RINGERS at St Thomas's Church, in Salisbury, have their bells back, following a restoration and retuning project that has lasted nearly six months.

The eight bronze bells were taken down last October and transported to Whitechapel, in London, where they were retuned.

From there, they were taken to specialists White's, of Appleton, near Oxford, where new fittings were made.

The bells had not been moved since 1948, when they were last serviced.

They arrived back in Salisbury last Thursday evening, to be met by Mayor of Salisbury Bobbie Chettleburgh, whose appeal this year is to raise money for restoration work at the church and to provide it with a book of remembrance listing those from Salisbury who died in the two world wars and subsequent conflicts.

Mrs Chettleburgh said in October that she hoped to be at St Thomas's for the bells' return.

On Monday, the painstaking task began of hoisting them back into the tower, 60ft above the ground.

Nigel Orchard, leader of fundraising and project co-ordinator, joined his fellow ringers, former St Thomas's ringer David Todd and professional bell-hanger Graham Clifton, in gently raising each bell up through the narrow openings in the floors and then easing them into place.

Ropes and pulleys and an electric winch were used for the job.

Floorboards were replaced once each bell had been lifted through the openings in the floors and before the next stage of the lifting process began.

Mr Orchard said: "The score marks show where each bell was tuned.

"They turn each bell upside down, put it on a lathe and very carefully remove metal from different parts of the bell."

First to be raised was the tenor bell, which is the oldest and largest.

It was cast in 1716, weighs 27 hundredweight and is seven feet in diameter.

It only just fitted through the hole in one of the floors.

The ringers were delighted to have the bells back and very pleased with the work that had been done.

Tower captain Margaret Romano said it had taken two years to raise the £35,000 needed for the project.

She said the largest bell had to be raised first and then the others - "like fitting a jigsaw together".

"We hope it will revive interest in bell-ringing," she said.

"Since the bells were returned, we have already had one woman contact us who is interested in learning.

"We do need some youngsters to come along and learn."

Ringers are planning to have the bells ringing again on Easter Sunday.