Church bells still chime to the social rhythms of British life

The ringing of church bells is a deeply familiar, joyful and poignant soundtrack to British life. But I've never given much thought to who produces the sound, or how. Finding out a little more, my love has only deepened.

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I can tell you how welcoming the ringers were, how thrilling and moving it was to be in the bell tower, and of language like poetry: of quarter peals and plain hunting, of falling clappers and tolls, of ringing the changes. Of physicality, musicality and mathematics, and of collective, social rhythm and cognitive stimulation.

My village church of St Michael and All Angels has six chimed, stationary bells that are rung in descending age, from 435 years to 25. Jean has happy memories of ringing here in the 1950s and 60s with her father, whom she adored. Jane recalls ringing in the millennium with two new-cast bells. For Julie, bellringing is a link through time that began with learning the handbells at school. She is most moved ringing in an empty church and watching it fill.