IT fell to a group of ten bell ringers to carry on an age-old tradition when the monarch dies.

The bells of Winchester Cathedral pealed out over the city on Saturday at 11am precisely, to coincide with the proclamation at St James’s Palace in London of the accession of Charles III.

Ten bells rang out, rung by Bevis Clarke-Smith (Steeple-Keeper), John Colliss, Marion Daniell, Jill Fuller, Alan Hutchinson, Kate Kernick, Steve Lamb (Ringing Master), Bruce Purvis, Jean Whewell – all members of the Cathedral Band – and Martin Press, who joined us from the Hursley Ringers.

The mood was considerably more sombre as the bells were rung for service the following morning.

READ MORE: Looking back at the times when the Queen visited Romsey and Winchester

By convention during the period of mourning following the passing of a monarch, the bells are rung with the clappers fully muffled apart from that of the Tenor bell, muffled on one side only, to sound a periodic striking of an open note, recalling the tolling which took place on Friday at noon.

The Sunday ringers, from left: Alan Hutchinson, Marion Daniell, Jill Fuller, Bevis Clarke-Smith, Jean Whewell, John Colliss, Bruce Purvis, Kate Kernick, Nick Bucknall, in the Ringing Room at Winchester Cathedral.