By Stuart Gillespie

Copyright dailyrecord

A couple must return what they say are “priceless” bells to a historic church. Mark Huitson and Rachel Blonde claim the bells and plaques at Holywood Church near Dumfries are linked to the Knights Templar and had to take them away “as a matter of a security”. But a Scottish Government reporter has disagreed and has demanded “that the two bells and two stone plaques must be returned”. The couple, who bought the church in 2019, were told to return by the council and lost an appeal to the Scottish Government over that decision earlier this year. Their latest plea to Holyrood came after they were hit with a listed building enforcement notices as the bells still hadn’t been returned. In documents lodged with the Scottish Government, they stated: “The sole basis of the owners’ removal of the bells from Holywood Church and any associated archaeology was in context of the owners’ discovery of the bells’ evidenced, unique, extraordinary and priceless Knights Templar attribution. “The owners’ assert their re-discovery of the bells’ 12th century provenance, attached to a Templar preceptory, and its sponsor’s Templar attribution is one of the most significant and valuable medieval discoveries in Scotland, the only significant provenanced Knights Templar artefacts in the world, and as such the bells should be judged and treated as artefacts of national importance.” They removed the bells for security reasons and plan to return them once they have sold the church. However, the council believed there was “no supporting evidence” for the bells being removed on health and safety grounds. There was also no indication of where the bells were being stored. In their findings, the Scottish Government reporter stated they had “not been provided with evidence to demonstrate why these unauthorised works were urgently necessary for health, safety or the preservation of the building”. Click here for more news and sport from Dumfries and Galloway. They added they hadn’t been provided with any evidence showing why the bells were at risk and believed “the special architectural or historic interest of the listed building has not been preserved by the actions undertaken”. They acknowledged the “significant amount of information and historical research” that had been provided, but said this was not material to deciding the listed building enforcement notice appeal. As a result, they rejected the appeal and stated that the “two bells and two stone plaques must be returned and carefully reinstalled in their original locations to preserve the listed building and the features of special architectural or historic interest”.