The peal of bells may be a familiar sound to anyone who lives close to a church but what happens in the bell tower and who are the ringers?

After climbing 36 steep steps up a narrow winding staircase leading to the top of the 600-year-old church tower at St Peter and St Paul, in Kilmersdon, it opens out into a small room with six ropes hanging in a circle from the ceiling.

Inside are 10 people laughing and chatting together, this cheerful collection is the Radstock Bell Ringers who are looking for committed new members to join them for regular practices and performances.

Sid Johnson, 77, first began ringing bells as a 14-year-old boy.

"Once you give it a go it can be really addictive. We are currently on the lookout for more members to enable us to do bell ringing at both churches every Sunday," he said.

The Radstock group, who are members of the Bath and Wells Diocesan Association of Change Ringers, conduct a form of bell ringing called change ringing, which is the art of ringing a set of tuned bells in a series of mathematical patterns called changes.

A bell ringing session begins by turning the bells the right way round for ringing. In Kilmersdon it is a two-man job to turn the one tonne tenor bell, which is the oldest bell in the tower dating back to 1705. At both St Peter and St Paul and St Nicholas, in Radstock, there are six bells, but there can be as many as 16 in a church tower.

The treble bell always starts the sequence as the conductor shouts out "Look to, trebles going, trebles gone". Bell ropes are then pulled in a sequence following a method, which is the pattern learned by the ringers to perform a tune.

This group is led by 89-year-old John Fowler, who is the oldest bell ringer in the Bath and Wells Diocesan. He is the man responsible for teaching people the ropes and his passion for the pastime is obvious.

He said: "I first gave it a go aged 12 in 1933 and other than my time spent serving in the Navy it has always been a big part of my life. All sorts of people take it up and we are always happy to welcome new people wanting to give it a go."

Barry Langdon first got involved as part of a university project five years ago.

He said: "We were doing a project on music in the community and living within earshot of the church I had often heard the bells and decided to come and see what happens up here in the bell tower, and have basically never left."

If you think bell ringing sounds easy, think again, it can take great stamina. A peal, a set sequence of changes, on a standard tower, such as the ones at the churches in Kilmersdon and Radstock, usually takes about three hours to ring, with the same bell ringer staying at the rope for the full duration.

The group last week performed a quarter peal at a funeral in Kilmersdon, which took about an hour to complete.

Anyone interested in trying their hand a bell ringing should call Mr Johnson on 01761 434037. The group meets at either St Nicholas or St Peter and St Paul on Tuesday evenings from 7.30pm until 9pm and ring every Sunday at either one of the churches.