Get your hands off my clapper....
The landlord of the Halfway House at Pitney has reportedly taken down the 'time' bell after a certain customer wouldn't stop fiddling with his clapper.
Charlie Harvey, who can't be named for legal reasons, was apparently warned to stop ringing the landlord's instrument several times before - according to eyewitnesses - he was marched off the premises.
Mr Harvey (above left) is the president of the Curry Rivel Handbell Association and claims he was "egged on" by fellow member Mr Nick Wheller (above right)
Mr Wheller is already well-known to Carry On Langport readers, he hit the Pitney headlines earlier this year when he pushed a woman's face into the coleslaw at a village dance.
Mr Harvey was also in the news way back in the 1990s when he got on his knees at the Halfway and licked a dollop of cottage cheese off a local woman's leather trousers and lived to tell the tale.
"What rubbish" he told us, "it was mayonnaise."
Neither Mr Wheller, Mr Harvey nor the landlord would comment on 'bellgate' but the word 'bell-end' has allegedly been used in several e-mails and text messages between the trio.
According to a source who didn't want to be named (Cranberry, Horseradish, Brunsdon) in the bell's place there now hangs what's being described as a "cartoon version made out of card"
"It's a disgrace" whispered one local, "that bell has been there for decades...this pub is certainly nothing like it used to be."
ding dong...what a carry on!
But not everyone found the incident upsetting, several people who saw what happened say it's the first time they've seen Andy the barman smile since summer 2008.
