Ringing bells at St Nicholas Church generates electricity - Noon update - our April 1st fun

In what’s believed to be a first for the Church of England, a Norfolk church is harnessing the power of their church bells.

Rev Mark Capron Rector at St Nicholas Church Dersingham said: “environmental excellence is important to us, and through this we have been keen to explore other possible energy sources.

St Nicholas ChurchDersingham

“We carried out research and found that it was possible to generate electricity from the motion of the church tower bells ringing.

“As the bells move, dynamic bell energy is created, converted, used by the church or put back in the National grid. The more the bells are rung the more energy we can create”.

Bells generating electricity

“We believe that St Nicholas Church Dersingham, is the first church to be able to harvest energy through bell ringing. We expect the dynamic bell ringing energy generation to be widely used by many churches across the country.

“Locally at St Nicholas with ringing for the many weddings coming up and for before Sunday worship each week, there is a good projection for energy generation in 2026”.

New bell ringers are welcome to join the team.

www.stnicholasdersingham.org.uk

Rev Mark Capron (pictured left) as he began the abseil of the tower in 2024.