The church bells of St Paul's, Starcross, have rung out for services over hundreds of years. Now, they are being put to use as part of the village's flood defences.

The 18th and 19th century bells of the Devonshire church are to serve as a back-up warning for residents if all the usual forms of communication fail in the event of severe flooding. 

Although the chance of residents failing to be warned via traditional electronic methods has been deemed remote, flood group coordinator for Starcross, Megan Debenham, said every good flood plan needed a contingency and it was her suggestion that the church bells be used for this. 

The new job for the bells is timely as they have just been returned to the tower after a four-month absence to undergo restoration work. 

The restoration was made possible by donations from members of the local community as well as the Environment Agency, which is investing £4m in flood protection along the Devonshire coast. 

As part of this major project, Starcross has benefited from two new floodgates.  Sections of the harbour wall have been raised in line with predicted sea level rises and there are also two new tidal gates as part of the scheme that the community will operate on the Environment Agency's behalf.

Jane Fletcher-Peters, of the Environment Agency, said: 'As well as building flood defences, we also work with communities to create a flood plans - a set of actions of what to do in the event of flooding.

'These plans always have a contingency for warning residents. While flood wardens knocking on doors is the most obvious solution, if flooding is at night, then residents could be asleep or wary of answering the door.

'So we work together to find practical solutions like shining car headlights into houses and making people aware if that is accompanied by knocking, it could be a flood warden at the door.

'Starcross is very much a boating community so it made sense that if the church bells were sounded to warn of flood, ringers would adopt an SOS peal familiar to residents.' 

Tim Miles, churchwarden of St Paul's Church, said: 'We are very excited to welcome the bells back to the church and will sleep soundly knowing they are ready if needed to warn villagers of flooding.'