’s early! Do you get up especially for the bell broadcast on Sundays, or are you an early riser every day? I imagine that, for lots of folks, 5:34 isn’t that early, but it is for me.

tamsonrios, when you find the location you’re looking for, I wonder how early it’s bells will start to peal?

sometimes up, sometimes in sleepyland... that's the magic of modern radio, just play the pod when I wake up. Right there on my phone.

Most ringing starts around 9 or 9:30 for a 10:00 service, some vary. Dove's has the details. Practice is usually a weekday evening or two, usually 7pm or later.

In my area, quite a few of the ringers go between Churches, so the Churches have staggered Sunday service times, an hour apart from each other.
Additionally, in my Church, we had a (now lost) tradition that before early Sunday service or weekday services someone (usually me) would ring a single bell of the peal from the Narthex for 2 minutes at 30 minutes, 10 minutes and 2 minutes before the start time (assuming the Tower Captain had left it ready).
And I would also toll a single bell for various times beforehand depending on the funeral. In these days of mobile phones the undertakers call or text when the hearse is close (especially if it's early) to restart the toll for when the hearse pulls up outside.
We had a very long double vacancy, changed our Churchmanship and lost that ringing for low mass.
When we had daily morning and evening prayer, if I was the duty officiant I also rang for 2 minutes before the start time of each office to remind people. Apparently there were one or two who joined from home at that invitation.
But daily morning and evening office in a small town Church became a lost cause.

For weddings people can pay extra for ringing to happen before and/or after.

many cathedrals and larger churches still use the Service Bell, rung as Stuart outlines above.

St Pauls Cathedral in the City of London has The Banger, the oldest bell in the tower which is rung as the Service Bell.

In their own words, from the St Pauls bells page,:

"The Service Bell

"The oldest bell at the Cathedral is the Service Bell, which hangs in the north west tower. It was cast by Philip Whiteman, a London bellfounder, in 1700 and hung the following year. Its weight is 18.75 cwt and its note E flat. On acquisition it was named the Prayer Bell, possibly because it was installed to meet the requirement of the Book of Common Prayer that a bell be rung daily before Morning and Evening Prayer. These days it is more commonly known as “the Banger” because of its distinctive tone. It remains in use for daily services at the Cathedral, normally struck by an automated chiming mechanism, but it can be rung manually."

This is all so interesting! This is definitely not a thing here in the US--hopefully if you're posting from the UK, you know how lucky you are!

The quickest solution is to check on selfcatering.co.uk, that’s where I found a cottage last year very close to the village church in Northumberland.