It’s the middle of the night. Panic time. 

500 words to write for Forest View, to be sent off in the morning, and not an idea in my head, writes Dave Kent.

Rugby? Cinderford rugby team won again on Saturday, but I did that last week.

Lydney Harbour? No, I’ve already added my words of support to the protests about its egregious defilement. 

I should have prepared something over the weekend, but didn’t get round to it.

I did have an idea, and was just about to write it down, but my train of thought was interrupted by this sound: chiddleigh chung, chiddleigh chung. 

We live by the main Gloucester to Cardiff railway line, and the passing trains always go ‘chiddleigh chung, chiddleigh chung’. 

When a long freight train passes at night this persistent repetitive sound, with the periodic rattling of heavily laden carriages, plays havoc with my concentration.

We’re close to the tunnel through which the trains pass as they go through from Newnham eastwards towards Lydney and beyond. 

The tunnel muffles the sound of the trains, so that the sounds from trains coming from Gloucester through Broadoak increase until they reach maximum volume at our house and then suddenly become zero decibels when entering the tunnel. 

Sometimes the trains emit a warning whistle around the A48 crossing at Broadoak as they pass through from the Gloucester direction.

Trains from the opposite direction emerge from the tunnel with a sudden explosion of decibels as they rush through to Broadoak and beyond.

But I also hear during these hours the Newnham bells. 

There are two sets of Newnham bells, the clock tower on the A48 and the church bells at Newnham’s parish church, St Peters. 

Both of these sets of bells have been silent at different times recently, but now are restored to their proper operational state, informative, reassuring, not intrusive, and advising of each quarter hour. 

The village chimes follow the famous Big Ben ‘Westminster Chimes’ bell peal, first rung out in 1859. 

The complete piece at the hour is the ‘Westminster Chimes’ sequence that is so familiar.

The words to this, which of course the bells cannot replicate, but which I run through my head whenever I hear the hourly ring cycle are:

'All through this hour, Lord be my guide.'

'That by thy power, no foot shall slide.'

The peals representing the time at each hour are often not coordinated between the village clocks, so one may gain time and the other may lose some. 

They may be a couple of minutes apart, which is not a problem, but when they are almost synchronised it’s more difficult. 

When one peal immediately follows the other you may think that 2am is 4am. 

Or when they are almost synchronised, you may hear one set of bells softly echoing the peals of the other.

During such random early morning thoughts, a big freight train has just rumbled through the village, but it’s 3.00am, as notified by one of the village clocks and immediately confirmed by the other. 

Perhaps a subject for Forest View?