The bells were ringing at the church of St Edmund in Southwold this morning to celebrate the birth of the royal baby.

A peal was rung out across the town at 9am before the bells were deliberately clashed together to mark the arrival of William and Kate's son the Prince of Cambridge.

The clashing of the bells, known as firing, last took place during the Olympics.

Ringing master Helen Price, 84, said: 'It is not just that we rang the bells. We fired the bells. This does not happen very often. They were all deliberately clashed together.

'We did a bit of normal ringing so people knew it wasn't an accident then they all rang together. It is quite alarming. It is called firing because at one time it was used as notice that there was a fire.

'We last fired for the Olympics but it hadn't been done for a long time before that.'

She said it had been difficult to get a team of eight bell ringers together at such short notice and she had spent a lot of time telephoning people last night.

She added: 'We wanted to show our pleasure and to celebrate the birth really.

'When the news of the baby's birth came through yesterday evening we were actually ringing at Reydon Church. It was a practice session but we rang in celebration too.'

? Tell us how you are celebrating the birth of the royal baby? Send your stories and pictures to kathryn.bradley@archant.co.uk.