GREEN-THINKING villagers in a picturesque corner of South Lakeland have taken their village back in time to help power the future, reports Daniel Orr.

As many as 300 homes will be supplied by hydro electricity generated from water flowing freely at Church Beck in the Coppermines Valley, Coniston.

After many discussions around a kitchen table, Sue and Jonathan Hext and friend George Tarr, decided to use the natural power of the beck as an energy source and they set up their own company, Coniston Hydro Electric Power.

Work began in August and yesterday (Thursday) the source was up and running and began pumping out electricity into the national grid.

Mrs Hext said that from the 1890s the beck had been used as a source of power and from 1932 a water intake further upstream at Millers' Bridge produced enough electricity to power Coniston, until it was turned off for good in the mid 1960s.

Mrs Text said: "We thought it was such a shame that the original scheme was decommissioned, so we wanted to start it up again. We are really reinstating something that was there years ago.

Power is converted from the water in the beck after it has collected into a bay' and travelled along 700m of piping into the 15-inch twin jet impulse turbine - manufactured by Gilbert Gilkes and Gordon of Kendal and housed in a small building on land owned by Mr Hext's father, Major John Hext.

For full story see the March 9 Westmorland Gazette.