YORK Minster's big bells will fall silent until the New Year after the cathedral axed all its volunteer ringers.

The team of 30 were told by the Dean and Chapter at a special meeting on Tuesday night that their volunteer agreements were being discontinued, and their access to the bell tower would be blocked henceforth.

A Minster spokeswoman said it had been an 'emotional process,' as some had been ringing the bells for many years.

She said a new team of volunteers would now be recruited, who would work under a paid 'Head of Tower,' but it would be about three months before the recruitment, induction and training process had been completed and they could be deployed.

The Minster would therefore not be ringing in the New Year at midnight on December 31, and the usual bellringing on Sundays will be suspended until the New Year, including Remembrance Sunday.

She said all the former bell ringers would be entitled to apply to join the new team and go through a new training and induction process, and some had indicated they would be interested in doing that.

However, the Minster hoped the process would open up the bell ringing to new people who had not been involved before.

The spokeswoman said that the Minster had been through a similar process with other volunteers since 2014, such as the broderers.

Asked why the existing team of volunteers could not be allowed to continue ringing the bells until the replacement team was in place - ensuring the bells did not go quiet - she said a line had to be drawn in terms of access to the tower.

She stressed that the Minster's carillon bells - a set of smaller musical bells played using a wooden keyboard - would continue to play over the intervening period.