North Tawton’s bellringers were overjoyed on Saturday (May 6) when over 200 residents turned up over the course of the day to ring the church bells in honour of the King’s Coronation.

To celebrate the King’s crowning, North Tawton’s bellringers opened up the church tower for residents to celebrate the Coronation by turning their hand to a bit of bellringing.

Over 200 people took part in the event, which ran from 8:30-10am at St Peter’s Church, including two 95-year-old gentlemen, one of whom was former bellringing captain Brian Drake.

Graham Pridham, captain of the North Tawton bellringers, said: ‘We opened up the tower is first thing in the morning and we got our first person pretty much straight away. Then it was just people people, people, people, people. At one point there were 25 people all at the same time.

‘At 11am, we stopped but as soon as the crown was on the King’s head we got a phone call saying, could we do the bellringing again? We gave out all of our badges, all our stickers and all our certificates.’

Everyone who took part was treated to a badge and certificate to remember the day and the experienced bellringers were on hand to assist.

Hatherleigh’s bellringers held a similar ‘Ding for the King’ event at Hatherleigh church tower, which took place from 2-5:30pm on Coronation day. Hatherlegh bellringers also received badges and certificates along with a ‘seedbomb’ in honour of the King’s commitment to becoming more environmentally-friendly.