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Church gets royal consent to use King Charles and Camilla cyphers on bells

BBC Rob NicklessBBC
Rob Nickless, tower captain at the church, said he was looking forward to ringing the enhanced bells

Buckingham Palace has given a church permission to include the cyphers of King Charles III and Camilla, the Queen Consort, on its new bells.

North Moreton All Saints Church in south Oxfordshire is the first in the country to bear both of the designs on bell castings.

Once the bell clappers have been attached, the new additions will be ready for a coronation day performance.

Royal cyphers are only allowed to be put on bells during a coronation year.

Church bell cyphers
The cyphers of both King Charles and Camilla feature on the new bells

Tower captain Rob Nickless, who is responsible for the bells' upkeep, said: "The tower's been here for very many years, right in the centre of the community and is here to call people to worship and to celebrate many events in people's lives - we want to continue to do so with enhanced bells."

Church bells are built to last and have been a feature in North Moreton since King Edward III's reign in the Middle Ages.

King Charles III will be the seventh monarch to be represented.

Church bells, North Morteon
Villagers will have to wait until coronation day to hear all eight bells played together

Richard Loyd, project manager for the bells' installation, said: "These are the first bells in the United Kingdom to bear the cypher of King Charles and Camilla.

"We believe there might be two other bells elsewhere in the country that may have King Charles's cypher but you're only allowed to put the royal cyphers on to bells during the year of a coronation."

Villagers will have to wait until coronation day to hear all eight bells played together.

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