York Minster bells to ring for hours to mark King's Coronation

The bells will sound for an hour on Sunday ahead of a four-hour continuous ring on Monday

The sound of York Minster's bells will be heard for several hours to celebrate the Coronation of King Charles III.

Bell ringers at the minster will join thousands of others across the UK to host a nationwide peal to ring in the new King.

The minster's bells will sound a quarter peal later on Sunday ahead of a full peal on Monday lasting four hours.

Bell-ringer Elva Ainsworth said it was a nerve-wracking task to go for so long without getting distracted.

She said: "Even if you find your nose running, you've just got to wipe it on your sleeve and keep going.

"I've literally been ringing with my knees bumping before because of nerves."

York Minster bell-ringer Elva Ainsworth said the team were "excited and honoured to be taking part"

The minster's bells are the fourth heaviest ring of 12 in the world, with the largest bell, the tenor, weighing three tonnes.

Ms Ainsworth said the bell-ringer in charge of the tenor on Monday would be having a "big breakfast to get him going".

"It weighs about the same as a Range Rover so as you can imagine, it's a very big bell to ring," she added.

The minster's team of ringers have been practising twice a week ahead of the historic Ring for the King moment.

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Ms Ainsworth said: "For events like this we always aim to ring something we know so we aim at a reasonably low point so we can ring it really, really well and nicely."

But no matter how much the team practise, Ms Ainsworth said there's always the chance that something can go wrong.

"When the King came for the Maundy service not long ago we had one of the local policemen come in in the middle of the ring and disturb us - we nearly lost it.

"Also, people can lose concentration, plus for an event as big as this people get really hyped up and nervous."

But despite the nerves, Ms Ainsworth said the bell ringers were "excited and honoured to be taking part".

She said among those ringing bells at other churches across York were her 87-year-old father, who has been bell-ringing since he was a child, and her 16-year-old son.