Bell ringers of the Isle of Man will gather on Saturday (June 26) at 10am to celebrate the 200th anniversary of an important invention.

The Ellacombe apparatus enables one person to ring all the bells in a tower, and was created in 1821 by Reverend Henry Thomas Ellacombe of Gloucestershire when he was curate at St Mary’s Church, Bitton, which is between Bristol and Bath.

The mechanism is devised for performing change ringing on church bells by striking stationary bells with hammers.

It therefore does not create the same sound as more traditional full circle ringing due as the bells do not rotate.

One of these devices is installed in the tower of St Thomas’ Church, Finch Road, Douglas.

The bells of St Thomas’ were originally installed in 1852, and restored following a fire in 1912. They are still rung regularly.

On Saturday, the bell ringers from St George’s, Douglas, and Peel Cathedral, will gather view the Ellacombe device housed within the tower, and ring the bells.

At midday, Mr Edwing Creer, the bell ringer for St Thomas’ Church, will be joining over 200 other bell ringers in towers around the world in a ring to mark the 200th anniversary.