Bells ring across Shropshire to celebrate London 2012
Bells have this morning rung out across Shropshire and Great Britain as communities celebrate the start of the London 2012 Games.
Between 8.12am and 8.15am people were encouraged to take part by ringing any bell they could lay their hands on as quickly and loudly as possible for three minutes to signify the first day of the global sporting extravaganza.
In Shropshire church bells rang out across the county, a special event also took park in Oswestry's Red Square, whilst in Newport a group of people took part in an event organised by town crier Peter Taunton in Central Square. Shrewsbury town crier Martin Wood was also marking the event in Shrewsbury.
Those taking part were in great company as the iconic London landmark Big Ben was also one of the thousands of bells ringing out around the country for the three minutes.
The idea behind the nationwide bell-ringing came from Turner Prize-winning artist Martin Creed and it is being hailed as the UK’s largest single celebration of the London 2012 Olympic Games.
Ruth Mackenzie, Director of London 2102 Festival and the Cultural Olympiad, said: "All the Bells is London 2012 Festival's biggest community project, and we are incredibly excited that the commission allows everyone in the UK the chance to be part of history in the making as we aim to set a world record for the largest number of bells to be rung simultaneously."
