Visitors ring church bells at Market Drayton arts festival
Residents young and old were given the chance to ring the bells of a historic church in Market Drayton during the town's annual arts festival.
St Mary's Church in Church Street allowed visitors to scale its bell tower before taking part in the tradition that dates back centuries.
The sessions took place throughout Saturday morning and gave members of the public the opportunity to see how the ancient mechanism works and hear the loud clang as each bell chimes.
The idea to allow townsfolk to take part in the bellringing workshops was part of this year's Drayton Artsfest.
There were various exhibitions, workshops, have-a-go sessions and social events hosted in the town throughout the weekend, which this year focused on breaking barriers.
This year's Artsfest, the sixth overall, was the third since the organisers lost much of their grant funding from the Jean Jackson Charitable Trust.
This led organisers to host a festival smaller in scale but focusing on what Market Drayton itself has to offer in the way of creativity and community events.
Suzanne Edwards, Artsfest organiser, said: "The very first year of Artsfest, we canvassed groups wanting to hold an event and the bellringers expressed an interest.
"In the first year they got a young man who's now their lead bell ringer.
"They didn't do it again for a few years but last year I asked them to do it for the centenary of the First World War in memory of the 1,500 bellringers that lost their lives in the conflict.
"They did it again this year and it was wonderful. I think they were thrilled about taking part and it's all so beautifully set up in there.
"So they've become a bit of a regular event now and hopefully we'll have them back again next year."
