A TEAM of bell ringers found themselves locked in a North Yorkshire church tower by a pensioner, after he seemingly took offence to the sound of their ringing.

The man, believed to be in his 70s or 80s, climbed the narrow staircase up to the belfry of Saint John the Evangelist Church in Sharow, near Ripon, where a team of ringers were practising a three-hour peal.

After protesting to the bell ringers and allegedly threatening to damage their cars, the irate man then closed the door to the tower and lodged it shut with a piece of wood, leaving the ringers trapped inside.

They were stuck there for an extra half-hour, before eventually being freed by a member of the church who heard banging from the trap door when she went to lock up.

She said: “I wandered up at about 5.10pm and heard this stamping and I thought that was a funny way to ring the bells.

“Then I went up to the tower and I could hear the stamping going on again.”

The woman she discovered the trap door had been lodged with a piece of wood, which she removed to free the trapped ringers, who it is understood were visiting the area from the south of England.

“There’s no way they could have got out of there,” said their rescuer. “I apologise on behalf of Sharow and the whole of Yorkshire. We aren’t normally like that here.”

A spokesman for North Yorkshire Police confirmed the force had received a complaint.

He said: “We were called at 6.07pm on May 29 with reports that a group of visiting bell ringers were approached by a man at about 4pm.

“He was allegedly shouting abuse at the ringers and allegedly made threats to damage their cars.”

He said he believed the man to be from the local area but said the police were not currently investigating the allegations.

• Do you know who was involved? Email richard.catton@thepress.co.uk or phone 01904 567155.